WOLVES still have it all to do against a much-improved Hull side.

It took 30 minutes for the deadlock to be broken and when it was Lee Briers was the architect.

His little grubber kick behind the defensive line was pounced on by Simon Grix, beating both Joel Monaghan and Tom Briscoe to the touch.

Briers, making his first start since the draw at Wigan in round two, added the conversion to give Wolves a hard-earned lead.

Just like buses, you wait ages for one and then three come at once with Joel Monaghan bagging his 17th try of the season on the next set to put Wolves 10-0 to the good.

The groundwork was done with a sneaky slipped pass from former Hull favourite Garreth Carvell sending Briers clear.

He handed on to half back partner Richie Myler who stepped two covering defenders before dinking the ball over the top of his England teammate Tom Briscoe for Joel Monaghan to regather and cross at the second attempt after being half-stopped.

Then it was Hull’s turn.

Carvell and Myler did well to bring Richard Whiting to the ground inches from the try line and Wolves were relieved when the ball slipped loose and Chris Riley scooped up.

But the ball was poked from Mike Cooper’s grasp in a three-man tackle and Hull scored from the possession.

Ben Crooks chanced a first-tackle kick behind a zig-zag Wolves defence but it was deflected into Aaron Heremaia’s path. The replacement hooker tried another kick and it fell perfectly for Briscoe to touch down close to the posts and Daniel Holdsworth converted for 10-6 after 39 minutes.

The opening arm wrestle was the toughest Wolves have faced for some time.

Tom Lineham thought he had put Hull ahead in the ninth minute but video referee Ban Thaler pulled play back for an obstruction on Ryan Atkins as he had tried to collect Trent Waterhouse’s loose offload.

And then Wolves looked set to score after a lovely Waterhouse behind-the-man pass allowed Atkins to burn away but his pass was dropped by Chris Riley as Lineham closed in to make a last-gasp attempt at stopping the potential try.

In between, it was fast-paced and brutal with the strength of both teams’ defences forcing numerous handling errors in an end-to-end battle.

Wolves: Stefan Ratchford; Joel Monaghan, Simon Grix, Ryan Atkins, Chris Riley; Lee Briers, Richie Myler; Paul Wood, Micky Higham, Chris Hill, Ben Westwood, Trent Waterhouse, Mike Cooper. Subs: Michael Monaghan, Garreth Carvell, Ben Currie, Glenn Riley.

Hull FC: Shannon McDonnell; Tom Lineham, Ben Crooks, Kirk Yeaman, Tom Briscoe; Daniel Holdsworth, Richard Horne; Mark O’Meley, Danny Houghton, Chris Green, Gareth Ellis, Richard Whiting, Jay Pitts. Subs: Paul Johnson, Aaron Heremaia, Andy Lynch, Josh Bowden.