Super League: Hull FC 18-46 Castleford - Lee Radford's Tigers come from behind to win

Cas winger Derrell Olpherts scored two tries in each half at the MKM Stadium

Hull suffered a third embarrassing defeat in four games as former boss Lee Radford made an astonishing winning first return with Castleford Tigers.

The hosts led 18-14 at the break but were crushed by 32 unanswered second-half points as Cas ran amok.

Derrell Olpherts scored four of the eight tries, four of which came when Cas were actually down to 12 men.

Bureta Faraimo bagged a quick double and Suaia Matagi and Alex Sutcliffe also went in to compete the mauling.

Hull scored three tries through Mitieli Vulikijapani, Darnell McIntosh and Danny Houghton but ended the game with 12 men themselves after Ligi Sao's 62nd-minute red card as Brett Hodgson's Black and Whites endured a seventh defeat in nine games.

Having lost 62-16 at home to Leeds in their last home game before last Friday night's Bevan French-inspired 60-0 drubbing at Wigan, there was admittedly a Magic Weekend derby win over Hull KR squeezed in between. But Hull have now shipped a collective 196 points in their last four games.

To compound the home misery, Hull KR's win at Warrington meant Hull FC slip beneath them to seventh in the table, now four points behind fifth-placed Cas.

Castleford have now won on three of their past five visits to Hull FC

On Radford's first return to Hull since being sacked by Hull in March 2020, the visitors made a great start with Danny Richardson's early penalty and conversion of the first try from Olpherts, who collected Greg Eden's deft kick to score.

After Eden was then penalised for taking Connor Wynne out, going for a Jake Connor kick, Olpherts and Wynne were the two picked out of the ensuing melee to get sent to the sin-bin.

From the resulting penalty, Hull scored through Vulikijapani, then got a second try in dramatic fashion when Connor's kick looked to have evaded Darnell McIntosh, only for the winger to ground the ball barely inches from the dead-ball line - and they scored again when Houghton raced in under the posts.

Olpherts grabbed his second, carrying three Hull defenders over the line in the left corner and Richardson converted to cut the gap at the break. But Cas then went down to 12 men shortly after the restart when Jake Mamo was sin-binned - and it looked as if the game might turn again.

Instead, Cas right winger Faraimo scored twice in two minutes, and Olpherts completed his hat-trick either side of Matagi's try before Wynne then got sin-binned again - and Hull were down to 11 men when Sao was sent off for a high shot on Mamo.

That allowed Olpherts in for his fourth, before Sutcliffe rounding off the scoring, supplemented by Richardson's seven kicks.

Both sides are back in action next Friday night when Cas host the local derby with bottom club Wakefield - and Hull travel to Toulouse.

Hull FC head coach Brett Hodgson told BBC Radio Humberside:

"It was nowhere good enough in the second half. The game was there to be won at half-time, but we just didn't come back out.

"It's difficult when you're in a rut. You have to fight your way back out of it. To be fair to Cas, their second half was excellent, but they were allowed to be excellent.

"The disappointing thing is it felt like it was pushing and shoving and defending. The fact we got three sin-bins is just not OK."

Castleford Tigers boss Lee Radford told BBC Radio Leeds:

"It was weird pulling in. It's the first time I've been back. It felt a bit surreal.

"I felt on edge prior to the game so they might have sensed that a little bit.

"It has been a bit of a strange evening. Some of the things that have been done here will never be taken away from me, the team or myself."

Hull FC: Walker; McIntosh, Wynne, Vulikijapani, Simm; Connor, Gale; Sao, Houghton, Evans, Lane, Lovodua, Fash.

Sent off: Sao (62)

Sin-bin: Wynne (14)

Interchanges: Taylor, Brown, Longstaff, Johnstone.

Castleford: Eden; Faraimo, Sutcliffe, Fonua, Olpherts; O'Brien, Richardson; Griffin, McShane, Lawler, Edwards, Mellor, Westerman.

Interchanges: Milner, Smith, Matagi, Mamo.

Sin-bin: Olpherts (14), Mamo (46)

Referee: Chris Kendall.

• Super League Show - watch and catch-up here

• 'We bleed craft beer': Can BrewDog's CEO steer the Good Ship through the storm of controversy?

• Why hasn't athletics cracked America? The Sports Desk explores its struggles in the US