Hull City 3 Coventry City 2: Tigers maintain perfect home start

Hull City maintained their perfect start to the Championship season at the MKM Stadium with another hard-fought victory over Mark Robins’ Coventry City.

 

Ozan Tufan became the latest first-team absentee having been injured for The Tigers in last week’s defeat at WBA. The recent arrivals of midfielder Ryan Woods and right-back Cyrus Christie as well as the return to fitness of Ryan Longman and Tyler Smith added depth to the squad but Shota Arveladze chose to revert to a 3-5-2 formation in the absence of playmaker Tufan giving a first league start to Vaughn Covil in a surprise move.

City: Matt Ingram, Lewie Coyle, Callum Elder, Tobias Figueiredo, Jacob Greaves, Alfie Jones, Regan Slater, Ryan Woods (Randell Williams), Vaughn Covil (Andy Cannon), Oscar Estupiñán (Ryan Longman), Benjamin Tetteh (Cyrus Christie). 

There were times in the game when you wondered if the referee turned up at the Circle expecting a game of Rugby League - particularly when he watched uninterested as Woods was launched into touch with a shoulder high tackle in the second half – but you could say the same of some fans, like the woman in the SE corner who screamed “Ger Onsard” after 15 seconds. No word of a lie.

City started well. Progressive football, aggression and determination in spades and a tremendous atmosphere emanating from the stands. I thought about the meak defeat to Coventry on October 30^th last year. A game played in front of 6,000 fewer fans. A struggling City side failing to lay a glove on Coventry and barely even throwing a punch. Only Ingram, Greaves and Elder lined up today from that starting XI (Cannon came on later) and the difference is striking. The switch to a back three didn’t hurt City at all, the wing backs attacked from the early stages and Slater, the heartbeat oof this City side, provided the impetus with and without the ball. On ten minutes, Elder linked well with Greaves, again, and delivered a cross beyond everyone. Coyle recovered the ball and hit a fine shot/cross on the volley that the keeper parried for Estupiñán to tap in at the far post [1-0]. The Colombian is the top scorer in the division and has a healthy habit of turning up in the right place at the right time.

The goal didn’t provide the lift-off City hoped and with Figueiredo having a bit of a nightmare in possession, Coventry were invited onto us time and again. Palmer pulled the strings for them and Godden and Gyokeres’ impressive movement caused problems. Fortunately, Greaves was outstanding, putting out fires all over the place but Figueiredo kept lighting them. Young Covil was injured – another one – and replaced by Cannon and City didn’t settle. We had one let-off as Gyokeres headed home whilst offside but shortly after, we conceded a penalty. Figueiredo was the guilty party with a rash challenge in the area but the opportunity came from Woods’ being caught on the ball on the 18 yard line. Godden dispatched past Ingram [1-1].

Woods’ home debut was a mixed bag. He started well enough but made a big error for the equaliser and disappeared for a while after it. His use of the ball was often poor, trying Hollywood passes and coughing up possession. He was much better after the break using his short passing game to good effect and dictating our best passages of play alongside Slater. He put in a lot of had graft, and fits in well in this team because they all do. It’s the minimum requirement and no-one falls short.

Despite Coventry looking more dangerous for the second quarter, City wrestled some initiative back as half time approached and then, somehow, went in ahead. Coyle made the goal again, swinging a cross in with his left foot which keeper Moore spilled under the challenge of Estupiñán and Oscar poked in another from close range [2-1].

Half time: Hull City 2 Coventry City 1

The second half followed a similar pattern with the visitors having plenty of the ball and looking the most likely to score. Despite some great bit of play from Tetteh and the constant threat of Estupiñán, City were quiet as an attacking force. But sub Cannon, who lacks quality but makes up for it in sheer effort, forced a throw-in high up the pitch on our right. He then held up the ball from the throw, slid in Coyle and he delivered again for his fellow wing-back Elder who arrived unconvincingly but his knock down was poked in by Estupiñán to complete a hat-trick with three goals from a total of about 7 yards [3-1]. Oscar’s hat-trick was our first at this level for five years, since Abel Hernandez against Burton Albion, and takes him to 7 goals in the Championship already, here more than anyone else in the division.

