Par for the course, we were unable to beat relegation battling Sheffield Wednesday on the road at Hillsborough, in front of 3,400 travelling fans, who all paid a fortune to come and watch what should have been a relatively easy game. These are the games that we must be winning and my hopes of playoffs is fading; given that Sunderland won, we were leapfrogged and we now sit in seventh place, with a two point gap.
Since the beginning of the Christmas period, we have only managed to chalk up 1 win in 4 games and it is not the best start to the New Year. It is annoying, really, especially with the fans backing the players with bumper crowds. Even our win last week against Blackburn was not enjoyable: we need to either play a different way, or bring in some better players who suit Rosenior’s style of play.
To be fair, we are still missing Philogene, which is proving to be costly, and Ryan Allsop, our better keeper at playing out from the back, was on the bench, still not fit enough to play. Plus, we were without Seri, which was unexpected. Oh, and we'll be without Traore until he gets back from the AFCON. Nonetheless, we lined up as follows, in a 4-3-3 formation: Matt Ingram, between the sticks; Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Sean McLoughlin and Jacob Greaves as the back four; Regan Slater, Ozan Tufan and Tyler Morton anchoring the middle and Jason Lokilo, Liam Delap and Aaron Connolly up-front.
From the off, The Owls looked the much better team; dominating in possession, tight at the back and were pressing us continuously. We could not do anything about it and whenever we got the ball, we did nothing with it and gave it away. Thus, saw us on the back foot for about 30 minutes, of which the hosts were able to have a few chances: Barry Bannon struck from range, which went wide; Johnson's excellent cross from a short corner landed perfectly for Michael Ihiewke, who headed it wide of the right stick and Bailey Cadamarteri blazed one over the bar.
Just to pour salt into the wound, we received our first red card of the season when in the 35th minute, Tyler Morton went into a challenge with both feet, got the ball first, but followed through and took down Gassama. From the referee's angle it would have looked more serious than it was, and that's why he gave the Liverpool Loanee a red card. However, even before this we were not creating anything and we played even worse after going down to ten men, having no shots at target in the first half with 45% of the possession. Rosenior was forced to make a change: Lokilo for Docherty. It was more or less the same stuff for the remainder of the half; we were lucky to still be level.
The manager must have given the players a good talking to in the changing rooms and tried to get us back into the game, however, whatever he said, they did not take it on board. He made two more changes at half time: Sean McLoughlin and Aaron Connolly came off for Scott Twine and Cyrus Christie. At least he was not keen on the players defending for the whole half.
The hosts made a quick start to the second period and it did not take them long to get their first of the night; in the 49th minute, Johnson got released on the edge of the box, cut in and smashed the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle. Then, moments later, in the 55th minute, they doubled their advantage. Gassama cut in from the left flank before curling a beautiful shot on goal from range, which beat Ingram and made the net bulge.
Rosenior made his last two changes of the night, taking off Ozan Tufan and Liam Delap for Matty Jacobs and Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, which still implied he wanted the team to attack, which did not pay off; in the 72nd minute, they secured the three points. The ball was cleared in the box, but it only went as far as Windass, who on the half-volley whalloped it into the net from outside the box.
We were able to pull one back through a penalty in the 76th minute when Ihiekwe was adjudged to have handled the ball in the area and Twine was able to convert the penalty. A mere consolation, which most of the Hull fans did not get to see as they walked out after the third goal. Chants of ‘we scored a goal’ came from the away end, followed up with ‘you’re getting mauled by the Wednesday’ from the home fans. At least the banter was fun.
This night was topped off with pissing down rain and a 5-10 minute walk back to the coach. Then, when we got back to Hull, our car broke down and we had to wait a further 2 hours until we got home. It is safe to say, I won’t be doing any more away games, unless they are a Derby or if we start winning–it’s really not worth it.
We were out of this game from the get go and the referee was no help when he gave us a red card and awarded Sheffield heaps of soft fouls. On the other hand, this cannot be an excuse for our poor performance, which was not at playoff level. The transfer window is now open, so I hope we make some good deals and bring in some quality players in every position. Also, we have an 11 day gap between our next league match, which is plenty of time to make some improvements, and between this time is a clash against Birmingham City, who are managerless again, in the FA Cup. If we do not win this, I dread how our game against Norwich, who always turn us over, is going to go.