Warrington Wolves boss Tony Smith says a lack of skills cost them in their defeat to Hull FC

Tries from Fetuli Talanoa, Mark Minichello and Gareth Ellis, plus three conversions and a drop goal from Marc Sneyd, gave the Black and Whites the win that cemented their position at the top of Super League.

Gene Ormsby and Chris Sandow responded for The Wire, but they now sit four points off the lead.

Smith admits the Airlie Birds were deserved winners but that his side’s deficiencies were pretty clear.

“Fortunately, the competition isn't decided tonight but we certainly weren't worthy of going back to the top,” he said.

“Hull were worthy winners tonight but we’ll certainly be back to have another crack at some stage.

“We looked way off in terms of our skills, it's courageous to play in the situation we’re in and put your body on the line, there's some things that fall away and that was our skills tonight.

“We’ll address it, we’ve been good at that of late and we need to respond in the right way.”

The clash at The Halliwell Jones Stadium struggled to live up to its pre-match billing as handling errors riddled the performance of both sides, who shared 20 knock-ons between them in the first half alone.

“We were trying to give each other chances, it was poor quality for a top of the table clash,” Smith said.

“They deserved it, they were slightly better than us in their execution.

“I thought our defence was pretty good but we just didn't put any pressure on them.”

While Ashton Sims returned to the side from suspension, Wolves were still without several key players through injury.

However, Smith is hopeful that situation will ease in the coming weeks.

“I'm hoping to be able to give some people a rest next week, we should have a few more back,” he said.

“Matty Russell, Jack Hughes and Kevin Penny are all there or there abouts.

“I can’t fault the players’ effort, they went out and put out an almighty effort again but it was a stop-start game.”