Hull City’s near 18 month battle against relegation from the Premier League is just about over. A win against Sunderland on Saturday will give us a tad more hope and prolong the agony but the likelihood is that West Ham will beat Wigan, Sunderland will win at the KC and we’ll be packing our bags and heading back to the Championship. That is the reality.
Tonight we met an Aston Villa side who haven’t impressed in our previous three Premier League meetings but do apparently possess a lot of quality. They didn’t particularly impress tonight. They barely got out of 2nd gear but won at a canter thanks to two gift goals. Hull City’s nickname may as well be “Father Christmas” because giving out presents is our specialty.
Iain Dowie picked the same team as Saturday. I can understand why he wanted to pack the midfield again but I don’t agree with the decision. I’m in the “We have nothing to lose” camp when it comes to whether we should just go for it. Not that being cautious is new with Dowie. We’ve been deathly afraid in most games since that trouncing against Sunderland in December 2008. The fact is though, no matter what system you play, if you give away goals like we do, it just doesn’t matter. In far too many games, we undermine everything we’ve been working towards by giving ourselves a mountain to climb.
Ten minutes into this one, with nothing to separate the two teams, Mouyokolo headed poorly out of our box straight at a Villa player. The ball fell to McShane and he wellied it straight into another Villa player. The ball then fell to Agbonlahor just to the left of goal. McShane and Sonko decided that covering the goal line would be the best option, Duke didn’t close down Agbonlahor either and in the end, we had three spectators watching Agbonlahor curl the ball into the roof of the net.
We settled down a little after the goal and eventually someone realised that Villa aren’t actually that good and moved Fagan up front with Hesselink. That left Cairney on the left of midfield and Kilbane on the right.
We were quite good in the period before half time. Bullard controlled the midfield and looked like the player we saw all too briefly in November. Villa realised that the best way to counter Jimmy is to cut off his passing options but he plugged away and kept picking up the ball and looking to do something with it.
We had a decent balance and were at least trying to occupy their back four, who’d spent the first 20 minutes sitting back and smoking cigars. Chances were always going to be at a premium tonight and I doubted whether we’d even get more than a couple of half chances but we contrived to squander three of the best chances you are ever going to get.
Kevin Kilbane cut in from the right and as he shaped to shoot, played a beautifully disguised pass into Hesselink, whose run matched the pass. Friedel came out quickly and saved his low shot. The ball rebounded to Kilbane and while his low shot was saved well by Friedel too, the ball fell back to Kilbane who was past Friedel, composed himself, steadied himself, looked up and shot straight against James Collins. If you don’t score in a situation like that, you wonder if you ever will. We went into half time in the ascendancy, if only slightly. The usual suspects had been pants but Jimmy and George (which sounds like a budget fashion label) had dragged us back into the game, despite our determination to self destruct.
We didn’t look quite as assured after half time. We had some decent possession and forced a few corners and long throws but most of our attacking intent was just heading practice for Collins and Dunne. Villa’s best chance came when Duke just managed to beat Carew to a wonderful through ball from Paul McShane. At the other end, Mouyokolo met a long throw from Sonko but didn’t quite catch it right and Friedel saved comfortably. From the resulting corner, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was floored by a crushing challenge from Richard Dunne who met the corner with his head and Jan’s head with the shoulder. The subsequent delay resulted in 10 minutes of stoppage time. I wish Big Jan all the best recovering from what looked a horrible facial injury (at best).
We never really recovered from the delay. Altidore replaced Jan and looked every bit the clunky oaf we had in the autumn. Our play was disjointed. We were slow and lacked ideas. Too many moves ended at the feet of Kilbane and in particular McShane, who was absolutely hopeless in possession. He’s further proof that you should never make a loan deal permanent. Given a cushy contract and long term stability, they are nearly always hopeless. On this evidence, we could have bought any right full-back in League One in the summer and he’d have been a better option than McShane. It’ll be interesting to see the Sunderland fans on Saturday, I wonder if they’ve stopped laughing about the whole Turner-McShane fiasco yet?
