It was arguably the greatest day in West Hull's history as they enjoyed an incredible day in the Challenge Cup. St Helens rolled into town and they produced an exceptional performance, producing an incredibly spirited display to keep Paul Wellens' side to just 38 points.

Taking on a side featuring the likes of Jack Welsby, Konrad Hurrell and Matt Whitley, the NCL outfit restricted their opponents to just seven tries, in what was a remarkable effort.

Even more astonishing was the crowd, with the fixture attracting one of the biggest attendances of the round after a huge number of supporters unexpectedly turned up on the day.

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On Friday evening, around 1,900 tickets had been sold for the match, with St Helens selling around 500 and West Hull 1,400. Based on the figures and data at Rovers' disposal, they had planned accordingly.

However, an "unprecedented" number of walk-up spectators made their way to Craven Park, with officials at Rovers saying they had never encountered anything like it for any games at the stadium.

Unfortunately, that resulted in a backlog at the turnstiles and major delays, with a huge number of people still outside the stadium in the minutes leading up to kick-off.

With safety concerns in mind, a decision was made between West Hull and stadium officials to open the gates and allow everyone in, ensuring they would also be able to take their position before the match. However, that saw West Hull lose out on significant revenue, with the clubs losing thousands of pounds in admission costs.

An official attendance will never be registered given the nature in which so many entered the stadium. However, experts have predicted that there was around 5,000 to 5,500 people in attendance for the match. However, it also means that the club lost precious revenue that could set the club's future up for years to come.

The club released a statement after the match, asking for people to donate their entry fees if they hadn't paid.

In a statement, the club said: Due to the unforeseen volume of supporters that tried to gain entry to the ground before kick-off, the decision was taken to open the gates to allow everyone to gain entry to the stadium before the game kicked off.

"The club would like to ask if people would like to generously donate their entry fee to the club via the bank details posted below. Any money kindly donated will help us to keep our very proud community club going for the future years to come."

The bank details are:

West Hull CS
Sort Code. 40 - 25 -59
Account No 40248851
HSBC

It took St Helens 14 minutes to open the scoring, with Jon Bennison getting the first of two tries. The full-time conditioning told just before the break as Saints scored four further tries through George Whitby, Harry Robertson, Bennison and Matt Whitley.

However, a herculean effort saw West Hull stand tall after the break and they conceded just ten further points as Saints new recruits Tristan Sailor and Lewis Murphy both crossed for tries.