From there, the game became all to familiar to anyone who has seen the other games we have taken points in this season. Elder produced a great block and Ingram made a fantastic save to stop a certain goal before one came as Godden headed in at the far post from a flick-on from a corner [3-2]. It was a poor one to concede but it was always coming. City had 15 minutes or so to see the game out and had been dropping deeper and deeper. Arveladze made subs, including the welcome return of Longman, but like the previous games, he withdrew our most dangerous players for, frankly, far inferior replacements and set up his 5-4-1 to just get through the game. It’s not pretty and in the moment, it’s pretty hairy, but it worked again. Elder produced another good block and former City loanee Martyn Waghorn, on as sub, fizzed one wide, but Ingram wasn’t even called upon.

In fact, City should have sealed it. Before his late withdrawal, Tetteh beautifully sent Longman clear towards the South Stand without a defender in sight and with the whole ground standing in anticipation of the net bulging and the six minutes of stoppage time becoming a celebration rather than a tribulation. Unfortunately, Longman drew keeper Moore but pushed the ball wide of the near post and those last few minutes felt like several hours before the whistle finally signalled another home win and “Happy Hour” blasted out throughout the stadium.

Full time: Hull City 3 Coventry City 2

There were moments of real quality from City but on the whole, it was a victory they scrapped for. With little creativity in the middle, the goals came from getting the ball wide and relying on Coyle’s outstanding delivery. Both players gave everything and it’s no slight on either, but Covil starting in the “number ten” position, only to be replaced by Cannon shows the areas of real weakness at the moment. In the five games they’ve picked up points, City have finished with four or five players on the pitch you’d have imagined would be nowhere near the squad this season. Those players aren’t letting anyone own but it’s the reason games are ending with ten men behind the ball defending for their lives. It’s working though. We didn’t amass this many points until game 17 on 6^th November last season.

Greaves was probably the pick for City with his outstanding defending in the first half getting his mate off the hook time and again. His tackling is timed tremendously, his positioning near flawless and his height incredibly useful for aerial battles. Slater was excellent too. He was everywhere without the ball and a joy to watch with it. His ability to sell two defenders with his body movement before he’s even touched the ball is a thing of beauty and his running with the ball, the drop of the shoulder, the close control and the calm under pressure was as good as he’s been in a City shirt. Does anyone know how much he cost?

Coyle is sometimes maligned, unfairly, by morons, but he was terrific again at both ends, as was Elder on the left. Tetteh’s combination of size and ability to challenge for a ball in the air with a ridiculously deft touch “for a big man” continues to create crowd-pleasing moments and links with expert goal poacher Estupiñán. Figueiredo had a mare first half but was much more composed after the break. Everyone put in an incredible effort, typical of this group. Fears that the heart of the side were lost with the departures this summer, from yours truly especially, look unfounded and that’s very pleasing. 

Most pleasing is another great crowd of 17,878. That’s 2 consecutive home games over 17k. We only achieved it once last season and didn’t at all in the league in the short 19/20 season or the full 18/19. (Stats: https://tigerbase.hullcity.com) The average is already up 4,000 on last season and 6,000 on 19/20 - before the world ended.

It felt for a long time like City’s world was ending. But not any more. The club and this team are alive and kicking.

Burnley 1 Hull City 1: The Tigers pass Turf Moor test

Hull City’s promising start to the season continued at Turf Moor as The Tigers picked up a very good away point against a Burnley team who are unrecognisable under the management of Vince Kompany.

It might just be the 130 miles of LED they’ve had installed for Premier League games but Turf Moor itself looked very smart for a night game under their peculiar floodlights and Kompany’s side looked the part too. They’ve turned over a lot of players in a short time, like us, but he’s already established a way of playing that dominates possession in a very un-Burnley-like way and City would have to defend for even larger periods than Saturday’s game against also-relegated Norwich City.

City: Ingram, Coyle, Elder, Figueiredo, Greaves, Jones, Slater, Tufan (Cannon), Sayyadmanesh (Williams), Estupiñán (Covil), Tetteh (Wilks).

City were unchanged from the weekend but with Ryan Woods’ transfer from Birmingham being ongoing and none of the injured players recovering, the bench was again short of options to change a game. Fortunately, the first XI and the 4-3-3 formation retained from the weekend are looking like a team that compete with the top sides in the division and City are much better balanced as an attacking outfit than they were 10 days ago at Preston.

Burnley wanted to play from the back from the first minute but had some iffy moments, particularly goalkeeper Muric who never looked comfortable with the ball at his feet. We had dodgy moments of our own with Figueiredo getting too close to Rodriquez on the right and the striker spun him and forced a good save by Ingram at his near post. Burnley’s midfield of Cullen, Brownhill and Cork are as good as you’ll see at this level and they moved the ball constantly and pressed City back but Jones and Slater, who were immense again, did a lot of dirty work to protect the back four. When we won the ball back, we were threatening on the break, particularly through Tufan who just oozes class and exchanges touches brilliantly, particularly with Slater and Tetteh and is deceptively mobile.

