A disappointing afternoon at the KC saw Hull City lose to a very limited Bolton outfit. It was easily our worst defeat in top flight football and a real reminder that there are teams out there who won't allow us to play football, to break on them and allow our front players time and space on the ball. They'll cause a scuffle, they'll work to win corners and free kicks and they'll cheat to win them if possible. It was ugly football and that isn't what we are about anymore. We expected a tough afternoon, but it turned into the first real nightmare of a dream season.
City started with the same side and formation that faced Chelsea 10 days ago. Bolton's system was almost a 4-4-1-1 with a narrow midfield and Johan Elmander playing off Kevin Davies. The first half was a wash-out. Bolton were awful. We were just as bad, we sunk to their level. Phil Brown's programme notes stated that we'd "go back to basics". I'm not sure quite what he intended with that tactic but if basic meant basically becoming Bolton, then it was horrific. We played the ball aimlessly far too often, giving King and Cousin no chance at all to impose themselves on the ball. Bolton have no flair and no skill, they are big and physical and nothing else and we played right into their hands. We had plenty of the ball but far too often, it was McShane in possession, which just about summed us up. Geovanni should have been playing in 'the hole' but because Bolton defended deeply, both in defence and midfield, there was no 'hole', so Geo had to pull out onto the right wing to find space. The half was bitty, there were too many fouls from both teams, there was no rhythm to our play and we allowed them to deal with our threat far too easily. We gave away too many free-kicks by being naïve. If you go anywhere near Kevin Davies, he'll fall over, that was obvious from minute one and we didn't lean from it at all. Fortunately, we defended set pieces far better than last week. The only moment of any quality in the half came from Marlon King. Dawson delivered a cross into the box, slightly behind King, he flicked his heel at it and looped it towards the top corner but the ball dropped onto the bar. Superb skill that deserved better luck. The half time whistle was a relief, ending the worst half of football we've seen or months. It was quite the culture shock really. It's all been plain sailing thus far in the top flight, every team we've come across have played decent stuff and we've been lucky enough to see 11 good games of football. That all ended today.
Not a lot changed at the start of the second half. I really think the manager should've forced a change. We rarely needed 3 central midfielders in the first half. Dean Marney has had more of the ball in some halves than all 3 of them put together today. There was a ton of space on the right of midfield that only McShane was exploiting. The introduction of Mendy came about 20 minutes too late. Still, as bad as the game was, the absolute worst result we were going to come away with was nil-nil, surely? Then Bolton scored. It was a Bolton goal. It came from a set piece, it was scruffy and a bit lucky and I'm fairly certain Dean Marney was fouled allowing the ball to drop to Taylor. Taylor is Bolton's only decent outfield player and a guy I've admired ever since he played a stunning role in Luton's 4-0 win over Jan Molby's Tigers at Boothferry Park. He hit the ball well enough, but had Bo been able to see through the crowd of players, he would've saved it comfortably. The goal woke us up and for all but about 5 minutes when we seemed to run out of idea's, we dominated possession and territory and played like we should've done from the start. We set a good tempo and kept the ball on the floor. Geovanni pulled out to the left and started to worry them. Mendy was introduced to exploit the space on the right hand side. PB took off Cousin, which was a mistake. He looked pretty lively and there was never the need for three in midfield. It should've been Ashbee or Boateng who went off. Geovanni hit a sweet free-kick that forced a terrific save from Jaaskelainen and that set up a good last twenty from the Tigers. Daws limped off again to be replaced by Ricketts and then the chance came. A free-kick 35 yards out on the right hand side. Dean Marney delivered a beauty of a ball, behind the defence on the 6 yard line, Geo lost everyone and raced in to score, the east stand celebrated, prematurely, as Geo headed straight down into Jaaskelainen's feet. Turner did well to keep the ball in play but Jaaskelainen was alert and pushed the ball away on the ground. It was a terrible miss; Geo probably won't sleep all week thinking about it. He didn't let it get to him though, cutting in from the left and hitting a wicked shot that Jaaskelainen parried away at the near post. Turner, stretching, headed over from a corner. King hit a shot that deflected twice and still fell straight to Jaaskelainen's gloves, Ashbee had a left foot shot blocked and then hit a rasping drive over the bar in stoppage time. In amongst all that Ricketts found himself on the bye-line a yard or so to the left of goal with bodies in the box and inexplicably thrashed the ball towards the far touch line. Ridiculous decision making. Our decisions were poor all half though, especially out wide. We constantly crossed the ball from deep, ignoring the man who'd made space out wide, normally Mendy. The crossing was poor and easy to defend when a simple pass would've released Mendy in space and with time. Whenever Mendy did get down the wing, he caused problems; they were terrified of making a challenge on him in the area. We wasted our last substitution, Folan replacing Boateng. Again, it came far too late and it should've been Halmosi on to improve our delivery and take advantage of the space that appeared on the left once Mendy drew everyone out to the right. You'd also have fancied Halmosi to get on the end of some of the crosses as he's good in the air. Not Stuart Elliott good, but pretty good. With 20 minute left, you felt that if we got one goal, we'd get two, but it never felt like we'd get the one, it wasn't our day, Geo's miss hammered that home.
