A disappointing – and potentially costly night – for Hull FC.
York’s Toa Mata’ata is tackled by Hull FC’s Jed Cartwright.(Image: SW PIX)
Hull FC suffered a poor home defeat at the hands of York Knights on Friday night, with the Super League newcomers deserved 17-16 winners at the MKM Stadium – earning their first victory over the Black and Whites since 1977.
And it came at a cost for the home side, with John Cartwright confirming a triple injury blow post-match. Hull lost Aidan Sezer to an eye injury early on, and while the skipper returned late in the first half, he was deemed unfit to continue for the second.
Elsewhere, Harvey Barron also left the field with an ankle injury, while Jed Cartwright suffered a hamstring blow, limping off the field after his sin bin. Cade Cust was also in the wars late on – but no prognosis was determined just yet.
Speaking post-match, Cartwright said: “Aidan got a poke in the eye. He had blurred vision. He got to a point where he was comfortable to go back on but then at half time, it just went backwards. It was for his own health why we brought him off.
“I’m not right across the (second half) injuries at the moment, but it’s Harvey’s ankle – I believe. He was hobbling pretty bad. Jed felt a hammy tweak. I haven’t got to the bottom of the injuries yet – I’ll go see the medical staff when we’ve finished. It’s the same for Cade.
“It’s a short six day turnaround now (until the Wakefield Trinity game on Thursday). They will all be doubts for next week.”
Deserved losers, Hull were second best to York, who rallied well and showed plenty of grit to get over the line for their second victory of the Super League season.
Meanwhile, Hull welcomed back Jake Arthur to their side, with John Asiata also thrown onto the field late on – his first appearance of the season. But in atrocious wet weather conditions in west Hull, they couldn’t turn the tide, with Lewis Martin’s late try in vain after Danny Richardson had given the Knights a seven-point lead with a well-taken drop-goal.
“Losing his half-back was probably did it for him,” Cartwright said on Arthur, who had to play the majority of the game without Sezer. “I thought we looked really dangerous at times, but it was hard on Jake.
“He had a bit of a checkered off-season himself and he had to go on and be playmaker when Aidan came off. He tried hard – there’s no doubt about that – and he’ll be better for the run
“Johnny had done enough to play but we thought just give him the one stint of 30 minutes in the second half. A couple of times at the end he nearly got us home there. A lot of the good stuff at the end where we did look a bit menacing was on the back of him.”
The game was played without a running clock as well – a reality that frustrated Cartwright. However, he also put on record that it wasn’t an excuse – with Hull again deservedly beaten.
“It’s annoying the no clock bit, but it’s the same for both sides,” the head coach said. “What can you do? Losing our half-back wasn’t ideal, but it’s no excuse.
“They just played more consistent footy. I thought they handled a lot of stuff, especially defensively – we were pretty good at keeping them in their own half but we just kept on giving them opportunity with the ball. We lacked polish.”
Outlining the frustration, Cartwright added: “It was a really disappointing result. It was a game we were confident of winning. They were camped down on our line but we came out of that period pretty well and we controlled that period of the first half well.
“We should have scored more points, especially in the last five minutes. We were camped on their try line and we had a couple of ordinary sets. We could have come into the sheds 10 or so points in front. We didn’t take our chances there.
“And in the second half there were just too many errors, first tackle errors inside your own ten… it’s just really tough to be defend that, and especially when you’re doing it with 12 men.”