Despite their possession, it was that greater threat on the counter-attack that provided the breakthrough. Figueiredo cleared from right back, Estupiñán headed it round the corner and Tufan burst clear on the right and with incredible cool, sat the keeper down and passed the ball into the net at the near post [0-1]. It was bedlam in the well packed away end with joy equalling the disbelief at seeing such quality from a City player.

Burnley responded well to the goal and continued to play as they’d planned. City had moments to counter with the diagonal balls wide for Tetteh and Allahyar looking on every time. They chose their moments to press and it was effective. Tufan forced a poor backpass from Taylor which Estupiñán didn’t really react to and despite the Colombian looking favourite, Muric was able to clear the ball under pressure. Almost from the clearance, the winger Bastien pulled Coyle inside and left space that they brilliantly exploited with left-back Maatsen putting the ball on a plate for Rodriguez to equalise [1-1]. Maatsen’s a great player. He ripped us to shreds last season when he was on loan at Coventry from Chelsea. Fortunately, this was his only real moment here.

The hosts never really pushed on from the goal with the pattern of lots of possession but few chances continuing. The main danger was the referee, who gave them every 50/50 and showed little interest when City players suffered the same bits of contact. That, along with City’s continuing inability to defend a short corner raised the temperature in the away end on an unusually cool night. It’s been about five years now and we still cause ourselves problems every time a team puts two men out to take a set piece. Any team who scouts us properly will see how poor we are at it. We got away with it here with the centre-half heading into the side netting. A rare poor touch from Greaves left us open on the left momentarily but Elder defused the situation brilliantly. I’m not Elder’s biggest fan but he had a good game on Saturday and he was tremendous at Turf Moor.

Half time: Burnley 1 Hull City 1

We took a pasting in the second half. If you told me possession was 95/5% in their favour, I’d believe you. We are extremely well organised though and for all the ball they had, Burnley struggled to play through us. When they put crosses in, Figueiredo and Greaves headed everything, when they got the ball wide, Coyle and Elder stood up and the wide forwards dropped in and when they moved the ball through the middle, Jones and Slater were always in the way somewhere. There was no space between the lines and Burnley had to work incredibly hard to create a sight of goal and when they did, they found Matt Ingram is in incredible form at the moment.

The counter attack remained a danger, for now, and City had the two best openings despite the statistical pummelling. Tufan and Tetteh combined beautifully and Ozan slid in Estupiñán whose first touch took him wide and he shot past the keeper but Harwood-Bellis cleared it in the six-yard box and it looked unlikely to go in. When Arveladze came over at the end to applaud the City fans, he broke off clapping to give Estupiñán a lesson in where to take his touch and get his shot off before resuming his applause. The second chance came from Ingram’s only error all night as he gave Jones a ridiculous pass with a man right up his arse. Jones somehow escaped to find Slater who nutmegged the oncoming midfielder and without breaking stride floated an inch perfect pass into the wide area for Allahyar, who took it and drove for goal but took the ball too wide with his last touch and the keeper blocked his shot. To make matters worse, Allahyar went down and stayed down with a very bad looking left hamstring injury. 

The squad is starting to look threadbare already and the Allahyar injury doesn’t help. He’s by far the fittest of the forward players and the only one who can put in this level of effort for 90 minutes so losing him early was a huge blow. When we’d made the other subs over the next 15 or so, we ended up with a front 6 of Williams-Cannon-Jones-Slater-Covil-Wilks. That’s barely going to trouble anyone in League One. That’s not a knock on the effort these players put in. Cannon, Covil and Williams gave it everything and even Wilks looked much hungrier than at Bradford last week. They’re just not anywhere near good enough and it meant we conceded any hope of winning and had to sit in and defend for almost 25 minutes. The organisation remained impressive and the defensive effort was as good as we’ve ever seen. But this is still a squad in transition and it shows.

For all the pressure, we were relatively unscathed. Rodriquez wasted their best chance, shooting straight at Ingram on the stretch after Figueiredo’s header had rebounded off Jones to gift an opportunity. But despite making some useful looking subs and chucking on Ashley Barnes, Ingram didn’t have another save to make with only the side-netting and Greaves’s right leg being troubled by shots. That didn’t stop the last 15 minutes feeling like 15 hours and the inevitability of a Burnley winner, built on years and years of disappointment, was on everyone’s mind. So the final whistle was a joyous moment. 

