HULL FC coach Peter Gentle badly needed that win at Wakefield on Monday after a disastrous derby loss to Hull KR, when he got it badly wrong as a coach.
For the biggest game on the rugby league calendar in this city, he played two forwards in the halves who, with the greatest respect, cannot find passes or kicks under pressure regularly to lead a side around the park.
Then, the coach added insult to injury for the Hull fans in the press conference after his side's 23-10 loss, saying 'you can't just put a number seven on someone's back and think they can run the team for you'.
Well, playing the only recognised half-back at full-back in Richard Horne, who has caps for Great Britain in the halves, can't have helped his team's ability to be guided can it?
Then, he also left the only other recognised half decent available half-back Aaron Heremaia, who played alongside Horne in the halves last year with some success, on the bench for 50 minutes or so.
Having done that I was left utterly astounded to hear Gentle bemoan a lack of creativity, guile and direction.
The problems went deeper than just poor team selection though, as his tactics, given the personnel chosen, were bemusing too.
With two back-rowers playing in the halves, and a bench full of front-rowers and a hooker, I expected FC to play from the middle of the field.
I thought they had set up to have a shot at KR, go out and play a biff and barge style, no nonsense and no frills, in the hope of grinding out a win.
However, to my astonishment, they played the same way as they play every week, not attempting to adapt at all, and as a result their attacking structure broke down twice through Joe Westerman and Richard Whiting in the first half, both in great attacking positions,
Having been so poor on the Friday, I couldn't see Hull leaving Wakefield with anything other than another loss.
Thankfully, Gentle went back to putting round pegs in round holes at half-back, with Horne and Heremaia back into the key half-back positions.
And, in Jamie Shaul, they also had a full-back playing full-back!
I can, to a degree, understand Gentle picking a more experienced team in the derby rather than throwing Shaul into such a big game, but why not just play Whiting full-back and Horne in the halves?
Hull were more of a threat inside 40 minutes at Wakefield than they were in the whole of the derby.
And once the mental scars of Good Friday lifted, leading to them falling 10-0 behind to the Wildcats early on, FC grew into a performance which lifted everyone's spirits at the KC Stadium.
The morale-boosting 34-22 win at Wakefield has seen a remarkable turn-around inside four days.
There's no question Monday was huge for Gentle and his team. The pressure was well and truly on and they badly needed that win. Getting the team selection right was a must, and to Gentle's relief, he did.
