Swansea City 0 Hull City 2: Perfect Tigers are Phelan Good!

Hull City followed up the most unlikely opening day victory with an equally unexpected win at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea to maintain a perfect start to the season.

Winning at home with your support behind you and the incentive of the eyes of the world watching is one thing but travelling to face a quality team who dominate possession and have dangerous players in the last third is a whole other matter.

Mike Phelan didn’t have the luxury of any new signings or injured players being available (Harry Maguire is close though) so his team and bench picked itself after the Leicester win. Getting that team to play with the same endeavour, discipline and nous as last week was the real test of the caretaker-gaffer and he passed it with flying colours. The players gave him everything again and for all Swansea’s possession and territorial advantage, The Tigers had the best chances throughout and the result was inarguable. If you don’t score – you’ve no room for complaint regardless.

City 4-5-1

Eldin Jakupovic

Ahmed Elmohamady – Curtis Davies – Jake Livermore – Andy Robertson

Robert Snodgrass – Sam Clucas – Tom Huddlestone – David Meyler - Adama Diomande

Abel Hernandez

The first half was tougher than last week’s game with Swansea eager to dominate at home. Full backs Naughton and Kingsley got forward at will, they played nicely off the big Welsh lad Llorente up front. Their movement was good from midfield and City worked hard to match those runs and to get back to double up wide with Diomande and Snodgrass particularly putting in a shift to help out their mates.

This was my first trip to the Liberty Stadium. I had a ticket for the game two season ago but missed it due to a family illness. So I was chuffed to make it this time. The weather was more in keeping with February than August but it didn’t dampen the enthusiasm after last week’s game which seems to have revitalised everyone. When you strip it back, we all go to watch the eleven blokes kicking the football about and they gave us so much to be proud of. The Stadium (or Stadiwm if you want a bit of culture) is nice enough but one of the blander new builds I’ve seen.

When Sigurdsson’s volley was pushed onto the bar by Jakupovic early on, I worried we might be in for a long afternoon but they made few clear chances. By the time the big boyo Llorente headed wide from a Routledge cross, after a lovely Swans move, City could already have been two in front. A beautiful break from Snodgrass from our own penalty area, via one-twos with Elmo and Huddlestone lead to Snod playing Diomande in on the edge of the penalty area. Dio turned the marking defender beautifully but with the goal gaping – lashed his shot into the stand. Dio had several reasonable opportunities to counter during the half but was wasteful with them. He doesn’t look quick enough with the ball at his feet but is working hard and proving a very good option to relieve pressure.

We should also have had at least a free-kick when Snodgrass was clearly tripped on the 18-yard line. It could be argued that it was perhaps inside the box but how that utter clown Stuart Attwell decided it wasn’t a foul at all – I’ll never know.

Half time: Swansea City 0 Hull City 0

I had some trepidation going into the second half. They were kicking towards their fans, they had tons of options off the bench and we’d expended a great amount of energy again in the first half. I really needn’t have worried. Curtis Davies’ attempt to smash in an own goal from a corner was about the only chance they had.

Davies was superb again as was his central defensive partner Jake Livermore. Peter Swan wrote a piece in the Hull Daily Mail this week which was complimentary to Curtis but did suggest he wasn’t a “natural leader”. You may have seen Davies took exception to it on social media and it clearly irked him because after the game he took off his captain’s armband and held it up for the City fans to see. It really was a ludicrous claim. Davies lead City brilliantly before he was crudely dispensed with as skipper after Michael Dawson arrived. His influence has been immense this pre-season. If he’s not a leader, I don’t know who is.

Snodgrass had a shot deflected wide after brilliant work from Huddlestone got Robertson in behind from a neatly worked Tigers’ throw-in. Jak saved comfortably from a Sigurdsson free-kick. Swansea introduced the tricky Montero and Ki, match winner at the KC Stadium a couple of seasons ago, from the bench as City fans chanted “We are Hull City, we don’t need no subs”. Mike Phelan disagreed though and brought on Maloney for Diomande.

