By Jack Watson
Well, that was more like it. Hull City triumphed over Middlesbrough 1-2 at the Riverside Stadium to put our winless drought to bed. After our two back-to-back defeats to Watford and QPR, we were expected to bounce back and we did that in style. Unfortunately, I did not go to this one, but I really wish I had, and watched it from home on Sky Sports.
This was an incredible turnaround from our previous game on Saturday, where we played poorly and fell to a 2-0 defeat to third from bottom QPR. After that and hearing Philogene will be out for a while, I struggled to see us pick up many points without our main winger. However, we seemed to play much better without him in the squad; it was more like a team effort, instead of Philogene holding the ball for large periods of the game.
Nevertheless, Rosenior made three changes to our starting line-up, with Alfie Jones, Regan Slater and Aaron Connolly coming in for Sean McLoughlin, Jaden Philogene and Adama Traore. That meant our squad was as follows: Ryan Allsop in net; Lewie Coyle, Alfie Jones, Jacob Greaves and Cyrus Christie (it is great to see him getting more game time) as the back line; Tyler Morton, Jean Seri and Aaron Connolly in the middle; Regan Slater and Scott Twine down the flanks and Liam Delap up top.
The game did not start well as the home side came out hungry for the first goal, which did not take them long to get; in the 5th minute, Christie gave the ball away in our own half and some great work down the left wing from Sam Greenwood allowed him to react quickly, drive to the edge of the box, pass to Lukas Engel in the box, who pulled it back into a dangerous position for Latte Tath to scramble it in. Another defensive error.
Then, not long after, they had another amazing opportunity to double their lead; in the 18th minute, the ball fell to Lukas Engel near the halfway line, who, first time, threads the ball through Morton and Jones to find Latte Tath unmarked; he spots a darting run from Isaiah Jones on the right, who charges towards goal and somehow puts it wide. A very big let off.
The half died out after 20 minutes, with both sides not creating many opportunities and giving the ball away in dangerous areas. Our only chance in the half came from the latter; a wrong back pass from one of their defenders fell to Aaron Connolly on the edge of the area, who turned and curled his shot straight at Dieng, their keeper. A poor effort and we must be capitalising on these mistakes.
The half ended with the hosts leading.
The second half was much better, with Morton curling an effort high and wide from distance straight after the restart. It did take a while for both sides to get going and they looked more cautious on the ball. Boro’s first opportunity came from a free kick; 30 yards out, Greenwood curled a nice ball towards the right-hand post, but it went just wide. That was the closest they came and after that, we put our foot on the gas and increased the intensity, which we were rewarded for.
On the 69th minute mark, we were awarded a corner, in which Tyler Morton swung in a dangerous ball to Greaves and he flicked it towards the back post where Delap, unmarked, headed it in. Finally, we have scored from a set piece and we must start doing this a lot more. Alas, it did not stop Middlesbrough who came back at us moments later. Allsop was called into action twice when Greenwood had a chance in the middle of the box, but was parried away, before Crooks’ header was not much of a threat and went into the keeper’s hands.
Then, after making five substitutes in 16 minutes: Cyrus Christie; Jean Seri; Scott Twine; Regan Slater and Liam Delap were replaced by Ruben Vinagre; Adama Traore; Ozan Tufan; Greg Docherty and Sean McLoughlin, we managed to take a late lead. In the 82nd minute, some great build up play from the back allowed Allsop to put it over the top to Tufan and he quickly found Vinagre, who burst down the left wing, beating his man and getting the ball into the box, which met Docherty, who teed up Tufan and he slotted it home. It’s good to see him on the scoreboard again.
But, there was still some time for the hosts to try and grab a point and they should have. In the dying seconds of the game, Boro were awarded a corner, which was swung in and they had three attempts to stick it in the back of the net from a similar position. First, Isaiah Jones struck at goal, but was denied by Allsop. The ball came back into the box, which was hit by Van Den Berg straight at the keeper. Then, it rebounded back to Fry who hit it towards the far-left corner but was put behind by Allsop. The referee then blew his whistle and we took all three points back to Humberside.
It was an incredible performance in the second half from us, especially our defence and keeper. Where was that against QPR, which I went to? Perhaps it was actually due to Philogene being out. Nonetheless, we are sitting joint sixth with Sunderland and are in a great position heading into the next half of the season. Our next opponents are Cardiff at home and then Bristol away the following Friday. We shouldn’t have any problems, but I did say that with QPR and look what happened.
