Match Day Thread Hull City v Bolton Wanderers

HCST match report...

City’s poor run is ended. Harry Drew tells how we ground out a result (and why Tiger Feet was for once unwelcome).

A home fixture against the league’s bottom club was welcome following a short run of poor results. With one of Derby or Brighton guaranteed to drop points this was the perfect opportunity for City to make gains on the sides above them. Yet these games are seldom easy wins.

Steve Bruce made four changes to the side that lost at Leeds. The return of both Michael Dawson and David Meyler was a bonus, though Harry Maguire was unlucky to miss out. Chuba Akpom regained his place up front in place of Sone Aluko and Curtis Davies came in for the injured Alex Bruce. Adama Diomande (remember him?) featured in the squad for the first time, but had to settle for a place on the bench.

It was the visitors who made the better start in challenging conditions at the KC. Midfielder Neil Danns shot wide from 20 yards out early on and City initially struggled to get a foothold on the game. However, they eventually began to dominate possession and took the lead on 19 minutes.

Clucas received the ball on the left and delivered for Elmohamady at the far post. The Egyptian’s left-footed volley was blocked on the line but Chuba Akpom followed up and claimed his first Championship goal for almost two months. The unalloyed joy around the stadium was short-lived as the dreaded goal music was foist upon a less than sympathetic home crowd. It would be surprising if this unwelcome feature of modern football returns given the hostile reaction it received on Saturday afternoon.

Perhaps this deterred City from scoring again as the game turned into a scrappy affair deprived of any real quality. Just before half-time Elmohamady found space on the right-hand-side and crossed for Clucas who slid in, but put the ball well over the bar. This was the last action of a pretty uninspiring 45 minutes of football.

Nevertheless City were ahead and you felt that getting three points was all that really mattered in this match. This was threatened shortly after half-time when Mark Davies drove forward and teed up Neil Danns, who was unfortunate to see his shot come back off the post. City seemed to heed this warning as they didn’t give Wanderers much of a look-in for the rest of the game.

The Tigers should have got a second goal and killed off the match, but frustratingly they couldn’t do so. Akpom failed to convert a low cross from Elmohamady while Diomande could have made a dream debut had he done better with Snodgrass’ delivery. In injury time Jake Livermore worked some space for himself on the edge of the area and saw his shot deflected narrowly wide. 1-0 it finished.

This was far from a classic but having not won for over a month, any victory was welcome. City are back up to third in the table and their only worry will be over the injury Michael Dawson picked up late on. He will be assessed during the week and Steve Bruce will certainly be hoping that it isn’t anything serious. Otherwise, we can all look forward to a first ever trip to the New York Stadium on Saturday.

 

The Yorkshire Post were less than impressed...

Hull City 1 Bolton: Akpom in to atone as Tigers win turgid encounter

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GRIM, wretched, colourless and dreary – and it was nothing to do with the elements either.

Hull City’s turgid spectacle with rock-bottom Bolton Wanderers was not one that will live long in the memory, although thankfully for the Tigers, there was one development which at least ensured Saturday was not a total washout.

It was provided by Chuba Akpom, with the young Londoner witnessing a volte-face in fortunes seven days on from his headed miss at a key point of Hull’s 2-1 loss at Leeds United when it looked easier to score.

The loanee was on hand to clinically fire home the rebound after Ahmed Elmohamady’s volley was blocked on the line by David Wheater, 19 minutes into Saturday’s dour encounter at the rain-lashed KC Stadium.

Hull, after a run of three league games without a win and two successive losses, made seriously heavy weather of confidence-sapped opponents, who arrived with their chins on the floor after a desperate week – Wanderers being issued with a winding-up order by the HMRC for unpaid taxes amounting to £600,000 on Thursday.

Bolton – whose staff were also not paid last month – headed east with a truly abject return of two points from a possible 27 on their bleak travels this term, with no away victory to since April. You could tell.

They seemed the perfect opponents for Hull to halt their mini dip. But given a performance when City were dragged down to the lame levels of anaemic opponents who appear destined for League One on this evidence, you would not have thought so.

