Hull 2 City 1
Written by Kate Thompson
Since breaking my ankle in July, this was my first away game of the season and, on paper, it should have been a tasty one. The Hull fans certainly played their part, with their almost constant chants of ‘greedy b*****d’, ‘Judas’, etc against Nigel Pearson but sadly the game was not much to write home about.
I am delighted that Pearson has returned and think that the club, under its former management, treated him very badly. He may say that he doesn’t have unfinished business but he was never given the chance to take the club further.
Anyway, the match. City started brightly, attacking the goal in front of the City fans – who were there in great numbers as usual. But that all changed when Matt Mills was sent off after half an hour; it was at the other end and few of us knew what had happened and had to wait to see it on the BBC.
Having done so, I thought the red card was harsh and the Hull player seemed to dive to me. But still, my opinion is meaningless! It was inevitable that Matty Fryatt, one of two former Leicester players in the Hull team, should score the resultant penalty.
Pearson immediately took off Beckford and replaced him with St Ledger; this was probably a sensible move but for once I felt sorry for Beckford, who had been trying quite hard.
Konchesky’s equalizer just before half-time was well taken, after the Hull goalkeeper saved from Nugent who had the goal at his mercy, and City appeared to cope with being a man down.
The second half was a different matter, as they rarely crossed the halfway line. On several occasions Schmeichel pulled off a fantastic save and the game had 1-1 written all over it, a score that I would have taken at that point.
But two minutes from the end of normal time, Koren (a one-time target for Leicester) scored in the corner and there was no way back. I feel that City could have done more to put pressure on Hull but there was little sign of it.
Sadly, too many players had poor or average games and Wellens in particular was very disappointing. He is one of my favourite players but he couldn’t seem to get going and some of his passes were awful. But he was not the only one and players like King and Dyer only played well in patches. And Gallagher did his ‘headless chicken’ routine when he came on in place of Danns.
I would be interested to know what Pearson made of it. He defended the players but it seemed to me that he ignored Mills when he went off, so I guess he was not best pleased with him.
I sincerely hope he knows the solution because we can’t afford many more slip-ups like yesterday and the sooner the inconsistency is sorted the better. But if anyone can do it, then Pearson can; I just hope it is not too late for a late surge, after all both the front runners lost yesterday so the league is still wide-open.
Hull: Gulacsi, Rosenior, Chester, Hobbs, Dawson; Evans (Dudgeon 87), McKenna, Koren, Mclean, Stewart, Fryatt. Unused subs: Basso, Cairney, McShane, Adebola.
Leicester: Schmeichel, Peltier, Mills, Bamba, Konchesky, Danns (Gallagher 63), King, Wellens, Dyer, Beckford (St Ledger 30), Nugent (Fernandes 68). Unused subs: Weale, Howard.
Attendance: 20,148 Referee: Simon Hooper (Wiltshire)
The views expressed in this report are the opinions of the Trust member nominated to file the report only and do not represent the views of the Foxes Trust organisation