Hull KR is a club with a huge chip on its shoulder. The once mighty cup kings are reduced to scrapping for survival at the wrong end of National League one - and they don't like it one bit. And they didn't much like the way Hornets out-toughed their somewhat rudimentary tactics at New Craven park to come away with a deserved victory.

The Rovers boat started shipping water after just ten minutes - Radney Bowker's huge break up the left, smart ball to Dave Larder who sidestepped the full back to score from 30 yards.

And it was Bowker again who led the way as Hornets repeatedly broke the Rovers desperate, scrambling defence.

On 20 minutes, Radney stepped through slack tackling; the ball was interchanged between Jon Roper and Marlon Billy and Bowker went back for the last pass to score. 10-nil and Hull KR all at sea.

To Rovers' credit they tried to weather the storm - counter attacking through McClarron who was scythed off at the knees by Paul Owen on the half hour. But it was a futile exercise. On 35 minutes Jon Roper intercepted a wild pass and ran the ball fully 60 metres downfield. In the following play, the ball was shipped via Smith and Watson to Nanyn who steamed in on the right.

Just for good measure he slotted the goal and with Hornets leading 16-0 at half time, Rovers were in very deep water indeed.

But it was Rovers who started the 2nd half with a full head of steam. Within six minutes they had clawed their way back to 16-10 courtesy of tries from Andrews and Aizue. Hornets needed someone to steady the ship and Ian Watson stepped up to slam home a drop goal to give Hornets a 17-10 cushion.

Rovers gave themselves a glimmer of hope through a Stott penalty (17-12), but Hornets trawled deep for the tries that finally settled matters. On the hour Watson's grubber ricocheted off a Rovers defender for an easy touchdown and a minute later Marlon Billy found himself on the end of some swift passing to run straight over the top of Nick Pinkney to score. Nanyn banged over a touchline conversion for good measure and Hull KR were sunk.

Rovers did have one final shout before they slipped beneath the waves - McClarron capitalising on Nanyn's misjudgement of a high kick to score unopposed out wide. But Hornets had the final say in matters - Watson jinking through for his second three minutes from time as the home fans flooded for the exits.

Forget what you read in the papers today (Mike Sterricker's bitter report in the League Express stinks of sour grapes), Hornets were the better side by a nautical mile; repeatedly opening up a Rovers defence that rode its luck. Indeed, once the game began to slip from their grasp they reverted to type - lying on at the tackle, slowing down the play the ball and generally spoiling for all they were worth.

Hornets showed strength ofmind to ride-ou the early 2nd half torrent and play their way back into an unassailable lead with some - under the circumstances - enterprising football. But Hornets can play much better than this too - still the spectre of sloppy handling haunts key moments in the game. But if we continue to work at these areas, we'll continue to improve.

As for Hull KR, Steve Linnane's got a huge job to do. Despite good players in key positions, his side struggles to find cohesion and go-forward. And with Oldham pulling away from them yesterday, they face the very real possibility of their worst nightmare. Going down with all hands.