UNDERFIRE Saints are only too aware of the dangers that lie await for them on Humberside this afternoon.

Paul Wellens’ men head to Hull FC looking to end a sequence of five defeats – their worst run since 1986 – but understand that their current form means that all opponents will fancy their chances of taking a chunk out of them.

The Black and Whites have lost three of their last four games, but they have been competitive in those clashes and recently toppled the then league leaders Wigan Warriors.

Earlier in the season they were whipping boys, as shown when Saints beat them 58-0 at the Totally Wicked Stadium in April, but interim head coach Simon Grix has added some steel to the group.

In fact in Hull’s last eight matches since an abysmal loss to Super League bottom side London Broncos, only one of their matches has ended with a scoreline difference of more than eight points.

To help their cause, Saints look set to have Morgan Knowles and Joe Batchelor back in the side after long lay-offs, but from last week’s team that was thrashed at Leigh Leopards Wellens does not have skipper Jonny Lomax (suspended), Mark Percival (suspended), Jack Welsby (injured) and George Delaney available for selection.

Wellens said: “Hull are almost a very different team to what we faced early on in the year.

“Obviously they went through a very tough period themselves. Now, they’ve gone in a different direction as a club.

“They seem to be playing without pressure, I would say. They seem to have put a lot of faith in a lot of the young players within their system and given them some experience.

“Young players bring in energy and enthusiasm to your environment and I think they’ve benefited from that.

“And they’ve gained some confidence off the back of picking up some victories so they’re a very different proposition to probably what they were at the start of the season.”

The Saints boss highlighted a few dangermen in the Hull ranks.

“I think in Jake Trueman they’ve got a player who has performed consistently well in Super League for a long time,” he said.

“I think a lot of their go-forward comes off Herman Ese’ese, and Jack Walker at full-back seems to have had a bit of a resurgence and is a handful as a player.

“But I think their biggest strength and the key now is that they seem to have a collective buy-in and they all work hard for each other.

“When you have 17 players who are committed to doing that then you make yourselves very tough to beat.”

As the head coach of a Saints side suffering an unprecedented run of results in the Super League era, Wellens has come in for heavy criticism from frustrated supporters.

This can be tough to handle but the Saints boss is focusing on what he needs to do and says he is staying strong.

“I’m absolutely getting support and backing from those closest to me – the people I work with day to day and the playing group as well which is important,” said Wellens.

“I think there’s an understanding and perspective for the position we’ve been in.

“Like everybody else, I’m disappointed that we haven’t been getting results because I still feel that on this five-game losing streak there’s a couple of games that if we’d handled them better we could have got some victories.

“There’s no doubt it’s a challenging period but one I’m prepared to tackle head on.

“I’ve not once in my life shirked a challenge like this and I certainly won’t be doing it in this instance either.”

Hull FC interim head coach Simon Grix is understanding of Saints’ position, with Hull FC having been troubled with their own selection issues throughout the season – including this week - as well as having the changes surrounding the exit of head coach Tony Smith.

The former Warrington Wolves back-rower said: "They've got a heap of injuries, bad injuries, to a lot of front-line players who would be playing.

“There's a lot of pressure over at St Helens, and the noise will be pretty loud over there because of what they've been able to achieve in the last few seasons. People expect a lot of them.

"I've seen calls for Paul Wellens, and there's a little bit of context needed around that club at the moment. They've got a lot missing and some further bans this week. There's a lot going on.

“They're dark horses. In essence, if they get those blokes back towards the end, then they'll be in the mix. I wouldn't write them off just yet.

"We know how it feels, I suppose, but I'm not sure they'll be too worried about us or sympathetic towards our plight. No one is. Everyone is just getting on with their own stuff.

“Both sides will have a lot missing. It's not wide open, but it could give you anything this game; I don't know how it will go.

“I know we're going to try and play how we've been practicing despite the changes.

“We want to play our way and be smarter than last week (24-16 defeat at Catalans Dragons). We gave away eight or nine turnovers in our half, and against a big team, we'll get punished again if we do that. I want to see us learn our lessons from last week."

Grix’s first game in charge was the visit to Saints in April and the progress since then has been marked.

"At that time, it was a youthful team that went and played over there, and there's been lots of change since,” he said.

“There's been a lot of improvement in a lot of areas across the group. Getting senior players back on the field has helped that, but we've lost a lot again now, so we'll be back to looking youthful. Hopefully, we've learned some lessons during that time.”

Grix has made three changes to the squad that was announced ahead of last weekend’s defeat to Catalans Dragons in the South of France.

Tiaki Chan, Will Kirby, and new loanee Leon Ruan all come into the squad.

Liam Sutcliffe (foot) and King Vuniyayawa (ankle) both drop out through injury, while Ligi Sao misses the first game of a two-match suspension.

Danny Houghton (calf), Jack Ashworth (ankle), Mitieli Vulikijapani (knee), Davy Litten (knee) Nick Staveley (knee), Charlie Severs (shoulder), Cobie Wainhouse (knee) and Jed Cartwright (foot) remain sidelined for Hull.

Grix added: "We're up against it again, and it's a challenge. It's been a steep learning curve for our young lads, but we find ourselves in a position where the team is almost picking itself. They're going to have to be tough and show some togetherness this week.

“We've got eight weeks left, and we are going to look pretty youthful until the end of it. If we're going to go down the line of judging our performances based on the win or the loss, it could potentially be a negative place to be and a negative experience for those young lads.

"We've got some tough fixtures in the coming weeks, and our job is to coach and prepare with what we've got the best we can. We won't sweep the negative away, but we need to be upbeat. We're concentrating on ourselves and keeping smiles on our faces no matter what is thrown at us."