At least Akpom momentarily lifted the bleakness and while the mood of Steve Bruce, after giving his players a tongue-lashing following a shoddy performance at Elland Road, will not have been significantly improved, he will have been grateful for small mercies.

In the final analysis, on a day when Brighton, Derby, Middlesbrough and Burnley dropped points, it could turn out to be a very important three points for Hull.

For Akpom, who netted for the first time since October 20, with all his three Championship goals having come at the KC, it was also a keynote occasion, too, after fluffing his lines at Elland Road.

With Adama Diomande now finally in the fray following his injury hell, after making his debut from the bench and fellow striker Abel Hernandez back in the reckoning shortly, it was a timely nudge in the direction of Bruce ahead of the busy festive period.

Akpom, brought into the side in place of Sone Aluko, omitted from Bruce’s 18, said: “I was gutted after Leeds. But the next day, I forgot about it and was on the training ground working hard.

“You can’t dwell on those kind of things or else you will go crazy.

“You have to stay on your toes and keep working hard and be hungry. If I am not playing, there’s another good player who is going to fill in for me.

“It’s good to get that competitive streak in me and show the gaffer why I should be playing every week and to work hard in training to show him that.”

On witnessing the angry side of Bruce the previous week, he added: “I heard he had a bad side.

“But because he’s such a nice guy, you don’t really see it. But now I have seen it, you want to get the three points to stay on his good side.

“But he’s a fair guy and if you are not playing well, he will let you know. If you are playing well, he will also tell you and that’s how it should be.”

In the midst of their longest winless streak – 13 games – since February, 1980, confidence was, not expectedly, difficult to detect in Bolton’s ranks and while Bruce had a few concerns ahead of the game, they paled into insignificance in comparison to those of Neil Lennon.

His Wanderers side lacked attacking gumption in a poor first half, while moments of home quality – usually conjured by either Andrew Robertson or Sam Clucas – were fleeting, although it was from down their left from which the breakthrough came.

Akpom neatly played in the overlapping Clucas, whose centre picked out Elmohamady and while Wheater got in the way of his instant low hooked volley, the respite was temporary with the Arsenal forward firing home the rebound.

It should have provided the platform for Hull to kick on, but it palpably did not.

Bolton brought their first offerings to the table just after the restart and it provided Hull with a warning with Mark Davies teeing up Neil Danns, whose shot on the turn struck the post.

Guilty of a poor final option or pass, despite gorging on plenty of territory for much of the second period, Hull proved their own biggest enemies, with the patchy display of referee Michael Bull compounding the frustrations of tetchy home supporters.

A second goal stubbornly refused to transpire. In truth, Hull did not deserve one. Or need one.

The arrivals from the bench of Robert Snodgrass – for his first home outing since his epic injury lay-off – and Diomande at least brought a moment of warmth for the Tigers faithful.

Half-chances fell to Livermore and Diomande, and a free-kick in a dangerous position was wasted by Snodgrass.

At the other end, Bolton’s only pertinent moment saw Scott Dobbie test McGregor from distance.

The game subsequently petered out, with three Championship points from a forgettable afternoon at least providing substance.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/spor...-win-turgid-encounter-1-7621901#ixzz3uI3ldksN

 

The Tigers are currently waiting on news on the injury sustained by Michael Dawson during Saturday’s win against Bolton Wanderers.

Dawson pulled up five minutes from time before limping off to be replaced by Harry Maguire, although Assistant Manager Mike Phelan was quick to stress that it wasn’t a repeat of the hamstring problem that had kept Dawson out of the previous three games.

“We’ll assess it because the medical staff are always a little cagey when a player comes off – they don’t want to give a verdict too soon,” said Phelan.

“I think it was either a kick or a twist in the knee area and hopefully it won’t be too bad.

“It’s a different injury to what he had last time. It’ll be assessed and we’ll see where we go from there.”

http://www.hullcitytigers.com/news/...-injury-news-2850576.aspx#sJdPWECI5ARl1IAx.99