Well, that’s more like it. Yesterday, Hull beat Blackburn Rovers 3-2 in our own backyard, under the lights of the MKM Stadium. We certainly needed those three points, which have put us right back up into the top 6, which is great heading into the New Year. Also, I have a smidgen of hope going to Hillsborough on Monday. However, I do not want to get too excited yet.
Rovers were just behind us a few games ago, however, heading into this match, they have lost three on the trot, winning just one game in their previous five matches. For us, we fell to a 3-2 defeat to Bristol last week and then a 1-0 defeat at home to Sunderland on Boxing Day. We really needed to win this one.
Rosenior did not make any changes to the starting eleven, which lost against Sunderland, save for Adama Traore coming in for Scott Twine. That meant we lined up as follows, in a 4-4-2 formation: Matt Ingram, between the sticks; Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Regan Slater as the back line; Ozan Tufan, Adama Traore, Tyler Morton and Jean Seri anchoring the middle and the fierce Liam Delap and Aaron Connolly leading the line.
The first half certainly was not uneventful and it was probably the best first half I have seen all season; we came out energetic, hungry and eager to win. Thus, it did not take us long to get our first goal. In the 11th minute, Liam Delap received the ball on the right flank from Jones, where he took the ball to the dead ball line, before cutting into the box, outmanoeuvring his men and from a tight angle, smashing it into the back of the net. But, our celebrations were not finished. In the 18th minute, we went two ahead; after passing it around at the back, Greaves spotted a run from Connolly and he played an excellently weighted pass over the top, where Connolly took it down neatly before dinking it into the far-right corner of the net.
Alas, this did not stop Blackburn in their tracks and they did not give up. Consequently, after pressuring us for a long period, they reduced the deficit. In the 33rd minute, Sirgurdsson’s punt through the middle confused Jones and Greaves and Szmodics was able to run onto the ball, who spotted Ingram off his line before expertly chipping it over him to earn his 15th goal of the season.
Annoyingly, we ran out of gas after this goal and we did not really test Wahlstedt, their keeper. I do not understand why we did this, surely we would be trying to increase the advantage back to two? I mean, we defended superbly, but when we got the ball back, they just took it from us and we did not look to create anything. But, in the last minute of extra time, they were rewarded for their 62% of possession. On the 48th minute mark, Pickering was played into the penalty area on the overlap and his shot took a slight deflection off Coyle before hitting the back of the net. A shame, really, given that we had a two nil cushion.
The second half was similar to the first half of most home matches this season; few goals, tedious and a lot of passing. On the other hand, we were the better side and, despite Blackburn having the better share of possession, we used our time wisely, just like Sunderland did during the week. Eventually, after a buildup of corners and pressure, we silenced the away supporters, who were pretty good, by regaining our lead. In the 63rd minute, Tyler Morton swung in a dangerous ball from a corner, which Blackburn made a mess off in the box, resulting in it falling to Jones, who turned and rolled it into the net.
It is safe to say that substitutions, the cold and a red card for the visitors allowed the game to slowly fade out and I won’t bore you with the details. In due course, the referee blew his whistle and we took all the points.
We are not back to our best, but we are getting there and we have a good opportunity to show it on Monday, when we face Sheffield Wednesday, who are second from bottom, at their ground. But, I said the same before we faced QPR and we got beat 2-0. Let’s not repeat that because, apparently, the following has gone up to around 4,000, which is the biggest away crowd I have been in. Please, just please bloody win and don’t let us all down (especially after paying a fortune for the tickets).