It’s like déjà vu all over again. Hull City go into a
Saturday afternoon home game off the back off an impressive win on the road,
name an unchanged team playing a sturdy 4-4-1-1 and lose on our patch again.
The only real difference was that Reading aren’t a patch on Blackburn and this
was wholly avoidable.
Liam Rosenior understandably picked the same team who impressively brought home three points from Cardiff, with confirmation of Oscar Estupiñán’s three game ban making a change up front unlikely.
City: Baxter, Christie, Greaves, Jones, Figueiredo, Seri, Woods, Docherty, Longman, Slater, Pelkas.
The Tigers started brightly. Despite some fear in the crowd, I’d call it playing out from the back PTSD, they were determined to build play and Seri was involved much earlier in moves – solving a real problem from the Blackburn game. I know not everyone is a fan. Someone near me called it "too much messing about" while someone else cheered loudly when Figueiredo lumped a ball up to that traditional hulking number nine, Pelkas. There’s a real vocal minority who hate City trying to play football and always have. The fact is, all successful teams do it and have for a long time. They take risks, they draw teams out and they make spaces appear higher up the pitch. We need to get used to it and support the players in doing it, not create an atmosphere of trepidation. I understand that it’s crap when it goes wrong but that is the risk. The key to success is to be better at it, not to abandon your principals and lump balls forward. We were better at it today. Not much, but a bit.
In spite of all that, this was a game of three set pieces, and we got the first. A Seri corner on 7 was cleared, Woods headed it back into the box and Figueiredo should have scored but his header was pushed wide. The following corner was delayed due to Reading trying to infiltrate a crazy City huddle and the pretty inept referee getting his knickers in a twist about it. When the corner finally came in from Seri, the City huddle parted into numerous runs and Greaves’s was completely undetected as his headed home from close range [1-0]. It wasn’t the first we’d see of an innovative approach to set pieces.
It was wonderful to see Greaves score his first home goal in his 59th game for City at the MKM Stadium. He’s one of the best centre-halves in the league but played left-back here and was almost immaculate. His confidence on the ball and timing of his thundering tackles is a joy to behold. You’ve got to take joy where you can at the moment.
City didn’t really capitalise on the goal. In fact, the next 15 minutes were pretty humdrum until Reading keeper Bouzanis raced from his goal and completely fluffed a clearance leaving Slater clean through with a defender struggling to recover and an open goal but Slater just couldn’t get the ball out of his feet and was eventually pushed wide and a huge chance went. City paid for it on the half hour. Baxter pushed a shot around the post after a blocked Ince shot caused mild panic. Figueiredo had a much better game and he’d headed everything but as the corner was delivered near post, for once City didn’t meet it first and Meite, grappling with Greaves, tapped it in [1-1].
Rosenior reacted by switching Longman from the left of midfield for Pelkas who’d been the “false nine”. Pelkas in either position has no effect on the game whatsoever. It wasn’t Longman’s day, more on that later, but he did give City a focal point, pressed well and was a target for some effective through balls in the second half. He was our best weapon. That’s not saying much.
On 39, Hendrick committed a horrendous foul on Woods, going over the ball in a 50/50. Everyone in the stadium could see it was a red card, except the man who mattered – he produced a yellow. I know all football fans complain about referees but I really feel City don’t get the rub of the green from them. Our players are constantly told to get up. I’ve no problem with that whatsoever if they’re going down easily but it isn’t the same the other way. There were two blatant pulls in the box that weren’t given. One from a corner was probably hard to spot. The other, on Tufan, wasn’t. It’s clear no-one is handing City anything they don’t earn this season.
Half time: Hull City 1 Reading 1
The opening 15 of the second half was a non-event sparking a triple sub from Rosenior. Tufan, Coyle and Sinik replaced Woods, Christie and Pelkas. The change did eventually bring City to life but it took a while and Tufan had little to do with it. His contribution here was worryingly sparse. Reading also made changes but it didn’t immediately help them either. Both keepers had little to do in truth. Ex-Tiger Shane Long had fewer touches than some fans did. It rarely felt like The Tigers would go on and win the game but nor were they ever in danger of losing it. Old foe Andy Carroll came on, oddly sporting the number two shirt, which did create a bit of nagging doubt but he was also ineffective. Ahem.
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| The starting positions for a second half Hull City corner! |
On 68, a lovely City move saw Greaves deliver a good cross that evaded Longman at the far post. On 73, they worked the ball brilliantly out from the back via Figueiredo and Seri before Sinik smashed a crossfield ball with ridiculous technique out to Coyle whose cross led to the undetected pull on Tufan. Into the last 10 mins, Longman had a tame effort from distance and then met a Seri cross but without the force to trouble Bouzanis. With 2 to play, Seri burst into the box and went down under a challenge but the ref showed no interest. That one was probably spot on, in all honesty.
Football is a game of fine margins. When your luck is in, you win tight games. When it’s out, you get a boot in the teeth for your troubles. As City looked for a winner in the 91st minute, Coyle delivered a cross for Longman but he was beaten to it by a defender who thrashed at the ball which could have gone anywhere but fell straight into the grateful arms of Bouzanis. A minute later, Docherty was harshly penalised for a good-looking challenge on our right. They chucked the ball into the box where Carroll rose and headed the ball down straight into Longman who could only ricochet the ball into our net [1-2].
There’s little to say to that. My 8 year-old had some wise words. “It’s just a game” she said “Losing isn’t going to affect your real life”. If anyone wants her, she’s where I left her at the MKM Stadium. Unless she’s started walking home.
Full time: Hull City 1 Reading 2
The unprecedented winter break for the World Cup is probably welcome at City. It will give Rosenior time to work with the players and get across his ideas. They’ll presumably play some behind closed doors friendlies to maintain fitness and it’ll be a bit of a bonus “pre-season”. It will allow key players to regain fitness. When she wasn’t belittling my lifelong football obsession today, my daughter did ask a good question about when we’re likely to see M’Hand. The same can be asked of Vale and Simons. We have an awful lot of players not doing anything and this period will allow Rosenior to rip things up and start again. Players who aren’t close to the first team need to go. Players with big reputations need to start earning them. Lads who give their all need a pick-me-up. Overall, the team still needs to find some identity and to learn to play with tempo, move the ball quicker, while taking the risks required, and harm teams rather than troubling only the Opta nerd counting the passes.
One swallow doesn’t make a summer. One hasn’t made our Autumn. I’m not as excited as I normally would be for the World Cup. But it probably beats watching City right now!
