Hull FC coach delivers brutal ‘dumb’ verdict as fresh injury revealed and red card debated

Hull FC coach John Cartwright watched his side suffer a controversial defeat to Huddersfield at Magic Weekend: and branded his side ‘dumb’.

The Black and Whites became the first team to lose to Huddersfield in 2025 after a game which saw Sam Eseh sin-binned and Liam Knight sent off within seconds of one another.

That left Hull on the back foot for all of the second half and despite a valiant effort, they fell short – and Cartwright refused to make any excuses for his side.

“A total lack of discipline,” he said. “We weren’t playing well by half-time but we were in the game. The five minutes before half-time I can’t explain. Call it what you like, a brain explosion and just dumb to be honest with you.”

When asked for his thoughts on the Knight red, Cartwright said: “Whether he’d just had enough and wanted to make a statement.

“I’ll hopefully get some answers but it doesn’t help us now. It didn’t look too much different to the other two. There was frustration from the way we were playing.

“There’s been a decline in the way we’ve gone over the last month. I don’t have any excuses for you. They’re grown men and they play a tough game. They know the rules and I can’t explain it for you. If we’d have got a win it would have hidden a few little issues that are sneaking in.”

Cartwright said of Knight’s tackle on Sam Hewitt: “That’s the thing I can’t get my head around. Just get into half-time, 12 on 12 and regroup. When you’re down all your tactics change, everything I’d planned to talk about at half-time went out of the window.

“It’s disappointing. You just had to take him to the ground, regroup and go again.”

There was also a blow on the injury front for Hull – with Harvey Barron suffering a hip problem that will be assessed in the coming days.

He said: “He’s hurt his hip. I don’t know the extent. I haven’t spoken to anyone yet but I couldn’t tell you on injuries right now.”