Maloney had a really good pre-season. He looked lively in every game. He won this won too. Clucas was fouled on the edge of their box and Maloney took a free-kick that deflected wide. From the corner, Davies had a header tipped over by Fabianski. That was our big chance to nick this, I thought. From the second corner, Davies met the ball again and his header was turned in by the knees, thighs or mid-riff (who cares??) of Maloney two feet out sending the small but dedicated band of City fans wild [0-1].

One of the young lads behind us set off a smoke bomb which led to a steward’s enquiry and several young lads being frog-marched out of the ground – one after a long delay, presumably while they looked at CCTV.

Swansea responded as you’d expect but were almost caught out again when Huddlestone lifted a ball over the top and Hernandez raced away clear. Unfortunately, by the time the ball settled at a height Abel could attempt a lob, Fabianski had raced out to meet him and saved well. There were no particular scares at the other end but City were throwing themselves at headers and into blocks through Meyler and Davies especially. Meyler was superb and I lost count of the number of interceptions and tackles he made on the edge of our box in that last 15 minutes.

With a generous three minutes added – generous to City, we’d have been going mad at the KCOM if a visiting ‘keeper had run down the clock like the Jak – City made sure of the remarkable three points with a beautifully worked goal on the counter. Huddlestone, Snodgrass, Meyler and Hernandez played one touch passes, Snod’s finding Maloney who’d broken the offside trap and despite losing his balance, laid off for Hernandez to finish coolly [0-2]. Pandemonium. No smoke bomb though!

Full time: Swansea City 0 Hull City 2

It’s hard to praise the players, Mike Phelan, Stephen Clemence and the staff highly enough. Before this summer descended into complete and utter farce, most had already looked at City’s first seven fixtures (Leicester H, Swansea A, Man Utd H, Burnley A, Arsenal H, Liverpool A, Chelsea H) and decided that if we had any points at all by the October international break – we’d have done bloody well. To have six already is quite ridiculous.

I won’t repeat what I said last week. The manager and players need help now. The current owners, prospective owners or both need to urgently acquire the five plus players that Phelan needs to be competitive beyond for the whole first half of the season. They are performing miracles but only the most naïve of people would imagine they can do that every week.

They’ve delivered six huge bonus points. Now deliver the help they need!

Hull City 2 Leicester City 1: Troubled Tigers trounce Champs

From the depths of adversity, Hull City produced a stunning performance to shock the Premier League Champions Leicester City (that still sounds weird) at the newly rebranded KCOM Stadium.

Credit: Craig Brough

I can’t honestly say I’ve ever looked forward to a new season less than this one and waking up on Saturday morning devoid of the usual excitement the first day always brings was heart breaking. I nearly didn’t go to the game. I appreciate there are many fans who feel the need to protest about the current state of the club but with prospective new owners on the horizon - I just didn’t want to. Walking into that negative atmosphere to watch our under-strength squad try to compete with the best the league had to offer last term was a horrific prospect that I wanted no part of if I’m completely open.

I forced myself to go though. My brother and I discussed the likelihood of a “Typical City” performance – a win against the odds. The thought of “What if we do win?” was enough to convince me to go and I’m overjoyed that I did because we were treated to a performance from eleven City players (no subs used) full of fight and pride that epitomised what we love about the game and our club – despite the Egyptian Elephants in the room (but not the stadium).  

City 4-5-1

Eldin Jakupovic

Ahmed Elmohamady – Jake Livermore – Curtis Davies – Andy Robertson

Robert Snodgrass – Tom Huddlestone – Sam Clucas – David Meyler – Adama Diomande

Abel Hernandez

Sub goalkeeper Dusan Kuciak, Shaun Maloney and Greg Luer were the only other “senior” players fit for City. The bench was filled by U21s Jarrod Bowen, Josh Clackstone, Greg Olley and Josh Tymon. All are excellent prospects but they’re a long way from being Premier League-ready. I won’t go into how it came to this because I’m sure you already know but there’s a summary at the bottom that I made in a strop a few weeks ago.