Full time: Burnley 1 Hull City 1

8 points from 4 games, the last two against relegated Premier League teams, is a fantastic outcome. Far more than I hoped at this stage, I’ll readily admit. Given the circumstances with injuries, new players still being a way off completing 90 minutes and incoming transfers always taking about 3 weeks to complete after they’re reported as “done” in the media – it’s pretty remarkable. 

It’s built on the solid foundation we had last season and for all the excitement of Estupiñán, Tetteh, Allahyar and, particularly, Tufan, it’s the magnificent Greaves, Ingram, Jones, Slater, Coyle and Elder and the rock solid addition of Figueiredo who provide the basis for the performances we’ve seen so far. Credit also to Arveladze, Peter van der Veen and Andy Dawson who know how to set a team up and have taken 2 points away from home this season that we wouldn’t have picked up in the past.

Much better City teams than this would have crumbled at Turf Moor under the bright lights, the constant pressure and the feverish atmosphere of the last 25 minutes. These lads were outstanding.

Hull City 2 Norwich City 1: Tigers top the table

For the second successive home game to start this season, Hull City’s players strolled around three packed sides of the ground after a 2-1 win, sharing hugs and high-fives, applauding the fans and soaking in the sound of “I can’t help falling in love with you” wafting from the PA and those delirious supporters. 

It won’t be like this every week. Not even most weeks but with the sun shining, the lush green MKM Stadium pitch defying the rest of our brown and yellow country, over 17,000 fans creating an atmosphere we feared we wouldn’t see again for a long, long time, this was special.

City had more injury woes to deal with for the visit of Norwich – recently relegated and much fancied to win the Championship, again. Talisman Jean Michael Seri was missing after picking up an injury at Preston, weakening an already depleted squad. Shota Arveladze chose to replace him with Alfie Jones and to switch to 4-3-3 rather than replace Jones in defence. Both decisions were masterful.

City: Ingram, Coyle, Elder, Figueiredo, Greaves, Jones, Slater, Tufan (Williams), Sayyadmanesh, Estupiñán (Covil), Tetteh (Cannon).

Norwich are a good outfit. They’ve got quality everywhere and, unlike City, a bench full of players who can make a difference. They’re exceptionally well organised and know their jobs in and out of possession and they have exceptional pace and movement. They really looked the part, despite their new third kit, which looks like a Zap Ice Cream. For ten minutes, they battered City. They forced two corners in the first minute. Matt Ingram made four saves in as many minutes. After Tobias Figueiredo gave Jones a suicidal pass and Teemu Pukki robbed him in the penalty area, Ingram made a fantastic double save with his feet, deflecting the second shot wide as the corner count climbed. City struggled to get hold of the ball, couldn’t get near Pukki and had Todd Cantwell drifting all over the front line looking like the player who was on the verge of England honours and a big money move a couple of years ago. Fortunately for us, and unfortunately for Cantwell, it didn’t last.

Lewie Coyle was generally free on the right-hand side and Jacob Greaves’ diagonal cross field balls started to find him and allow a link up with Allahyar. Jones and Regan Slater found more composure and stayed on the ball in midfield, committing players and opening gaps. Slowly but surely, City pushed the visitors back and the attacks, while still dangerous, became more sporadic and Ingram’s saves easier. With City enjoying more of the ball, Ozan Tufan shone. A few weeks ago, fans feared he'd be a white elephant. His fitness levels scorned. His motives doubted. His ability questioned. That only lasted one “proper” game and he’s already showing just how good he is, even if his fitness is still a way off. They’re terrified when he gets a sight of goal and in open play, his footwork saw him spin out of one challenge only to immediately nutmeg the next and he then skipped clear on the left before Omobamidele took him out and took a yellow.

Clear cut chances were clearly missing from City’s performance but the front three were working hard, particularly Estupiñán who we’ve not seen much of so far, and Tetteh volleyed well over from a Coyle delivery while Allahyar got himself into promising positions on the right numerous times but his crossing is pretty terrible. The fussy ref was winding everyone up and peaked when he allowed Norwich to play-on with Max Aarons down injured, which they were entitled to do, only to immediately blow-up once Estupiñán stole possession and launched a counter. Do you believe in karma? I’m not sure I do, but regardless, once Aarons was attended to, City scored from the drop-ball. The ball was launched forward towards Tetteh, the returning Aarons crashed into his back but the big man continued anyway and put the ball forward towards Estupiñán. Aarons was involved again, recovering the ball only for him to proceed to smash at it at his mate and it dropped for Estupiñán to poach his first City goal [1-0].

