![\"Hull](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/0_Zak-Hardaker-Hull-FC.jpg\")
<\/p>\nHull know they must improve to get two valuable Super League points.<\/p>\n
10:00, 04 Mar 2026Updated 13:09, 04 Mar 2026<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hull FC star Zak Hardaker.(Image: SW PIX)<\/p>\n
John Cartwright is keeping his counsel despite Hull FC\u2019s indifferent start to the Super League season that saw them humbled at home by competition newcomers York Knights last Friday night.<\/p>\n
The Black and Whites head coach is aware there is a need for improvement from his side \u2013 who have struggled to get an ascendancy in their three Super League games so far \u2013 but he also knows it\u2019s early days with plenty of time to set the record straight.<\/p>\n
Heading to West Yorkshire to take on Wakefield Trinity in Super League round four this Thursday night, Cartwright is now challenging Hull to nail down the tough elements of the game, especially in terms of carrying the ball strong, finishing their sets on their terms, and then kicking and chasing well to gain both a foothold and a grip on the contest.<\/p>\n
Looking jaded so far, Hull know that if they fulfil those components, then things will come easier to them, with Cartwright cutting a relaxed figure in his pre-match press conference.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s round three,\u201d he said. \u201cNo one likes losing, but when all things are considered, it\u2019s round three. Yes, we\u2019ve got to change things around to get results and it\u2019s not going to be pretty for it to happen. It\u2019s that time of the year; it\u2019s wet, it\u2019s greasy, and it\u2019s a hard slog. We\u2019ve just got to get tough with it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no excuses. We had a game that I thought we should have won at the weekend and in hindsight I don\u2019t change that view either. But we made way too many errors and we gifted too much field position, and in those conditions, it was nearly impossible but we kept trying.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought when we got Johnny (Asiata) out there things came a little bit easier for us but we\u2019ve got no excuses for not winning at the weekend. We need to improve.\u201d<\/p>\n
Looking to get back on track, the challenge for Hull now is to put a performance in that sits right with their standards and turn words into action.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt starts with us,\u201d Cartwright continued. \u201cWe need to put in a performance that we can be happy with and confident with that will take us forward. Again, no-one likes to lose and we don\u2019t go out to lose on purpose. Like anything in life, we\u2019ve got to work hard, believe, and turn up this week and try to get the job done.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast week, there were a lot of errors and we put ourselves under way too much pressure and then we couldn\u2019t build enough pressure to score points in those conditions. I thought we squandered a couple of opportunities and then after half-time we lost Harvey (Barron) and Jed (Cartwright) and we had no Aidan (Sezer) and we fell behind through our own errors and a sin binning. It was like a perfect storm against us but a lot of it was our own doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about getting better now and we\u2019ve got a lot to improve on. It\u2019s pretty simple. The York game was similar to the Bradford game; we weren\u2019t at our best. Not many teams are aside from Wigan, so we had to graft our way to win.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe grafted against Bradford and we had a bit of brilliance from Will Pryce and we won the game. If we had done that against York, we would have got the same result, and we\u2019d be having different conversations now. But we didn\u2019t do it. We\u2019ve just got to get back to that mentality.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cartwright is also paying no attention to Wakefield\u2019s start, with Daryl Powell\u2019s side also one from three, losing to Toulouse Olympique and Warrington Wolves and edging past Huddersfield Giants.<\/p>\n
\u201cLike us, they probably thought they would be in a better position than what they are, but I\u2019ve said it right from the start, the early season games are always dangerous no matter who you play,\u201d Cartwright added. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of belief in teams who have had good pre-season\u2019s and who have made a few acquisitions. They\u2019ll be no different from us. It\u2019ll be a good battle.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hull know they must improve to get two valuable Super League points. 10:00, 04 Mar 2026Updated 13:09, 04…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457703,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[20805,28318,5903,20370,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-457702","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-hull-fc","tag-john-cartwright","tag-rugby","tag-rugby-league","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457702","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=457702"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457702\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457702"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457702"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457702"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}