Myhill had a solid day. He had no shots to save, but a lot of set piece deliveries to face. A couple of times, he was blocked off by Elmander but on 3 or 4 occasions, he came out and caught the ball confidently. My only criticism of him would be that it took him a long, long time to start distributing quickly with his hands. Even when Mendy came on, Bo ignored him the first time he gave him a short option. When he did play the ball out with his hands, it was very good so I cannot understand why he doesn't do it more often. Against their defence, booting the ball out of his hands was always going to be fruitless.
I think right back is still a position that needs addressing. Mendy is too erratic, Ricketts isn't making the step up and McShane is limited. He's a very solid defender and so he's the best option right now but he's just too limited in possession to be the answer long term. Dawson was good again at left back but didn't attack well enough in the second half, perhaps because he was carrying the injury. We needed him to be playing 20 yards further up the pitch, because there was no defending to be done. Turner was quiet. Elmander dropped off and Zayatte picked up Davies, so Turner was often the spare man. He did OK in possession but wasn't his usual all-action self. Zayatte had a good game, he was generally the one who won the ball from crosses and he dealt well with Davie, although he was very naïve and conceded too many free-kick's to the cheating lump.
According to the PA, Ashbee, Marney and Boateng were playing in our midfield but sightings of them in possession of the ball were few and far between. Marney was the best of the three again, he tried to carry the ball and make something happen but his attempts at making killer passes were poor. Neither Ashbee nor Boateng made a tackle until the 90th minute. They wandered around doing very little. Bolton don't use midfield for attacking, there was no need for us to have 2 ball winners. In the last 10 minutes, Ash came alive a little bit but it didn't make up for him being anonymous for the previous 80. Mendy looked lively off the bench again, he's a good weapon against tiring defenders.
Geovanni was the KCFM Man of the match and that's arguable. Along with Zayatte, he was the pick of the City players. He just didn't see enough of the ball because we spent too long hitting it aimlessly at King and Cousin. In the second half, when he picked it up on the left, he looked dangerous and brought people into the game in good positions. Watching Elmander try to play off the front man knowing he cost ten million quid and comparing him to our Geo, who cost nothing, was very amusing. Money, put in the wrong hands, is useless in football. Bolton also have a right back and a central midfielder who cost five million each. They were no better than Dawson and Ashbee.
Cousin and King struggled to get into the game. They showed the odd bit of movement but generally the service wasn't good enough. In the first half, a superb Marney pass released Cousin on the left, he held the ball up well, waited for King and Boateng to race into the box and then instead of sliding the ball into Boateng, he hammered it at King. Chance gone. On another occasion, Cousin won a header (a rarity) and found King wide. He then crossed immediately into the box. It was criminal that he didn't look up, but regardless, he should've known the box was empty because he and Cousin were the only two up, Cousin won the header 40 yards out and King himself was on the ball out wide. They are just a couple of examples of our poor decision making when we had good possession. As they were being fed on scraps, you would've thought they'd have been more careful with the ball. King came into his own late on when he still looked fit and strong and made good runs in between defenders. Cousin never got the chance, he was withdrawn too early. We put Folan on but he looked poor. He took 3 touches to control the ball and didn't react at all to the game around him. King pulled out wide to chase a ball and Folan followed him. King's instinct when he beat the defender to the ball was to wrap a foot around the ball and knock it across the box, which was empty because Folan had followed King. He just doesn't have a striker's instinct.
A really disappointing result. I'd forgotten what it feels like to lose to a team we are better than and should've beaten. Still, we've picked up results that we shouldn't have so shouldn't get too hung up on the results we should've got but didn't. It'll all even itself out. PB has a big decision to make for next week. We've looked better with wide players in the last few games but he might fancy the 3 in midfield against the threat of Manchester City. I think he made mistakes today and he'll be looking to bounce back, as will the players. We must continue to try and play our way. We've got games against Pompey and Stoke approaching, big physical teams, and we need to avoid being drawn into a fight.
Ratings: Myhill 7, McShane 6, Dawson 6 (Ricketts), Turner 6, Zayatte 7, Ashbee 5, Boateng 5 (Folan), Marney 6, Geovanni 7, King 6, Cousin 6 (Mendy).