City went into the break in front thanks to another fine save by Ingram from Pukki. The 4-3-3 had been a huge success. The front players were nowhere near as isolated as last week at Preston, the spaces wide were exploited by pushing on the full backs, Coyle particularly, Jones brilliantly anchored the midfield in front of his excellent central defenders, Figueiredo’s early pass aside, and Slater buzzed everywhere allowing Tufan to pull the strings.

Half time: Hull City 1 Norwich City 0

The second half took a while to get going. Mainly due to Mr Fussy in the middle gifting Norwich free-kicks every time someone breathed near them. They struggled to dominate like the first half though and were the first to make changes, including €9.5m USA striker Josh Sargent. With City’s bench severely depleted and the visitors throwing on players of this expense, it looked most likely that their subs would affect the game. But with Andy Cannon, who ended last season on loan to Stockport, readied to come on for The Tigers, they struck again. An exchange from a throw in saw Estupiñán free Coyle, who found Jones. His cut back was well struck by Tufan but blocked, as was a follow-up from Tetteh, which deflected for a corner. Tufan delivered the corner, it fell to Jones, was saved by Tim Krul, a follow-up was blocked on the line and poked in by Estupiñán for this second of the game [2-0]. The noise was glorious. 8,000 people watching miserable home games in the cold last season are a distant memory.

More Norwich subs followed while City slipped further back in protection of their lead. More corners were clocked up (count ended up 2-11) and well defended, particularly by Allahyar who has a real knack for it. City were defiant in open play and Ingram had almost got bored having not made a save for about 2 minutes. Then Callum Elder clumsily caught Sargent who rolled about 5 yards and they dragged the ball another 5 to create a create shooting opportunity. It was taken by Nunez who curled an absolute beauty, a reverse Andy Holt vs. Scunthorpe, beyond Ingram [2-1].

From there, it was back to attack vs. defence. Williams and Covil came on to partner Allahyar up front but despite the intention of fresh legs pressurising their defenders, they ended up as additional full backs in a back six half the time. They missed an absolute sitter sliding in at the back post and Greaves headed magnificently off the line. Imagine any oof the morons online questioning Greaves’s commitment this week? The kid is incredible. He’s been outstanding in every league game this season. Despite the seeming inevitability of an equaliser and having to negotiate seven (!!) minutes of stoppage time, City held on for a tremendous win and top the Championship – until Blackburn play next, anyway.

Full-time: Hull City 2 Norwich City 1

Seven points from three games, one a tricky away fixture and another against promotion favourites, is a great return for a side still clearly finding fitness and familiarity and seriously lacking in depth. Arveladze used his substitutes very well today but was fortunate that we never needed anything to change a game in which we trailed because there wasn’t anyone available to do so. But, in spite of those issues, what City have shown is incredible fight in the games, determination not to concede goals from our outstanding back line and defensive midfielders and found a way to score goals – at home anyway.

Callum Elder made this 100^th start for City today and had a very solid game, though they did really get at our left side as he tired. Ingram and Jones were clear man of the match candidates but Slater was good again and Estupiñán had his moments. I love how Coyle has started the season too. He’s led brilliantly as skipper.

The games keep coming thick and fast and Burnley away on Tuesday night is about as tough as it gets for a side that’s just put in an incredible amount of graft in baking conditions. There aren’t really the fresh legs available to make the changes Arveladze would want to make after such an effort but Seri could come back into contention and Ryan Woods is said to be close to arriving from Birmingham. It’s hard to see where either fits in to the side, on merit anyway, on the back of today’s performance. Both the system, and the personnel, deserve to be seen again so the decisions for Shota to make are big ones. He’ll perhaps sacrifice an attacker for an additional midfielder to revert to 3-5-2 or 5-4-1 to try and take something at Turf Moor. Then it’s on to WBA (a) on Saturday, just in case you’d forgotten that treat!

Being top of the league is nice, but it doesn’t really matter. Taking 7 points so far is nice, but it doesn’t really matter. New signings starting to look the part is nice, but it doesn’t really matter. Having Hull City back. That matters. The people in seats. The black and amber everywhere. The queues to get in, to buy shirts, to get a beer. The kids everywhere. The girls and women everywhere. The smiles everywhere. Remember when this football lark used to be fun? You’d have to remember all the way back to about…. 5pm this afternoon.