Hull 1-3 Millwall

Match Report

If we can’t beat those teams around us in the playoffs, then we don’t deserve to be up there at all. And today proved we are not play-off material as we fell to a shocking 1-3 loss to play-off contenders Millwall. They did not even play particularly well, we just gave it away in the second half and paid the price for not taking our chances. We could have ran away with it in the first half as well; we were by far the better side. But, in typical City fashion, we let go of another game that should have easily been ours to win. We had 23 shots overall and only one counted.

Alex Neil’s side came into the match with four wins and one defeat in their last five matches and sat just above us in the league in fourth. For us, we had lost three and won two of our last five matches as we struggle to pick up any form.

The manager made four changes to the starting eleven from the defeat to Ipswich in the mid-week game. Ajayi, Lundstram, McBurnie and Drameh came on for Amir, Famewo, Koumas and Egan. That meant in our usual 4-2-3-1 formation, we lined up as follows: Pandur between the poles; Coyle, Ajayi, Hughes and Drameh as the back four; Slater and Lundstram as defensive midfielders; Millar, Gelhardt and Joseph in the middle; with McBurnie leading the line.

After a promising and energetic start, our first opportunity came in the 6th minute. Lundstram played a quick free kick which he passed to Gelhardt in the centre of pitch. He teed up Joseph to his right, but with bodies in the way his shot failed to go anywhere near the goal. He doesn’t give up though and picked up the free ball; this time his shot took a deflection and went out for a corner.

Then in the 11th minute Joseph got even closer. A great attack starting down the middle with a few intricate passes, got the ball to Lundstram on the right-hand edge of the box. He looked up and chipped a perfectly weighted ball to Joseph, whose header crashed onto the bar.

But, after all the hard work, it was the visitors who opened the scoring—from another set piece, something we are very susceptible to this season. In the 14th minute a challenge on their player was given from the left-hand side of the box. A beautifully curled ball towards the back-post was headed upwards, and Cooper’s subsequent header hit the crossbar and crashed up into the roof of the net.

We drew level in the 19th minute to silence those in the away corner. A ball goes astray to their keeper after a misjudged pass by Drameh, but Joseph’s press forced the keeper to make a misplaced kick. It landed back to our player, who passed it up towards the edge of the box, where three players in amber awaited. Three passes allowed Joseph to play through Gelhardt in on goal, and one-on-one with their keeper, he slotted it into the back of the net.

We found the back of the net again in the 30th minute after a header from Joseph hit the bar and went in. However, the ref blew for a foul on their keeper as he apparently jumped on top of him and knocked the ball out of his hands— it was disallowed. This came moments after a challenge on McBurnie in the box which was not given for a penalty. Where do they get these referees from?

It was all us for the rest of the half, save for a few set-pieces from them, but nothing came from them. We hit the bar three times in the first 45 minutes, had 13 shots with 4 hitting the target and 51% of the possession. It was one of the most enjoyable halves of the season, and hopefully the same followed in the second half—this time, it would be nice if we scored a few more goals. Oh, how wrong I was.

The second half started slower than the first, but we were the most dominant side. We had an early chance after McBurnie’s header went wide after a Lundstram cross in the 52nd minute. After this, it became scrappy, and we were relentlessly attacking their half of the pitch. We all felt a goal was coming. Again, how wrong could I be?

In similar fashion to the first goal we conceded, there second came out of the blue. We had control over the ball, and had all the chances, however they had an attack in the 70th minute and scored. The ball was was played out to the right chanel, and a low cross was played across the box. Pandur came out to claim it, but it went straight through his hands and Ivanovic slotted it into an open net.

Dynamics changed after this as they went two to the good in the 78th minute. We were playing it out from the back, but Ajayi’s pass to Hughes was weak and Coburn picked it up the loose ball, ran into the box and struck it into the bottom left corner of the net. How on earth were we 1-3 down?

We made some changes and tried to find a way to get back into it, but found it difficult as Millwall put every man behind the ball and parked the bus. What first started out as a hopeful game which we could take something from, turned out to be a disappointing defeat.

Let’s not take away that first half performance, however it needed to be backed up by a similar second half; it wasn’t. We handed it to them on a plate, and we are now at risk of being leapfrogged in the table by Wrexham, who will be our next game on Tuesday night. So not only can they overtake us, but can form a three point gap if they win on Tuesday. We are in such a vulnerable position, but we only have ourselves to blame.