Despite a precision goal kicking display by James Cameron, Hull were denied in the last minute of the game for the second week in a row.
A game of great physical endeavour, pace and fierce tackling saw a high error count from both sides. Hull had as much possession as Otley and several golden chances to score tries but in the end Otley's ability to take their opportunities just gave them the edge in a desperately close game. Hull were in the lead on three occasions and with 60 seconds to go the scores were level but that was still not enough to come away with a winning scoreline.
A bruising first half saw good attacks from both sides flounder and it was not until the 39th minute that Hull took the lead with a confidently taken penalty from James Cameron.
Within a minute of the restart Otley had leveled the scores with a penalty by full back, James Twomey, who took advantage of Hull's mistake from the kick off.
Hull's reply was similarly swift when Otley were unable to deal with Hull's kick off and after a series of drives by the forwards, James Cameron coolly dropped a goal from 20 yards out to give Hull the lead once again.
At this stage Hull replaced Dorrington with Devonshire and for Otley Stannard replaced Malthouse. Moments later Hull's prop Longbone went off injured and was replaced by Dutton.
Otley seemed to regroup slighly quicker and after a couple of handling errors by Hull Otley put together a series of ball retaining forward drives up to the Hull line for their hard working flanker, Walker, to lunge over from short range in the 53rd minute. Despite Twomey's missed conversion Otley were in the lead for the first time at 8-6.
This was short lived as yet again Otley failed to make any progress from Hull's restart and another infringement by Otley at the ruck gave Cameron's unerring boot the chance to slot over yet another penalty kick to see Hull regain the lead at 9-8.
At this stage Hull had a glorious chance to stretch their lead when a great break by Kirk took play deep into the home side's 22 metre area only for the final pass to go astray. Hull then replaced both hooker Lamping and winger Piercy with Doughty and Martinson. Hull maintained their pressure but on 60 mins when yet another penalty was awarded to Hull, the ref. decided the visitors had spoken out of turn and reversed the award.
This was disappointing and Hull were now under pressure from the home side and after 66 mins Otley secured possession of sixty yards out on their right and a surging run by Cicognini past four defenders saw him score half way in from touch giving his full back, Twomey, the simple task of adding the conversion. Otley were now leading 15-9 going into the last few minutes.
Hull's exceptional spirit enabled them to drive Otley back up the field twice and on each occasion they were penalized and perhaps a little fortuante not to have the yellow card produced.
James Cameron's two unerring penalties tied the scores 15-15 with the final whistle seconds away.
It was then that a kick out of Hull's 22 metre area was caught by the home side who retained possession for three phases before quick hands released full back Twomey to score the winning try in injury time.
At full time having lost the game 20-15, Hull's coach, John Widdowson, said he was pleased with the all round progress the side had made this year and felt sure that with a little more patience and concentration the side would create more chances to start winning games.
Richard Gore