Hull FC boss Tony Smith refuses to be drawn on controversial Jake Trueman incident

The debutant came off the bench at half-time and was involved in late controversy when he held down Joe Shorrocks to allow Hull's defensive line to get set after Davy Litten dropped a high kick.

Referee Ben Thaler deemed that Trueman had stayed on too long and sin-binned the half-back to leave the hosts down to 12 men for the remaining seconds.

The penalty gave Wigan the chance to find a winner but they knocked on early in the set to confirm back-to-back wins for the resurgent Black and Whites.

When asked whether he would commend Trueman for taking one for the team, Smith replied: "I didn't want him off the park and I don't want him off the player quickly either.

"I want him to be like many of the other tackles on first play and within the game. Go time them and some of them won't be much different – but I wouldn't call it a harsh call.

"I saw many more important plays in the match that had a bigger effect. We go searching for those big moments where a referee or player could have done something different and hang them out to dry.

"There were plenty of other things in the game that had a bigger influence than that moment.

"I don't know if the referee had a choice or whether having 12 men for the last 50 seconds of the match 10 metres from your own tryline is a good play either. He won't get a pat on the back for it either."

Hull appear to have turned a corner after ending their seven-game losing run in their last outing against Huddersfield Giants but Smith is not getting carried away.

"I thought we were real good first half," he added.

"I was disappointed to concede the try from the scrum with three minutes to go in the first half. I would have liked for us to hang on and have a little bit more buffer.

"We were pretty average in the second half. We didn't control last plays very well and struggled to get out of our own area. They dominated territory and probably weren't coming up with killer punches at times.

"My team kept fighting and swinging in terms of punches in the round and tried to get on the front foot with that most of the time which put them under a little bit of pressure.

"I'm pleased that everybody has ground that out. It doesn't mean everything is all rosy. We've got a lot of improvement still to do in order to get more results."