COACH Peter Gentle says the desire and character of his Hull FC side will make sure it won't be long before they start to climb the Super League table.
Gentle refused to panic after seeing his side fall to a fourth defeat in seven games, as leaders Huddersfield Giants completed a 24-10 victory at the John Smith's Stadium.
Critical of a misfiring attack, the FC coach says he was pleased with Hull's efforts but they came up against a very good side who showed Hull the level they need to get to.
"We were misfiring at times, but what I have got in this squad is the desire of the boys and we will be all right, there is plenty of character there," said Gentle.
"We are not in a hole, we just came up against a very good side and they showed us where we have got to get to. I was pleased with our effort, our execution at times left a lot to be desired and needs a bit of work."
With five points from a possible 14 on offer, Hull have made a stuttering start and now face a decisive two weeks with a trip to London Broncos on Saturday followed by a busy Easter schedule that features the derby and Wakefield away.
Unable to build on last week's 52-0 victory against Castleford, Hull again showed promising signs in a hard-fought and entertaining encounter, but returned home empty handed.
Tries for Ben Galea and Ben Crooks cancelled out Shaun Lunt's early score to give Hull a slender lead to build on in the second half.
But the combination of a lack of creativity and two harsh forward pass decisions went against the Black and Whites as the Giants scored 18 unanswered points to wrap up victory.
"They are a very good team. They completed at about 95 per cent and, with a good kicking game on the back of that, we seemed to be always coming off our line with no good ball sets," explained Gentle.
"We are still finding our feet and developing a style that suits us.
"A few things we tried didn't work, a few that did we could have done better and if we had we could have got a result.
"It's not panic stations yet. They are a very good side and are top of the table for a reason. We are not far off.
"There were plenty of plusses to come out of it. We came thinking we'd get a result, but I don't think we gave ourselves a chance in the first half."
Eager to not make excuses, Gentle revealed a bug had swept through the Hull camp last week and with numerous injuries, six players were given fitness tests before proving they could play.
"We only came together on Friday with six players facing a fitness test. Five of them passed and one didn't," added Gentle.
"Shannon McDonnell only trained for the first time on Friday, Daniel Holdsworth, Andy Lynch and Joe Westerman the same, there was a heap of them. We've had a bug go through the place, that didn't help.
"That's no excuse, though, because we took a long time to warm into our game and in the first half we seemed content to just go set for set with them and not throw a lot at them."
