St Helens reclaimed second place in the Super League table after a battling victory against Hull at the KC Stadium on Sunday.

Saints led 10-4 at half-time after Jon Wilkin and Ste Tyrer tries but Hull responded through Kirk Yeaman.

St Helens finally earned some respite after Leon Pryce powered over for their third try.

Sean Long added a penalty for Saints before Gareth Raynor's last-minute try for Hull reduced the deficit.

Saints looked dangerous in the opening quarter and continually broke the Hull line from deep. They took the lead after only five minutes as James Roby set Wilkin racing away to score.

Wilkin and Francis Meli combined to peg Hull back again in their next attack and this time there was no let-off as Pryce kept the ball alive on the last tackle and Matt Gidley's superb flick put Tyrer in out wide.

Long added a good conversion but Hull finished the first half strongly and it took a good Willie Talau tackle to halt a charging Jamie Thackray.

Hull got themselves back into the game two minutes before the interval as Gareth Raynor pushed a Todd Byrne kick back inside for Yeaman.

The ball went to ground but Yeaman was quick to pounce, kicking it past Gidley and a slow-to-react Long to touch down.

Two penalties in quick succession finally earned the visitors some respite just after the hour and Pryce took full advantage as he powered his way over for his side's third try.

Long surprisingly missed the conversion but a penalty late on made sure of the points before Raynor's late try.

Hull caretaker coach Richard Agar (on the prospect of taking the job full-time):
"I don't know if I am on trial - I have not been given any targets or trial periods.

"I will have talks and I have my own thoughts on the way forward.

"I would like to think they would listen and support me but I was insisting that we got this game out of the way first.

"It has been a different week, the way it has unravelled. We lost a couple of days preparation.

"I would rather have had the two points but we asked for a response and I think we got one."

St Helens coach Daniel Anderson:
"They showed a good attitude - we made a lot of breaks but we must have got stopped on the last tackle or near the line on 10 occasions. That showed their commitment.

"We were disjointed in attack but defensively we were awesome.

"It was a tough game. We had to make a lot of tackles on our line and we made a lot of errors."

Hull: Berrigan, Byrne, Burnett, Carvell, Cusack, Dowes, G. Horne, Hall, Houghton, Lee, Manu, Radford, Raynor, Sing, Thackeray, Tickle, Washbrook, Wheeldon, Yeaman.

St Helens: Wellens, Gardner, Gidley, Talau, Meli, Pryce, Long, Cunningham, Cayless, Gilmour, Wilkin, Roby, Bennett, Flannery, Graham, Hargreaves, Clough, Tyrer, Fa'asavalu.