Thinks We Think We Think #159

1. Any draw is a good draw if you are an injury-hit City playing away at Liverpool, and there was something bordering on the heroic about the team’s determination to keep their hosts at bay on Saturday.

2. That’s two points from trips to Arsenal and Liverpool. Given the whinging by Arsenal last week and the emphasis on Liverpool’s profligacy this week, we do wonder if anyone else but us has noticed how well Steve Bruce’s side have played.

3. Let’s warm to Eldin Jakupović. He does have that kamikaze streak in him that stops some fine goalkeepers from being great ones, but he is a most capable stopper, organiser and clutcher of high-velocity, airborne footballs. He even splits the AN hierarchy – some want him to have the solar iron ball treatment, others think he’s probably better than Steve Harper – but in our hour and a half of need, he delivered.

4. It was also nice to see fringe players not only get their chance at Anfield, but take those chances well. Alex Bruce and Robbie Brady were excellent, and it was a decent late cameo from Sone Aluko too.

5. Bruce’s typically committed “defender’s defender” display makes us mourn Michael Dawson’s injury a little less than we do for that of Nikica Jelavić, of whom we simply hope that six weeks of enforced absence doesn’t make him grumpy or unfocussed. There’s no worse time to lose an ace goalscorer than just when they’re proving truly ace at scoring goals.

6. It’s easy to ridicule the person spotted wearing a half-City-half-Liverpool shirt in the away end on Saturday. We’re just sorry that person chose to disrespect Steve Bruce and the team by wearing Liverpool red in the part of the ground reserved for Hull City fans. And as for the half-and-half scarves…

6b. We’re quite alright with revising our views in the face of a well constructed and reasoned argument, but no argument can ever be made that will change our views on half-and-half scarves. We got a bit of slavver from someone for deriding them last year, but so be it. If you’re a City fan, wear City colours, not those of our opponents, and so what if you loved Liverpool as a kid and now deign to give City your money because you deem them good enough to suit you, club swapping isn’t something to brag about, it’s anathema to those of us who’ve supported our local team all our lives, regardless of how **** they were.

7. Southampton at home, then. Tough one for the usual reasons, as well as the additional curveball thrown by a brilliant start to the campaign from a Saints side people assumed would struggle after their massive summer selling festival. They are *always* good against us, and it’s a courageous soul who thinks City at home to Southampton equals obvious victory.

8: We attended the latest fans’ working group meeting last week, and one query we’ve heard a few times is whether they’re going to achieve anything or whether they’re worth giving up our time for. A fair question, particularly given that the club has pointedly refused to listen to the majority on the major issue of our time, though we remain hopeful and open-minded. The squabble over the club’s preference for using the Huddersfield Town “#UTT” and banishing the formerly used “#hcafc” strikes us as an interesting guage as to whether opinions will be listened to and acted upon. It’s an aggravating but essentially minor point, and one the club can easily act upon to demonstrate that it does care what people think. We’ll watch with interest, because it could tell us a lot about City’s willingness to work with fans.

9. For once, Ehab Allam’s ire with the footballing authorities seems justified. His irritation that Hull City AFC’s Academy cannot reach Category Two status until as late as 2016, despite only missing out recently by 2%, is a real pity. It’s a shame for City, whose youth system is still recovering from the hollowing-out it experienced way back in the 1990s, but also the Allams, whose investment in this essential component of a modern day football club is greatly underpraised. A rethink and a second chance for City to prove themselves would both welcome and consistent with the authorities’ assertions that they value long term sustainability and youth investment. On this, we are as one with Ehab Allam.

10. We’re pretty sure the club aren’t happy that it has taken until the end of October to get the third shirt on sale, but using ‘White Christmas’ as the marketing pitch caused the kit geek of our number to chortle.

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