Christmas has just passed, Hull City announced over 19,000 tickets had been sold and we were facing a team that are below us in the league. What could go wrong?
Ugh, Another draw. Following the World Cup, we have consistently been drawing: Watford at their ground; Sunderland last week, at home, and now against struggling Blackpool. It is good that we are unbeaten; however, we should have more points on the board.
We are now 21st in the table, with only two points separating us from being in the relegation zone. It is not a good position to be in to be honest, and with the way we have been playing recently I feel like we should be higher. We desperately need to turn these draws into wins because at the end of the day it is two points lost, and a chance blown to climb further up the table.
Earlier in the week they announced that forward, Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, would be fit to play, and on hearing this news I was very pleased because he is another attacking weapon that we need. Especially with Pelkas out for three months, he is a great replacement and he has come back at a vital time. Another player back in training, from being injured, Is Benjamin Tetteh. Now, I have no idea when his return will be; however, it is great news. The team has struggled without these two players, and I am excited to see what happens in the fixtures to come.
The team had two changes since our clash with Sunderland. And, it now meant that the team consisted of: Matt Ingram (in goal); Alfie Jones; Cyrus Christie; Sean McLoughlin; Jacob Greaves (as the back four); Jean Seri; Ozan Tufan; Ryan Woods (as the middle three); Ryan Longman; Oscar Estupinan and Regan Slater (as the three forwards). Very strong squad; good to see Tufan start and Alfie Jones makes a return after an illness. On the bench for us was: Lewie Coyle; Tobias Figueiredo; Greg Docherty; Allahyar Sayyadmanesh; Dogukan Sinik; Tyler Smith and Lo-Tutala.
In the first period, the atmosphere was far better than last week’s and for the first 20 minutes we took control of the game. Some great chances were created, passing was excellent, especially switching the play, and every player was brilliant. The one problem is that we need to finish. We had the ball delivered into the box on numerous occasions, and yet somehow we could not stick it in the back of the net. There are plenty of black and amber shirts to do the job so I see no reason why we should not be scoring more. It seems that the players have no confidence, or they have no clue on what to do with the ball – sometimes it turns into pinball in the box.
The defence was the same as always; passing from goalkeeper to defender and allowing the Blackpool attackers to pressure them. This is what led to a cheap goal. Matt Ingram took too long on the ball, got pressured, made a loose pass and the Blackpool attacker was able to take the ball and shoot near the edge of the box. To be fair, It was a great goal; however, it was a stupid mistake by Ingram, he should have just cleared the ball. Great, 1-0 down when we had been the much stronger side – how ironic. We responded well, though, and created decent opportunities. But, nothing came of them and we were heading into the second half trailing.
I have no idea why we were behind. We had the opportunities, and yet we just wasted them. Everything else is top quality; the build up to the play; we just need to finish it off. Once we do this more and more, we will gain confidence and have the ability to do it to every opponent we face.
In the second half, it was pure domination from us. We had 68% possession compared with their 32%. We seriously needed to make something of it. All of that time on the ball, and we only scored one goal. It is absurd, and it shows that we can win games on possession instead of goals. Last week our manager, Liam Rosenior, stated in the reaction video that we needed a bit of luck. We certainly got that in this game as in the 53rd minute Jordan Thorniley was shown a red card. Oscar won the one v one with him and all he had left was to beat the keeper. He was about to shoot when he dragged him down. This frustrated me, as we could have equalised early into the half. It was a bit déjà vu this game; concede first and have the opposing team down to ten men. All we needed to do was score, and it would have been a close replication of the Sunderland game.
After the red card was shown, we brought on our three main players: Sayyadmanesh; Sinik and Coyle who made a huge impact on the game. Sayyadmanesh and Sinik worked well on the wings and they looked very threatening whenever they had the ball. sixteen minutes after they were brought on, we finally equalised and it was coming. Lewie Coyle crossed the ball into the box, and Oscar Estupinan was there to make the net ripple. It was great to see him score as he has been a bit quite recently, and that certainly will boost his confidence. We created so many chances after this goal, and we could have scored more to be honest. Blackpool had a couple of chances; however, they failed to score. The game ended 1-1, and it was another point that we could have turned into three.
Towards the last 15 minutes of the game the referee was very poor. With Blackpool having a team of ten men, they would have wanted to kill the game. And, this is exactly what the referee allowed them to do. Blowing his whistle for every challenge – even when they were clean – allowing the players to waste time and he gave everything Blackpool’s way. It was a shame really because I was going to praise him for being one of the better referees that we have had.
Blackpool would have taken the point more than us. But, it was still a positive point. We were the much better side, and there is some hope left, still. Our last match of the year is Birmingham away, and despite it being free travel I will not be going. Hopefully, I am able to watch it at home, and see us get those vital three points.