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Match report |
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Hull 1 - 0 Swansea City | |
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Many player ratings and comments
Perhaps this was because the two managers were preoccupied with nullifying their opponents' obvious attacking threats (before yesterday no team in England and Wales had managed more than their totals of 24 goals each). It certainly appeared that way during a cagey opening in which both sides were reluctant to commit too many men forward. Consequently, a goal only looked likely to occur from a mistake and, just six minutes in, Izzy Iriekpen's two errors in quick succession nearly led to one for Hull. First, he shockingly passed a free-kick along the halfway-line straight into touch (apparently expecting Richard Duffy to have advanced from his right-back position). Then he compounded this lapse by engaging in a debate with his colleague, thus losing concentration and allowing Danny Allsopp to nip in behind him to curl a shot round Roger Freestone but - to Iriekpen's immense relief - into the side-netting. Five minutes later and Duffy was culpable, slicing an attempted volleyed clearance over his own bar with Hull's Stuart Elliott lurking nearby. Before long though, Swansea, and in particular Leon Britton, were to trouble the home rearguard. Playing principally on the right wing - a position from which he tormented Hull during the sides' (in)famous last meeting - Britton decided to venture infield and dribbled menacingly towards Paul Musselwhite's goal before eventually running out of steam and/or ideas as he approached the penalty area. The midfielder soon found himself in the box however, when he ran on to Kevin Nugent's lay-off but his shot bobbled disappointingly wide, providing evidence of why, for all his many qualities, he has scored only once in 38 appearances. Hull responded shortly afterwards to come closest to opening the scoring. Following a prolonged spell of pressure in and around the visitors' box (that did not actually cause too much alarm), Ian Ashbee switched play to the right flank with a perceptive first-time volleyed pass. Waiting there was ex-Swan Jason Price whose knockdown found Ben Burgess, just to the right of the 'D', and he flicked the ball up before launching an audacious over-the-shoulder effort that a backpedalling Freestone just managed to tip over. There followed a lull in proceedings until, predictably, the speedy and skilful Elliott brought the game - and the record crowd of 20,903 - back to life at the midway point of the first half. Justin Whittle's strong tackle on the dangerous Andy Robinson flew 30 yards to land fortuitously at the feet of Hull's record buy near the left touchline. Knowing that Elliott had the beating of him, Duffy lunged in attempting to snuff out the threat straight away, but the Northern Ireland international comfortably evaded the challenge before boring down on goal, only to be thwarted by Freestone, low at his near post. In their next raid Elliott was again racing down the left wing, on his way to earning the corner from which he gave his side the lead with a powerful - and unmarked - header that flashed past the 'keeper before he could even think about diving. Immediately the Hull fans stole the "We are top of the league" chant from their counterparts, but those words almost stuck in their throats when directly from the restart, Nugent found space to fire in a low 25-yard drive that was pushed away at full stretch by Musselwhite. A riposte was vital for the Swans in order to demonstrate that they would not be intimidated into a mauling by the Tigers, such as that suffered by Kidderminster three days earlier. Indeed, Swansea once more went close to restoring the status quo after 40 minutes. A free-kick roughly 30 yards out seemed to be in Mark Wilson's shooting range and evidently that's what the Hull defence believed as well. Instead, he cleverly threaded a pass into the danger area which an orange sock just was able to divert before Lee Trundle could pounce, but as the ball dropped Lenny Johnrose jumped with the vertically-challenged home 'keeper on the six-yard line and the ball squirmed narrowly wide. Judging by the way Hull defended after the interval - higher up the pitch and in greater numbers - it appeared that Peter Taylor's half-time talk had been focussed on protecting their lead rather than extending it. But extend it they almost did after 55 minutes when it required an excellent point-blank save from Freestone to deny Allsopp from three yards out. Not long after the hour mark arrived yet more opportunities for the away side - and they could not have wished the chances to fall to a better man than the division's top scorer, Trundle. When Robinson's surging run was ended by a crude foul from behind by Price (that passed unpunished - possibly influenced by the large home following, referee L. Manton issued five yellow cards to Swansea players and just one to Hull), the alert Scouser quickly gathered the ball to release Trundle into the area and he reached it marginally ahead of Musselwhite but the keeper's presence proved sufficient to force the ball wide. One minunte later the Swansea crowd favourite went nearer still to his 11th of the season, but his header from a Wilson free-kick thudded against the crossbar. A brief scramble ensued which ended when Kristian O'Leary poked wide. Unfortunately, Swansea were to come no closer than that to getting the equaliser their performance deserved during the remaining thirty minutes, despite exerting considerable pressure on their hosts in the closing stages. That Hull were able to hold out was due in part to the reduction of Swansea to ten men for the final ten minutes. The hapless and harassed Duffy was shown a straight red card for a shuddering, bur fair, challenge on his nemesis, Elliott, as he sought to waste time near the corner flag. His contemptible play-acting was obviated as the similarly weak Mason produced his card instantaneously. Overall, however, Swansea can take encouragement from their display, in spite of the result (as was the case in previous defeats at Bristol City and Oxford), especially with the knowledge that they will soon be strengthened by the return from injury of the likes of Roberto Martinez, Jason Smith and Brad Maylett. Once that trio is back, the Swans can feel confident of transforming creditable performances into crucial wins against the teams around them to maintain their drive for promotion.
