By Jack Watson
Well, that was special and something that I have seldom seen us do: batter a team. I think every Hull fan was optimistic about this game, given that Rotherham were in the relegation zone and have a terrible away form–they have only managed to pick up one point at other grounds. We had to take advantage and I was never in doubt that we wouldn’t.
We were relentless, threatening, hungry and energetic throughout this game, and both halves were solid, which is an improvement on recent games. Also, we have made it three back-to-back wins in our backyard and I hope there is more to come–we should be making it a difficult place for opposing teams to play. To put the cherry on the cake, we must take this level of football to other grounds as we cannot just rely on our home form.
Rosenior made two changes to the starting eleven: Ozan Tufan and Sean McLoughlin were replaced by Jason Lokilo and Cyrus Christie. That meant we lined-up as follows: Ryan Allsop between the sticks; captain Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Cyrus Christie in the back line; Tyler Morton and Jean Seri anchoring the middle; Jaden Philogene and Jason Lokilo on the wings and Liam Delap and Scott Twine up-front.
From the off, I could tell we were up to the mark and it took us less than five minutes to stick the ball in the back of the net; in the 5th minute, Jones from the halfway line spotted Delap making a run and neatly threaded it to him. Delap turns, but his first touch hit Grant Hall and he passed it back to his keeper; however, it was short of pace and an onrushing Delap got to it first and shot, which came off the keeper and landed perfectly for Morton to smash it in. A great start and our quickest of the season.
Thus, it was followed by another incredible goal just four minutes later; on the 9th minute mark, Lokilo neatly crossed a ball in from the right, which was not cleared properly by the visitor’s defence, and landed in Philogene’s feet, who, with his back facing the keeper, smartly back-heeled it into the far-right hand side of the net. Lovely and another cracker from the number 23. Where is pulling these from? Plus, he has climbed to the top of the highest goal scorers for us this season (6).
We were not done there. With all the confidence and energy in the team, we did not stop pressing, which is unusual, considering we normally sit back, and this ultimately led to our third goal of the night. In the 20th minute, we were building up possession and smoothly passing it around the park, until Greaves spotted a smart run from Morton, who took the ball down perfectly, layed it on to Delap, whose shot was parried away into the path of Twine, who could not have had an easier finish, and tapped it in.
The end of the half could have been finished off nicely when our centre-back, Jacob Greaves, could have added his name to the board. He received the ball in our own half and drove all the way, weaving in and out of players, before getting into the box, dummying his man and getting his shot off, which was saved by Johansson.
This was a lot more aggressive from us in the first half and it was our biggest first half score of the season. More of those please as it is getting chilly, especially when we have a dry half, and it makes a huge difference in the latter stages when you have a bigger lead.
The beginning of the second period mirrored that of the first and it did not take us long to extend our advantage. In the 48th minute, Morton passed to Seri, who spotted Lokilo making a run into the box. The delivery and touch were brilliant and he was able to tee up Twine, but he was not able to slow down in time and kicked it at the keeper, but it only went as far as Philogene, who carefully stuck it in. What a quality player.
Unfortunately, as perfect as this game was, we were not able to keep the clean sheet. In the 59th minute, Rotherham slightly reduced the deficit. A quick short corner from The Millers allowed them to have time and make a decent cross into the box, which was finished off by Grant Hall. This was a mere consolation for those few hundred fans, who made the journey across. To be honest, this took the flow from the game and Rosenior made some defensive substitutions to make sure we did not concede again. It is safe to say, nothing exciting happened again, except that Tufan looked alright and Regan Slater started for the first time in a while.
I certainly was not disappointed, but I was annoyed that we conceded. Nonetheless it’s three points and it puts us into the top six. I did say in my previous report that with the upcoming fixtures we have, we must make the most of it and get as many points on the board. It looks like we are heading in the right direction and with luck, take out our next opponent, Watford, at home.
