HULL FC head coach Lee Radford claimed the Warrington Wolves social media team did his team-talk for him going into Saturday's clash at The Halliwell Jones Stadium.

He said his players had a 'gutful' of having their noses rubbed in to the fact that The Wire had scored 143 points past them in the last two meetings.

Steve Price's side won 63-12 at the KCOM Stadium in March, when stand-off Blake Austin scorched over for four tries.

And Wolves won 80-10 against an injury-hit Hull side at The Halliwell Jones Stadium last August in a response to the previous week's poor Challenge Cup Final showing against Catalans Dragons at Wembley.

"We got a gutful of their social media this week, saying it was outstanding how many points they've put on us previously," said Radford.

"I just thought it was so disrespectful and it gets teams' backs up.

"I don't mind them having dignity. But there's a good way to win, you don't have to embarrass people.

"It certainly played a part. That was the team-talk done."

Radford said his team had been disrupted by injuries to three key players on the day before the game.

"With the week that we had, effort is the right word," he said.

"We had some real good energy when we turned up on Monday.

"But then we suffered training session injuries, Danny Houghton, Sika Manu and Bureta Faraimo all came out in a team run from hell.

"So I was fearing the worst.

"But they had a glint in the eye on Monday and I felt it showed in the efforts of our scramble defence for sure.

"In terms of scramble defence, I've not seen a better effort. Just turning up for each other.

"There was a bounce in the changing rooms, a good energy and like I said they'd had a gutful of some of the stuff that's been said."