I can’t tell you too much about the first half because I barely took it in. In fact – I f*****g hated it. The players came out to chants of “We want Allam Out” and there were several other verses, banners and the Hull City Supporter’s Trust’s “NO” cards being held up. This was the opening dat of the season and the football was secondary by some distance. I’m not going to pretend it affects the players or any of that but as someone who loves football, it affected by enjoyment considerably. I hate the state of our club. I hate that we’re a laughing stock. I hate that we’re “the worst prepared team in Premier League history”. I hate that we feel the need to protest en masse at our first game of the season. Most of all, I hate the Allams because it’s their fault. And if anyone trusted them remotely, then the protests may have been classed off due to the presence of a delegation of potential Chinese owners. Someone in the East Stand did bring a Chinese flag. Hopefully they saw that as a welcome!

There were few chances in the half but it was clear that City were playing very well and working ridiculously hard. Livermore, Clucas and Diomande were all playing out of position but were making a real fist of it and in the case of Jake and Sam – you’d swear they’d played there all their lives. Mike Phelan had the team very well organised and defending deep which nullified the threat the pace of Vardy, Musa and Mahrez brings.

We were a minute away from heading into half time with a credible goalless scoreline after Jakupovic saved brilliantly from Fuchs and then Livermore blocked heroically as Vardy met the rebound when we turned the game on its head. Snodgrass’s left wing corner was headed goalward by Davies. Schmeichel pawed it away but Hernandez and Diomande both overhead kicked the ball into the goal. It looked synchronised live and it really was. Hernandez was credited with the goal in the stadium and on my twitter feed but that was because he ran off celebrating. It was later corrected to a Diomande goal as he probably, just about got the final touch [1-0].

Half time: Hull City 2 Leicester City 1

The second half was much better. The acrimony had turned to celebration with the goal and the atmosphere was electric. Even with a highly embarrassing 5,000 empty seats at the KCOM. You know who to blame for that too. It was also despite Leicester winning a penalty 12 seconds into the half when Huddlestone tripped Gray after Meyler had given away possession in our half. The trip was outside the box but we’re back in “The Big League” now and so we get the best referees in the country – so naturally he got it wrong. Mahrez scored easily from the spot [1-1].

Everyone in the world, watching as this was the Premier League’s curtain raiser, said in unison “OK, Hull, you’ve put up a good fight but you’ve woken the beast now – you’re getting smashed”. Unfortunately for the visitors, Snodgrass didn’t hear them. Elmo latched onto a loose pass and played a 1-2 with Snod. His cross was cut out at the near post and fell to Snodgrass who lashed it into the bottom right-hand corner leaving Schmeichel stranded [2-1].

There was still a long way but despite the arrival of fresh legs from the Leicester bench, including the effervescent Okazaki and the sizable threat of Ulloa – City were relatively untroubled. Jakupovic made a couple of saves from long range efforts, making a bit of a meal of pushing Mahrez’s free kick around the post, but otherwise the well-organised defence, brilliantly marshalled by Davies and protected by Clucas, gave Leicester’s strikers little to get their hopes up.

City might even have wrapped things up but Schmeichel punched away Snodgrass’s whipped free-kick at his near post. City looked a little heavy legged at times but Phelan didn’t feel the need to make any substitutions and with Diomande proving a useful out-ball and Meyler’s energy coming into play late on, we escaped unscathed.

Full time: Hull City 2 Leicester City 1

So ended a tremendous game and the crowd – filled with anger and dread at half-past-noon – drifted away happy and bursting with pride in the performance.

That performance masks some of the problems at City but it doesn’t solve them. The squad is still woefully inadequate in numbers and in some positions – in real top flight quality. Mike Phelan, if he is to be the manager (and you have to be impressed with him thus far) needs five signings minimum. He needs money to work with and he needs someone with more interest in Hull City than playing Polo and winding up fans to go out and do the deals.

More than anything, the club needs a change in ownership. This afternoon showed that when you put all of the Allam-created garbage to one side, following City is still tremendous fun and our fanbase will get behind this group of players who are united in adversity. Singing the “great escape” theme on the opening day of the season is an example of the gallows humour you get from football fans and particularly ours.

We now need the “new broom” that Steve Bruce spoke about so often in the summer to sweep the Allams out of the club and give supporter’s hope that things will return to how they were before Assem Allam fell out with Hull City Council. To a time when worrying whether we’d get three points on a Saturday afternoon was about all most fans were concerned with.

The state of Hull City by @HullCityLive