Matty Smith landed a magnificent 79th-minute penalty to hand St Helens victory against Hull in an absorbing engage Super League encounter at Knowsley Road.

Adam Dykes landed a drop-goal in the 76th minute to put Peter Sharp's men 29-28 ahead but Smith capped an outstanding individual performance with a late two-pointer to ensure Saints took the spoils.

Stand-in scrum-half Smith trained alongside Wayne Rooney in the junior ranks at Everton but he opted for a career in rugby ahead of football.

Smith confirmed his rich promise with a try and five successful kicks to break Hull's hearts and reaffirm Saints' status as the comeback kings of Super League.

Hull arrived on Merseyside depleted by injury and having lost three of their opening four games in a miserable start to the season. They were missing Shaun Berrigan, Richard Horne, Garreth Carvell, Ewan Dowes, Lee Radford, Willie Manu and Richard Whiting.

But they made a mockery of their lengthy casualty list and powered ahead in the third minute when Dykes waltzed clear to cross the line.

Four minutes later they touched down again when hooker Danny Houghton ploughed his way through to send the sizeable contingent of visiting supporters into raptures.

Danny Tickle converted both tries to give Sharp's men a 12-0 advantage but St Helens soon woke up and produced a devastating response.

Saints were themselves desperately depleted with big names such as Sean Long, Paul Sculthorpe, Nick Fozzard, Chris Flannery, Maurie Fa'asavalu and Jason Cayless all on the sidelines.

However, they conjured a typically outstanding response which harvested two tries in four minutes.

First, a bewildering array of inter-passing in the 13th minute saw the ball pass through five pairs of hands and culminated in Matt Gidley sending Ade Gardner over in the right corner.

It was the Cumbrian's 99th career try an it was soon one-way traffic in St Helens' favour and by the 17th minute Smith had touched down.

The scrum-half converted his own try but a penalty from Tickle extended Hull's lead by two points - only for a brilliant kick from Paul Wellens to send Willie Talau clear for St Helens' third try.

Shortly before the break, James Roby and Wellens combined to send homegrown product Kyle Eastmond over to put St Helens in control at the break.

Hull, to their immense credit, began the second half in the same fashion as they had began the first.

Within two minutes of the restart, they had claimed their third try of the game as replacement Craig Hall plucked a dreadfully misplaced pass from Saints stand-off Leon Pryce out of the air and ran 70 metres to cross the line.

Three minutes later, they equalled St Helens in the try-scoring stakes as young stand-off Danny Washbrook capitalised on another error in the home ranks by collecting possession and touching down in the right corner.

Tickle landed the first try but could not add the extra for Hall's effort, yet the two quick scores gave Hull a slender 24-22 advantage.

And that was added to in the 67th minute when Kirk Yeaman pounced on a kick from Dykes for a try which Tickle again failed to convert.

It proved costly as Roby touched down for a fifth try which Smith converted and although Dykes' late drop-goal encouraged hopes of a Hull victory, Smith ensured Saints claimed victory with his late penalty.