John Cartwright didn’t shy away from the disappointment of Hull FC’s defeat to Huddersfield Giants on Saturday afternoon but insists it wasn’t down to an attitude or mentality issue within his side.
The Black and Whites were defeated once again as favourites in Super League, with Huddersfield running out 30-14 winners at the MKM Stadium. The away side took the lead and never really looked in danger of losing the game, and they ran out deserved winners, while Hull’s display was, to say the least, flat, lacklustre and lethargic in what was a frustrating performance.
In truth, Cartwright’s side never got going, with too many errors and some soft tries conceded in a defeat that sees Wakefield Trinity hold onto the sixth and final play-off spot with seven rounds of the regular season to go.
Speaking to Hull Live post-match, Cartwright said: “It was back to the bad old ways of too many errors and, while it hasn’t been a problem all year, too many soft tries on our try line. They went up our end a couple of times and scored some really soft tries, I thought.
“It was a reverse of last week. We turned up to Wigan, completed high, kicked long, and forced some errors, and Huddersfield did that to us this week.”
Asked if there was a mentality or attitude issue, Cartwright said: “No. Every loss is disappointing. I take losses hard, and I think the players do and the fans do as well. It’s back to the drawing board.
“We’ve just got to get our preparation right no matter who we play against. I was happy with that; we had a good turnaround, a seven-day turnaround, so we’ve got no excuses. It was disappointing, so maybe the week off has come at the right time.”
And on the inconsistencies of his side, with Hull running out impressive winners at Wigan last week, Cartwright, who bemoaned a slow game, said: “That’s football. The side is where it’s at; they prepare well, they’re hungry, and they want to win.
“But individuals are making errors. I don’t think we need to look at who we are picking; I think we need to keep working hard to get those performances closer to some of our better games this year.
“We didn’t make it easy for ourselves. It wasn’t a game where you wanted to be behind the scoreboard, as it was so slow. It was like an NFL game, and trying to build fatigue in an opposition was hard. We got the rest as well. I’m not looking for excuses; both sides got lots of rest because of the slowness of the game.
“But there were stages of that game where we did look a bit flat and stale. Whether that’s the case or not, I don’t know, but we’ll try and dissect it over the next couple of days.”
Hull were disrupted in the first half, losing Jed Cartwright to a head injury assessment, and while the back rower passed his checks, Jordan Rapana wasn’t so lucky.
“He failed his HIA, but we’ve got that break,” Cartwright confirmed. “Hopefully, he’s okay. We’ll always look after his health first, but if he’s okay, he’ll be available for the next game.”
And on Fash, who missed the game with a hamstring injury picked up in training this week, Cartwright added: “It’s really early. Hamstrings are always a minimum of two weeks, but we haven’t got the results yet. We’ll find out later.”