One hour and fifty-five minutes. That’s how long it took for me to be sick of football. At least cricket and tennis don’t leave you feeling sick. It wasn’t a pretty performance by Hull City, in fact some of it was downright awful, but I still left the KC wondering how the hell we managed to lose.
Line-up: Gulacsi; Rosenior, Dudgeon, Chester, Hobbs ©; Koren, Brady, McKenna, Cairney; Adebola, Fryatt.
After a breathless opening ten minutes, the game settled into a pattern. High on endeavour, low on quality. City looking more likely to threaten but Blackpool taking a stranglehold on the midfield and making their extra man count. We pressed them and they gave up possession easily. Grandin was awful, he was most guilty, but their full-back’s and Keith Southern looked like “Olly” had told them that anyone could pass like Charlie Adam and that they should give it a go. So we were given the ball time and time again. We kept giving it back. Nigel Pearson will be missing clumps of hair tomorrow, I’m sure. They kept coughing up possession and we just handed it back.
I didn’t agree with the midfield selection. This isn’t hindsight, I twittered before the game. In my opinion, it should have been Evans in the middle with McKenna. I can understand the thinking behind Cairney, he’s had a great pre-season and you’d think that at home, when you are playing two wide players, he’ll be the one to pick them out. It didn’t work out though. He showed flashes of brilliance but he’s not tough enough to stand up against guys like Southern and Ferguson. It was made worse by the fact that they had Grandin floating around and Phillips dropping deep. We were outnumbered. At the very least Evans should have been introduced at half time to match up to them. Brady and Koren were both seriously ineffective first half, one could have been sacrificed or even Adebola.
Chances were at a premium in the first half. Cairney smacked a free-kick against the post from a ridiculous distance after Adebola and found Koren beautifully and he’d been bundled over. It was an incredible hit from TC and deserved more luck. With half time approaching Hobbs gave them the ball and Taylor-Fletcher fed Phillips who cracked the outside of our post. Chances really were that sparse. Both defences were on top but there was a real lack of quality around the box too. Adebola had a decent first half with some decent lay-off’s and sensible passes. He met his match in the air against Ian Evatt.
Adebola only lasted a minute of the second half. He didn’t get up after an innocuous looking fall so I suspect he was struggling at half time. Blackpool had already had a golden chance by that point, strolling through our defence, whose heads were still in the dressing room, and Grandin would have gone in on goal if not for a wonderful tackle by Robbie Brady. They nearly scored a few minutes later from a nothing free-kick into the box that Gulacsi came out for and got nowhere near. Their header dropped wide of an empty goal. It wasn’t the only time he missed a cross which is worrying but not as frustrating as watching him boot the ball high into the air for the twin towers, Matty Fryatt and Nick Barmby, to try and win. He’s got a touch of the Guzan’s about him.
After that, we clawed our way back in and the game was defined by a mental ten minute period. From nowhere, McKenna slid the ball from midfield to Fryatt who broke their stupidly high line and raced in on goal. He hit the point where a shot was wise and kept going and going until Baptiste nicked the ball off his toe. Then Brady picked the ball up on half way and lit the after burners, his race with Crainey was like watching a donkey race in the Epsom Derby. He put a tremendous low cross in with his right foot but Nick Barmby, clever as ever, made the right run but found himself 6 inches short of connecting. McKenna was put through but knocked over on the edge of the box. Should’ve been a free-kick, even though he wasn’t reaching the ball. The contact was deliberate. Then Cairney skips past two in midfield and slides the ball through, Fryatt latches onto it again and hesitates again allowing Gilks to smother his shot. Fryatt then leaves their defence for dead and slides across goal but Koren is a foot or two short this time. Finally Brady gives Crainey and Southern the run around and slides across for Cairney whose shot is blocked at the near post. A breathless spell.
Football is so, so boring in its predictability. If you miss a load of chances, you know exactly what happens. They go up the other end, work a nice move, play the ball over the top and Gary Taylor-Fletcher lashes the ball into the top corner. Probably the only time in the game that Dudgeon didn’t have Taylor-Fletcher tucked up in his back pocket. We weren’t equalising. It wasn’t our night. Fryatt went through for a third time and let them get in a last ditch tackle. Then Simpson, on for McKenna, went clean through and spooned the ball into row G of the South Stand.
I know pre-season is meaningless but considering ours was flawless; I didn’t really want to believe it. It’s true though. There were times in the first half when we looked like strangers, not guys who’d played 4 games together in the past month and spent a bunch of time on the training ground. Fryatt was sharp and quick last week and cumbersome tonight. Jack Hobbs looked hurried on the ball and unsure without it. Robert Koren, who’d pulled the strings throughout the practice matches, was MIA tonight.
It took Robbie Brady a while to get into the game, some of his first half work was school playground stuff, but once he’d come to terms with it he lit up the place. His ability to pick a ball at speed was very impressive. Liam Rosenior got at them in the first half but rarely went forward after the break. He looked to be limping at one point, which could be connected. Dudgeon is a little diamond in the rough, positioning was mostly sound, wasn’t afraid to make decisions, for himself and others, and was booked for flying into a challenge. He handled Taylor-Fletcher’s aerial threat easily. He looked poor on his right side; I think I’d prefer him to play one-footed until he’s worked on it. Lessons from Daws please! Chester was sound defensively but tried playing passes that a) he’s not capable of and b) there was no need to make.
McKenna showed plenty of fight but was fighting one against three at times. Cairney showed that he’s capable of something out of the ordinary but not capable of the ordinary. The stuff you’ve got to do for 90 minutes if you want to play central midfield. I still think he’s a luxury. Some won’t agree, that’s their right, but I think if you want to play 4 attacking players and attacking wing backs, you build a solid base in midfield. Disappointed too in Fryatt and Simpson. Fryatt was the one player I was sure we could rely on and he was way below par. Simpson’s on the outside looking in. He’s got to take chances if he wants to start.
It will be interesting to see what happens in defence if Ayala signs this week. Nigel Pearson has just handed the captaincy to Jack Hobbs but I think he’s the weakest defender of the three. Still, it’s a nice problem to have.
Shall I finish on a positive? In 2010/11, we started the season with a nice comfortable home win over a decent Swansea side and then had a mare. In 2007/08, we started with a poor home defeat to Plymouth Argyle and got promoted.
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