SHANNON McDonnell has warned his Hull FC team-mates to prepare to face the best St Helens can offer on Friday night.
Hull head to Langtree Park buoyed by their first win of the season and a substantially-improved performance against Bradford.
Saints also picked up their first points of the campaign at the weekend, but were less spectacular when edging out Widnes.
Having made a stuttering start under new coach Nathan Brown, Saints have faced early criticism and the pressure is on to improve, even at this early stage.
Beaten 40-4 by Huddersfield in their opener at Langtree Park, McDonnell expects a response from their hosts.
After a disappointing defeat at Leeds in round one of Super League, his improving Hull side are preparing to face St Helens on the up.
McDonnell told the Mail: "It is always a tough place to go. Saints are a quality team and every time you go there you have a really tough game on your hands.
"The defeat against Huddersfield doesn't mean anything, they can turn around the next week and put 60 points on a team, so we have to turn up to play.
"Saints will want to put their first home game behind them with a reaction. It was the same thing that happened to us against Leeds."
Hull's reaction to their Leeds loss came in the form of a comfortable 28-12 victory against Bradford in Sunday's re-arranged fixture.
A try-scorer against the Bulls, McDonnell's performance was one of a handful to catch the eye.
At the heart of a well-organised defensive effort which kept Bradford scoreless for 60 minutes, the former Hull KR full-back looked at ease in his combination with new half-back pairing Richard Horne and Daniel Holdsworth.
McDonnell says that combination will only improve, but he puts Hull's improved attacking prowess down to the work of his forwards.
"On a week to week basis, we are going to get better with our combinations, especially with our halves and myself," added McDonnell. "It is something we can keep building on and if we take more confidence from each week we will come off better for it.
"Week to week, our combinations will get easier, but against Bradford it was definitely all credit to our forwards for getting us on the front foot.
"They did a great job of finding a quick play-the-ball which allowed us to play on the back of that.
"It's always a good thing to get your first win early in the season and it was good to get one after a performance we weren't too happy with last week. Hopefully, we can now continue that improvement."
