Martin keeps Hull FC in play-off hunt with win over Leigh

Lewis Martin has scored 21 tries in Super League this season

Betfred Super League

Hull FC (12) 18

Tries: Cust, Barron, Martin Goals: Hardaker 3

Leigh (0) 12

Tries: Lam, O'Brien Goals: O'Brien 2

Lewis Martin kept Hull FC's play-off hopes alive with a match-winning intercept as the hosts edged a tough physical battle 18-12 against Leigh Leopards at the MKM Stadium.

Bloodied, bruised and bandaged after a clash of heads minutes earlier in the game, Super League's leading try-scorer returned to the pitch to make the game's pivotal intervention with a 21st of his campaign.

His kicked intercept, pick up and 50 metre sprint under the posts on the hour mark proved enough to win a hard-fought game and kept them sixth, with a three-point cushion between themselves and Wakefield Trinity.

The 21-year-old winger's eighth score in his past three games followed tries from Cade Cust and Harvey Barron in the first half and Leigh's Adrian Lam and Gaz O'Brien in the second which saw the game level with 20 minutes to play.

Leigh's defeat put a dent in their hopes of chasing down a top two spot.

Leeds Rhinos' earlier win at Castleford Tigers had seen the Leopards drop to fourth, three points off Wigan Warriors with five games remaining in the regular season.

Cust did most to establish a 12-0 half-time lead with an opening try and a clever assist for Barron's score, Zak Hardaker's boot adding the extras on both occasions.

But the Leopards were back in the game on 51 minutes when Lam was deemed to have got the ball down after wriggling through a sea of blue shirts.

The on-field call of try from Chris Kendall went upstairs to the TMO and while there was no conclusive evidence to overturn the decision, it looked like fortune had favoured the Leopards.

And it proved the spark they needed with Sam Eseh gifting a penalty in the ruck and O'Brien making best use of the field position to go over for a second.

At 12-12 and with their influential loose forward John Asiata limping off with hamstring trouble to join full-back Will Pryce on the sidelines, it looked as though Leigh's attritional style might win the day until Martin's quick feet restored Hull's lead.

Hardaker had a long-range penalty to ease nerves with minutes left on the clock but missed to the left, prompting a late Hail Mary attack from Leigh which fortunately for the hosts came to nothing.

Hull FC coach John Cartwright told BBC Radio Humberside:

"Lewis picked up that one which proved the difference but defensively we hung in there. If we were going to win the game we were going to bite down and defend our way to the win.

"He is playing tough. He gets belted around because opposition teams know he is good out of the back field so they gang up on him. Him and Harvey [Barron], they just keep getting us going forward.

"They play with injuries, they play wounded, they probably don't get the credit for how tough they are.

(On injuries to John Asiata and Will Pryce) "When John is out there he just has a calmness and is clear in his thoughts and he just makes everybody else's job easier. We are going to have to check him but it doesn't look good.

"It is his hammy and he has tweaked it but I would only be guessing at the severity.

"Will Pryce has a foot problem and we are hopeful that it is not too bad but we would only be guessing at the moment."

Leigh Leopards coach Adrian Lam told BBC Radio Merseyside:

"We were never in the game for the majority of it. There was only a period of 20 minutes in the second half. But to give up the game after we had got back to 12 all was really frustrating.

"I thought they were three really soft tries judged by the standards that we set ourselves. When you give that up and you are chasing the game it becomes really difficult.

"It's tough (to address with five games left) because for a month we were awesome and great in every area but in the last three weeks we have taken our foot off the gas a little.

"That is obviously disappointing as last week we had a chance to go into the second spot albeit for 24 hours. Slipping up twice now is not good enough."

Hull FC: Pryce, Barron, Briscoe, Litten, Martin, Hardaker, Cust, Ese'ese, Bourouh, Watts, Cartwright, Lane, Asiata

Interchanges: Aydin, Ashworth, Kemp, Eseh

Leigh: Hodgson, Brand, Niu, Hanley, Charley, O'Brien, Lam, Ofahengaue, Ipape, Mulhern, Halton, Trout, Liu

Interchanges: Hughes, O'Neill, Davis, McNamara

Referee: Chris Kendall.