Hull FC coach rues his side’s errors following Castleford Tigers defeat

Hull FC and their poor home form continued as Castleford Tigers took the win, and head coach John Cartwright reflects on a bad night at the office.

The Black and Whites haven’t won a home game since 20th July 2024, and Cartwright thought his side’s performance was below par, in comparison to many of this season’s matches.

Whilst Hull fought back with a Lewis Martin brace in the final five minutes, it wasn’t enough, with the Tigers winning 22-14.

Cartwright rued his side’s errors and shared that they just couldn’t string any attacking plays together.

Speaking to the press after the loss, he said: “It was just error-riddled. There was no lack of effort there, we had to defend our line and defend our mistakes a lot.

“Why you make errors, it’s hard to know. I think every coach in the history of the game has gone through games, and you just wonder where it comes from.

“Our preparation was really good, and we had a lot to play for, but at the end of the day, it was just the number of errors we made; we could get no fluency, and with the speed of the ruck in general, if you’re not getting through your sets and keeping the ball in play, you’re never going to fatigue the opposition.”

Hull FC coach talks error count and disappointing the fans

Even when Hull had the ball, completing at 75% isn’t good enough to compete with the top sides, adding to that 43 missed tackles and 16 errors on a night to forget.

The Hull FC boss thought the sheer amount of tacking his team had to do just zapped their energy to try anything in attack.

He added: “We were lethargic because we had to do so much tackling down our own end, a lot of our errors were with the ball coming out of our end, which puts pressure on you straight away.

“When you do hold them out, you’re bringing the ball off your try line, so it’s very hard to get any sort of football on with what we dished up tonight.”

Whilst the Black and Whites have a number of injuries to contend with, after Will Pryce was ruled out with a hamstring issue, the Hull coach has had to rotate his squad again.

However, he did remain optimistic and was content with the side’s efforts throughout the full eighty minutes.

He said: “I’m not concerned about tonight; I was confident coming into the game, but I always knew you have to be eight or nine out of ten every week, and this week we were probably four or five.

“I’m just really, really disappointed for everyone that has turned up here tonight. That was a big opportunity for the club and the players, and we just weren’t anywhere near our best. That’s footy.

“Sometimes players collectively across the group have bad nights, and that was one of those nights.”