Match report

Video clips

• Hull's two goals (1 Mb)

Hull battled every inch of the way to clinch a 2-0 victory over Swansea at Boothferry Park.

Warren Joyce's men were in control throughout and thoroughly deserved to take the lead through David Brown just before the interval.

Hull's headed opener from a corner

Swansea's hopes of getting back into the game were killed off by Jamie Wood early in the second half.

And Hull produced a stern defensive display for the remainder of the game to shut out the Swans.

Back in the early nineties I attended an away game at Mansfield, which finished in a 2 - 0 defeat. That game has always stuck in my mind as one of our most inept performances ever, where we did not create a single scoring chance during the course of the game. That day has now been surpassed, as our performance yesterday was possibly the worst I have ever witnessed from a Swansea team.

Rocked early on by the loss of our only creative player, Steve Watkin, we never managed to gain any shape, pattern or composure in our game. This was probably compounded by the absence of Appleby, who might at least have brought some penetration to our game. As the first half meandered on, 5000 people gaining cricked necks from witnessing an aerial contest to rival the Battle of Britain, it became very apparent that one goal for Hull would probably be enough - a sad conclusion to reach after 20 minutes in which we had not even mustered a corner, let alone threatened the opposition goal.

The Hull strike duly came, shortly before half time, when the impressive Brown nodded home from close range, an effort which was admired by the Hull contingent and by our centre half partnership who preferred to watch rather than intervene, though the problem was worsened by the conspicuous absence of our wannabe right-back Jason Price. Our response from the kick off was to boot the ball out of play, which rather summed up the half.

At half time Jones replaced Roberts to allow Price to move forward (into the only position in which he can actually play a bit). The opening three seconds of the second half saw some renewed effort and vigour, until Coates gave the ball away again, and suddenly we found ourselves under a spell of immense pressure, during which we repeatedly failed to clear our lines. Having survived that period, it was only a matter of time before the shooting practice which we were giving Hull resulted in a second goal. This came when Wood cut inside Howard down our left side, and with no interference from anyone else, drove a high shot into Freestone's near post which Roger waved into the corner of the net.

At this point, for the first time in 25 years of watching the Swans, I sat down at the back of the terracing and stopped watching the game. There was no point - I simply had to deal with the frustrating fact that there was absolutely no possibility whatsoever that we would score. This was the only certainty of the game.

Tommy Mutton gave a brief glimmer of hope with some enthusiastic froward running which forced a couple of late corners for us, the delivery of which simply gave catching practice to Lee Bracey in the Hull goal.

At the end the players trooped off to almost no reaction from the small Swansea contingent, most of whom could not even find the energy or enthusiasm to boo.

So why were we so bad?
1. Nothing in midfield. O'Leary shapes to do the right things, but never achieves them. He is not a midfielder and never will be. Thomas battled hard, but with no-one alongside him to pass the ball the ball effectively, his game running and tackling was wasted. Coates was totally ineffective and brushed off the ball every time. Roberts was double marked (having been identified as a danger man) and couldn't get in the game.
2. Alsop is having a mare - the only way we could get the ball forward was to by-pass the midfield and aim for Alsop's head. Most of the time he missed it. Bird's occasional flicks and touches, allied to his frustrated expressions, were reminiscent of most of the last two seasons, in which he has simply been totally ineffective.
3. Our defence was rocky - Smith and Bound seemed uncertain of each other, and we always concede goals when Price tries to play at full back.

Best performance of the day - Walter Boyd. By sitting on the bench he excited the Swans fans more than any other player. Hull were awful....but our away kit looked good.

Rays of hope? The return of Watkin and Appleby; the fact that we know we can play much better than this; the defeat at Exeter last year on the Saturday before we played and beat a premiership club - maybe that was the plan?! Oh well...it can only get better from here...I hope!