The weekend’s game at home to a rampant Newcastle Utd was not just a talking point for an incredible action by Pardew sticking the nut on City midfielder Meyler on the touchline when the ball ran out of play but also for a less than impressive display of premiership defending by Maynor Figueroa.
For whatever reason, something in his head pressed the self destruct button which caused him to play a suicidal underweighted back pass allowing Remy to latch on sharply to round City’s keeper and slot the ball home for a gift of a goal.
In an interview after the match, manager Steve Bruce likened his mistake of the second goal to something you would see in Sunday league football which is not a testament you want to hear from your manager and Figueroa will have felt he had salt well and truly, albeit justifiably rubbed into his wounds.
Called up for international duty, Maynor will have had a long and lonely flight back to Honduras with more than enough time to reflect on the match and one wonders that his poor performance may affect his psychology when stepping out on Wednesday night against Venezuela.
Hull City face Sunderland in the FA Cup quarter finals this coming weekend and it is expected that Figueroa will be benched for the match due to the overall downturn in form but I suspect that a midweek international match as well as the long haul flights across the globe and back will be the deciding factor as to whether he makes the team or not.
It’s only circumstance that has highlight Figueroa as Hull City's match villain and could have been very different. We have seen many a defensive error pardoned due to the team taking their chances at the business end of the pitch which have made for a kinder review of players and team performance but here at the KC, we never spared Maynor the embarrassment of facing the music on his own.
Hull City had clear cut chances that at this level should have been put away. I suggest that missing close range golden opportunities as Hull City did is as damning as playing a poor back pass to your keeper and allowing a sharp thinking forward to punish you for it.
Should Hull City dwell on Maynor’s luke warm spell and make him scapegoat for what can only be described as a drubbing by Newcastle Utd or should the club and fans get behind him and lift his confidence?
Hull we’re relatively poor at the back but we were also poor up front given the opportunities we had and the score could have been very different if we had capitalised on the domination we showed in the first half.
You’ve got to feel a little sympathy for Maynor as no player at premiership level goes out to give a bad performance on purpose and leaving the squad a day after his bad press may make him edgy about the possible discussion points regarding his career back in the UK while he’s away on international duty especially with a very capable Rosenior ready and available.
It’s up to the team and supporters to get behind Maynor and give him the confidence to get back on top of his game. He’s an honest clubman who wears his shirt with pride and deserves his chance to be part of the regular selection process at least until the end of the season but without doubt Bruce will have half an eye on the transfer market for a player of this position who he can strengthen with next season.