Hull FC have some big improvements to make – with an honest discipline take given.

Hull FC were well beaten at Wigan.(Image: Dave Lofthouse, Hull FC)

John Cartwright has called Liam Knight’s sin bin tackle a ‘ten on the dumb scale’ and insisted he’ll be having a chat with the Hull FC player.

Knight was issued a yellow card by match official Tom Grant for a dangerous contact in the second half of Hull’s 34-6 defeat at Wigan Warriors on Saturday night – with the player dropping his opponent in a tackle that could see further punishment from the Match Review Panel on Monday.

Before that, Knight gave away a penalty while in possession of the ball, with Cartwright issuing an honest verdict of the players’ discipline and that of the team post-match.

“It was just plain dumb,” Cartwright said. “It was stupid. I’ll address that with Liam. It was dumb to give away the penalty with the ball and then even dumber to do what he did for the yellow card.

“I’ll be having a chat with him about that. In the scheme of things, it didn’t look too bad. He didn’t drive him into the ground – he let him go. But on the dumb scale it’s probably a ten.”

Cartwright also gave his thoughts on Cade Cust’s first-half tackle on Junior Nsemba, with Wigan players taking issue with Hull’s half-back and insisting a shoulder charge tackle was performed. However, Hull’s head coach was having none of it and said it was a ‘good shot’.

“It wasn’t a shoulder charge, not from my eyes,” Cartwright said. “When he (the referee) gave the penalty, he said high tackle. For me, Cade had his arm out, and in a shoulder charge you pin the shoulder to your chest. From what I could see, it wasn’t a shoulder charge. It was a hard hit. It was a good shot.”

Even without the two incidents, Hull struggled to control their discipline on both sides of the ball, with Wigan relentless in their undoing of the Black and Whites. The smothered Cartwright’s side – who gave away various penalties and six agains – from the get-go and never let that control slip on the way to a dominant victory.

“We came here confident,” Cartwright, who is now targeting improvement ahead of Friday’s game against York Knights, said. “We had a really good week of training. We just had no answers.

“We’ve got to be honest with each other. We can’t lose control of the ruck, both defensively and then get monstered when we’ve got the ball. It doesn’t matter who we play. Anyone watching us tonight would be confident going in based on what they saw.”

However, despite the disappointment, Cartwright is confident his side can rectify the wrongs back at the MKM Stadium.

“There’s no panic here,” the head coach added. “We’ll address where we need to get better and go from there. The players are disappointed and they’re hurting. They fought hard – they did – but even when we were fighting hard, we were still getting dominated in terms of field position.

“If you looked at where we were catching the ball and where they were catching the ball, we were pinned on our own ten and they were coming on their own 40. I’d never question their courage or their attitude. It was just a bad night. We were playing against a very good side who dominated us.”