Hull City 1 Swansea City 0
The game started at a furious pace and with only two minutes gone, Nugent found his way into the referee's book for allegedly leading with his elbow when challenging for a high ball in the centre circle. Hull began to probe dangerously, and a through ball found one of their forwards clear on the edge of the area. His lob sailed over Roger's head, skimmed the post and hit the side netting. From the other end of the ground, it looked for a moment like the back of the net. The Jacks emitted a gasp and then a huge sigh of relief. A few minutes later, as Hull cranked up the pressure still further, a cross whipped in from the right forced Duffy to volley clear whilst facing his own goal, and the ball skimmed the Swans bar at high speed for a corner. More sighs of relief. After a frantic first 15 minutes, Hull began to run out of steam as their bluster brought no reward, and the Swans began to string together a few attacks of their own. Nugent chested down a cross into the path of Britton on the edge of the area, but his snap shot was woeful. Back went Hull on the attack, and a clever shot over the shoulder by Allsopp from the edge of the area saw Roger scrambling backwards to tip the ball away for a corner. The fierce midfield battle continued apace, and on 21 minutes Lenny Johnrose went sliding in to a tackle with studs showing, earning him a yellow card. Play was seesawing from end to end, but while the Swans couldn't seem to carve out any clear chances, with Trundle in particular marked out of the game, Hull started to look dangerous. First, their nippy forward Elliot broke through on the left and hit a low shot from fifteen yards, which Roger did well to turn away for a corner. Two minutes later, another corner brought them the lead. The ball was whipped across the six-yard box with pace, and Elliot met it with an unstoppable bullet header right in the middle of goal. The Swans defence appeared to have gone walk-about, and we were 1-0 down without really deserving it. The goal certainly galvanised the Swans, and we were almost level within a minute when Nugent received the ball on the edge of the box and hit a low shot destined for the bottom left corner, until Musselwhite got down to turn it round the post. As the lads turned up the tempo in their search for an equaliser, Duffy was yellow carded for dangerous kicking on the halfway line. Then the Swans were awarded a free kick forty yards out which Wilson shaped up to hit over the wall, but instead floated onto the head of Izzy in the six-yard box. As the keeper challenged him, the ball spun off his head and dropped agonisingly a foot wide of the post. The Swans piled on the pressure, with Robinson making incisive runs down the left, despite the attentions of two or three markers at a time. A chip forward finally found Trundle in half a yard of space, but as he burst into the penalty area, he was clearly elbowed in the face by a pursuing defender. Down he went, but the ref waved away all appeals. Trundle got back to his feet and began to remonstrate angrily with the guilty defender, nose to nose. The referee took exception, and Trundle became the fourth Swansea player to receive a caution, on the stroke of half time. The second half started with more end to end play as both sides struggled to gain the upper hand. On six minutes, a Hull player finally found his way into the ref's book, for bringing down Duffy. A minute later, a deep Hull cross dropped right onto the head of the big Australian centre forward Allsopp as he ran in on goal, but Roger stood up and pulled off an amazing reaction save a split second before the two collided, leaving the blonde Ozzie rolled around on the floor in agony before going off to receive treatment. Roger was unscathed. Wilson was the next player to see yellow, again for a sliding midfield challenge. The Swans were now going all out for an equaliser, and Robinson took a quick free kick to put Trundle through on goal with the defenders napping, but the keeper did just enough to put off the Swans top scorer, the ball rolling wide of the post. Two minutes later, another Wilson free kick into the heart of the Hull box saw Trundle's looping header hit the bar, and the rebound was scrambled wide. With fifteen minutes left, a mistake by the rapidly tiring Duffy put a Hull forward in on goal but Robinson tracked back to clear his goal-bound low shot at the expense of another corner. Moments later at the other end, a Johnrose shot narrowly cleared the Hull bar. With ten minutes to go, Duffy pushed the self destruct button when he clattered into a Hull player who had taken the ball into the corner for a bit of time wasting at the corner flag. The Hull player dropped to the ground pole-axed, twenty thousand spectators screamed, and out came the red card. The Swans had the better of the last ten minutes, but just couldn't find that elusive scoring touch, and finally went down to their third league defeat of the season. In summary, we were well organised defensively, played some nice passing football, but lacked that bit of bite in the last third. We missed Maylett in particular. Hull are a big, physical, workmanlike side, good defensively but not all that skilful, rather like Oxford. They should be there or thereabouts at the end of the season, but we needn't be afraid of them. Player ratings:
Keep your chin up, people, we deserved a point from this match but it wasn't our night. At least we got three points from our two game mini tour 'up North', and if we keep doing that, we won't be far away at the end.
Hull went top of the Third Division in front of 21,000 fans as Stuart Elliott's goal saw off previous leaders Swansea. Elliott headed home the deserved winner goal on 27 minutes, while Swansea's misery was compounded when Richard Duffy was sent off late on. Hull piled on the pressure in the early minutes and came desperately close to taking the lead when Andy Dawson released Danny Allsopp, who lobbed the ball into the side netting. Hull again came close when Stuart Green's cross was turned just over his own crossbar by Duffy. The home side did take the lead though when Dawson's outswinging corner was met by a thumping Elliott header from six yards. Swansea came out fighting in the second half though and twice hit the woodwork through Andy Robinson and Izzy Iriekpen as Hull were pegged backed for a spell. However, the home side imposed their dominance on the game again and Elliott and Allsopp both came close. In the dying minutes Duffy was shown a straight red card for clattering into Elliott and Hull cruised to the final whistle to record their third straight win.
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