So I've had a little time to muse and read the newspaper reports. Many of them (e.g. Express) exclaim that in the first 20 minutes we "blew them away" playing like Chelsea. Almost all reports say how brilliant MacGregor was, and Davies as well. I would say the "blew them away" comments are a little bit OTT. We were excellent and we were playing them off the park, but there were still sloppy passes and errors. However, what is immediately obvious is that, with 11v11 we were the better team (we were with 11v10 too, but that doesn't count). Firstly, the questionable, though IMO almost justified (if the ref was to give us an equal penalty too) penalty decision knocked the stuffing out of us. Heads went down. Nobody seized the game by the scruff of the neck - I thought Elmander was impressive in at least trying to do this when he came on. This is what needs to be remedied - we can't have a team who feel sorry for themselves every time a decision goes against. We should know by now that it is an incredibly common occurrence. And then the red card. This actually, quite clearly, helped Hull no end. Without it, they would have been committed to attacking and getting a little stretched. It's frustrating, because their tactics from then on we're so straight forward - we've seen it before like when Chelsea beat Barcelona. A team of ten men defending is, unsurprisingly, harder to break down than a team of nine men defending and two attacking. The timing was awful for the red too. That doesn't alter the fact that we still should have won, but it is worth highlighting before we aim too many criticisms. Finally, MacGregor was outstanding. I'd say he saved two certain goals and his decision making with crosses was excellent too. We have a team more than capable of beating Hull convincingly, and MacGregor too, but we ought to have got ourselves into positions which were more difficult for him - shooting through defenders, or closer in.
I've read a few different threads to get a Norwich view point of the game, this is possibly one of the comments i agree with mostly. The "blew them away" part is OTT in my opinion, i actually thought that it was quite a close and fair game up untill the penatly decision, but for me it shoul never have been a pentaly. There was a little contact between Turner and Sagbo but nothing to warrent a penalty. Given that and the fact the ball must have been 4 or 5 feet above where the incident took place if it was the other way around i would feel agreived. If ours was a penalty then Davis on Turner 5 minutes later should also have been one. After that point i would agrere that your heads did seem to drop a little. I was expecting a resurgance after the red for Sagbo but you did need seem to lift at all during the first half. From the red untill half time i thought we looked ok. In the second half it was a case of attack vs defense. You got to grip with the game a lot more and was obvious to myself and the others around me that CH had given them a rocket at half time. 45 mins camped in our half provided little fruit of clear scoring chances. The one that does stick out is the header from wolfswinkel (I think it was him) where Mcgregor pulled off a worldy. You had a lot of possession and we had to work very very hard to keep our shape and try and deflect your attacks. If anything it looked like you could have done with someone in midfield to really take the game to us and probe us. Redmond IMO was your best player untill he was subbed. I think a draw overall would have been a fair result as in the second half any possession in your half was at a premium. However, i would say that i was personally very pleased with the way we dug in after going a man down. I'm sure we will play alot better than that over the season and end up getting thumped. We do try to play attractive football but after going a man down and you putting the pressure on it was virtually impossible for us to string 3 passes together, nevermind muster a flowing attacking move. Lastly would just like to wish anyone who reads this good luck for the rest of the season, minus the return to carrow road obviously!
From a Hull City perspective, I thought that the first 20 minutes or so you settled very well and looked far more threatening. However we looked like we'd clicked for the few minutes or so leading to the penalty, we'd just had Livermore through 1 on 1 (albeit in a wide position) and had started causing problems for your full backs. The penalty changed the game obviously and it was very soft, but I'd agree with Bruce and say it was clumsy. Turner was in the wrong position and Sagbo had every right to go down, but we wouldn't be complaining too loudly if it hadn't been given... What must be disappointing for you guys is that the red card SHOULD have been another game changer, but your players seemed to think that they didn't need to make it so. They were happy passing it amongst the defenders which stretched our front 2 but we still maintained our midfield 3 and defensive 4 who were happy to sit and wait for you to attack them. At half time we dropped Brady back even deeper and played 441 but even then your players lacked creativity, Snodgrass was frankly bullied by Figueroa from the moment he came on and Elmohamady had control of his man so well that when Rosenior came on they left Elmo as the right back and put him in front despite him being the natural full back out of the 2. Fact is your guys should have known that as soon as we went down to 10 we were going to be happy to play with men back and look to counter when safe, but they seemed to think that because we had 10 men they would naturally get chances without having to think too expansively. It was naive and I hope for your sakes that they've learnt a lesson, which I'm sure they have. All the best for the season lads
That's a pretty fair assessment although it does ignore the fact that our penalty shout was at least as legit as the one that was given.Hull's single best piece of luck was that the RvW header was where it was.A foot either side and it would have been an equaliser.
