Post Match Reaction: Hull City 1-0 Sheff Wed

Sam Collins - "looking a very good acquisition" (Photo © Corred)

For 86 minutes, a monotonous encounter between two very poor teams. No-one deserved to win - they were equally pants. Then Stuart Elliott had, what looked to be, a perfectly good goal chalked off. We felt aggrieved and justice was done seconds later when Price forced a corner and then volleyed in from a sweetly struck Green delivery.

For the first 10 minutes, it looked like we were in for a cracker, some real decent play and lots of attacking. What followed wasn't pretty. Lots of endeavour, little quality. What good football was played came from Wednesday. They were neat and tidy, but very rarely dangerous. It says a lot that prior to the two incidents at the end, there were only 2 'efforts' on target, both weak headers.

Bo did well, collected crosses confidently. Dawson was steady, didn't get forward enough but gave little away. Cort and Collins didn't put a foot wrong again. Collins is looking a very good acquisition. If Lynch is the sort of player that is coming through the ranks at Man United, you can see why they are in trouble. He is not the answer to the right back problem. He never put in a tackle all afternoon and just hit the ball blind every time. When faced with a winger, he takes up a position like the starting position in a middle distance race, making it ever so obvious where he's going and giving the winger a great chance to go past him.

Jason Price - "did really well" (Photo © Corred)

Midfield was pretty poor again. France did well after his switch to right back, but before that he drifted aimlessly and put nothing into the box. He did a great impression of Cristiano Ronaldo: two step-overs and no end product. Welsh was OK, covered a lot of ground, never really involved until he put in the great cross for Elliott's 'goal'. Delaney put in some good tackles but generally looked like a spare part in the middle. Hard to understand why he'd be in front of Andrews in the pecking order; Andrews can't be fully fit. Barmby had another stinker. Even 6 yard passes became a challenge. He seemed to have the right idea, looking for Fagan over the top, but consistently executed poorly. Have to admit that my heart sank when I saw Price coming on (although getting rid of Lynch cheered me up). However, Pricey did really well, gave good width, good energy, tried to beat players, passed sensibly and finished well. Elliott and Green both got in to the game quickly too and offered something different. Elliott needs to start next week - he's earnt it.

Fagan and Paynter worked hard. Fagan chased a lot of lost causes and never stopped trying things. They deserved a lot better from those behind them. Paynter must have been gutted when he went off and then we put in the only two decent crosses of the game.

In all, a dire performance, but 3 crucial points. We showed a lot of bottle and good spirit. Elliott is starting to look interesting, the bench is looking stronger (strikers aside), we seem to have two decent goalkeepers and our defence looks strong again. We need to play more football. We look a good side when we get it down and play, but we're very guilty of taking the easy option and lumping it instead (Lynch, Barmby, Welsh and France in particular today). Strangely, it was Delaney who often tried to be braver in possession. He didn't have the ability to pull it off every time, but deserves credit for trying.

Ratings: Bo 7, Lynch 5 (Price 8), Daws 6, Cort 7, Collins 8, France 6, Barmby 5 (Green), Welsh 6, Delaney 6, Paynter 6 (Elliott 7), Fagan 7.