Hanson on motd said that if the pen against turner was given then the Davies one should have been given too Real shame that Fer didn't hit that early header on target as mcgregor was beaten Lets move on to bury in the cup
Haven't seen the pen shout for you guys as I was in the north stand (same as you boys), a lot of city fans that have watched MotD are saying there was no contact but then they would... It doesn't change the fact that your players lacked any real creativity and didn't seem to want to take any risks against a team that was blatantly not interested in attacking much. That's inexcusable as far as I'm concerned.
I think that's the point that there was no contact on either.If they were given games would end up 10-10 with twenty pens.
fair enough, as I've only seen one I can only comment on one though. I thought Turner was on the wrong side of Sagbo and he had every right to go down, if the ref hadn't given it I would have forgotten about it by now so that says it all really. I guess if he hadn't given it you guys would have forgotten about the Davies claim too
I have to say what a breath of fresh air it was to hear Brucie backing the ref in the red card incident, if you are going to do something like that, at least make contact and hurt the bugger! It wasn't until MOTD that I actually saw the head movement by Sagbo, to be fair the ref had an unobstructed view of it!
You do realise that's the second home league game in a row we've had one In fact it must only have been about half an hour in match time after the last one
I think the penalty was a bit strange but throughout the season every team is going to get some of those sorts of calls going for them and some going against them. Turner was clumsy anyway and shouldnt have even given the ref a chance to give a penalty. These matches happen, and Hull looked very sturdy at the back which I was impressed with, and of course once they were down to ten and a goal up their gameplan was all that they could really do. We were poor but I think our big players will eventually grow into form.If we had scored early in the second alf it may have given us some momentum to suddenly be clinical in attack, but we didnt and you sensed the longer the game went on the less likely we were to score as players started to panic and try too hard to force an opening and therefore losing possession all the time. IMO its best to get performances like that out of the way early in the season anyway and slowly build some form, there is plenty of time for us to make up any points we thought we should have gained from that match.
What I mean is he has the right to claim for a pen as there was contact, the decision is the ref's to make so by going down he's basically telling the ref that he feels he was fouled. If he stays on his feet then he's been disadvantaged in his attempt to get to the ball (he was closer than most people seem to think) but the ref would potentially play advantage if he manages to touch it. Fairly long winded explanation I know, but that's why I shortened it to "had the right to go down"
I forgot about Prossy's, but he missed anyway, so it doesn't count... The point still stands though, over the past few seasons we've barely had any penalties, I think Palace got all ours last season.
i've got to say i like how reasoned and civilized the discussion of the games talking points is here. I think a lot of people on the hull board and talking about norwich as if we are full of rubbish players and doomed to play as badly for the rest of the season. We had a very bad day, but as a team we've played 76 premier league games in the last 2 years, i'd back us to improve! Someone even suggested snodgrass has always been rubbish, clearly not aware how impressive he was all of last year. As others have said elsewhere, hull showed an impressive defensive cohesion for a newly promoted club, much more so than i think we showed when we got back up. Should help them no end this year.
@St-Louis Tiger One of your biased journalists really needs to take his Tiger-tinted glasses off This is pure, unadulterated crap. That's not exaggeration, it's bare-faced lying.
I wouldn't read too much into the Snodgrass comments, there's a bit of history there. When he was at Leeds, he whinged and dived his way to several free kicks and elbowed one of our players, he's one of least popular players at our place, as anyone who was at the game will have noticed. He got dogs abuse from the minute he came on and rightly so, he's earned that abuse, he was a disgrace to football in a couple of the games against us.
Where's that from? (no local journalist is a Hull City fan, it's a regular bone of contention here) The definitive comments on the penalty calls are a bit over the top, but other than that, it's not that bad. The comments on Turner are accurate, he bought us a fair few decisions, don't forget, he played far more games for us than he has for you.
Here's the article in full: http://metro.co.uk/2013/08/25/hull-...r-hearts-will-have-packed-up-by-may-3936821/? Credit to Davies, Chester and MacGregor for battling so hard to protect your lead after so long with just 10 men but how lame were we not to be able to fashion a way through. Enjoy your season