Our attacks became sporadic and those sporadic attacks were blunt. Richard Dunne put his smoking jacket back on for the last 20 minutes. So while we struggled to put anything together going forward, we left ourselves open to the odd counter. Villa tried their best to be completely rubbish on the break but against us, even that is good enough. John Carew strode through our midfield and exposed us at the back. George Boateng made a lung-bursting run to get back into position but dived in rashly as Downing turned back inside and chopped him down. One cool Milner penalty later and they were home and dry. They even had the luxury of wasting a three on one counter attack.
We tried to change things: Geo replaced Cairney, to a chorus of boos from the home crowd (the substitution obviously woke us from our coma) and Oily replaced Kilbane, to a chorus of cheers. Both reactions were out of order. You can slag the players off as much as you like on the bus home or in the pub but in the ground you support the team. The home support is generally pretty dire anyway, booing and cheering the removal of our players, no matter how bad they are, is not helpful. Neither sub had much of an impact. A few corners gave us a bit more false hope and James Collins a bit more heading practice and after Villa expertly wound down 10 minutes of stoppage time, we drifted off home to programme Carrow Road and Glanford Park into the sat-nav.
Duke had a solid enough game. He was quick off his line except the one time it really mattered and caught what he could. Sonko was steady in defence and though he’s pretty poor on the ball, he’s doing OK. He showed great pace to oppose Agbonlahor. Mouyokolo made a mistake for the first goal and should probably have scored but otherwise coped quite well with the pace and strength that Villa’s front line have.
McShane was absolutely pathetic. He kills every attack, he can’t cross, his touch is poor and his movement is clunky. His decision making was terrible and while he didn’t have all that much defending to do, he made a mess of most of it. Dawson isn’t quite as bad but isn’t far off. His touch is terrible too, he doesn’t know the meaning of getting the ball out of his feet, he’s ultra one-footed, he can’t decide whether to join attacks or not, normally deciding too late and most of his attempts to distribute are free headers for centre halfs. Full-back has been a weakness of ours for most of the last 25 years and it still is.
Bullard and Boateng were our best players. Bullard looked the best midfielder on the pitch in the first half as he probed and carried and moved the ball well. In the second half he was let down by the fact that his only out ball was often McShane. Needless to say, he didn’t often get the ball back. Boateng made some mistakes but his desire to win the ball back is incredible and his positioning is second to none. Carlos Cueller made a run down the right wing, who was chasing him? Boateng. Sonko got drawn out to oppose Young on the wing, who was in at centre half? Boateng. The ball comes out on to the left wing or to the edge of the box, who’s picking it up? Boateng. Who’s the only City player who knows what “second ball” means? Boateng.
Cairney had some good moments. He’s a nice footballer, he’s calm in possession and plays with his head up. He’s a bit too casual sometimes. Like the rest of the team, he costs himself 5 yards everytime he picks up the ball in space. We have a tendency to control the ball and then stand and look for a pass. Better players are looking for their next move while driving into the space. We’re constantly unable to do that and as a result, we lose a lot of forward momentum. Cairney disappeared a bit in the second half; he isn’t a left winger, that’s for sure. He’ll be a great partner for Ash next season though, when hopefully all of the overpaid, under performing tat has buggered off.
Kilbane had his moments too. He was rarely average tonight, he was occasionally very good and generally completely hopeless. His moment of glory, aside from the double miss, came when he picked up a poor Villa clearance and in all the space in the world, he stumbled over the ball and gave it to a Villa player 20 yards away. Phil Brown’s transfer dealings in the last two years have by and large been pretty poor. Kilbane is the absolute worst though. He’s spent 99% of his time in a black and amber shirt imitating a professional footballer. He might look like one but he isn’t. We should have spent that half a million quid on any young midfielder in the country because they couldn’t have been any worse. And if that young man was only worth 1p tomorrow, it’s 1p more than Kilbane is worth.
Big Jan had some neat touches; his hold up play was quite good. He was well beaten in the air most of the time though and wasted one of our best chances. Fagan was utterly dire. At his best, he’s a nuisance of a player; he has relentless energy, he uses his pace well and he makes effective runs. At his worst, his abysmal first touch is exposed, he behaves like a thug and while I’ve no doubt that he’s one of the few who genuinely care about the club, it’s nowhere near enough to make up for the fact that he’s a winger/striker who rarely scores and rarely assists. Altidore has gone backwards just lately. Has that anything to do with the fact that he was tremendous against Fulham and was then dropped? For Caleb Folan of all people (That’s people who are rubbish Premier League strikers).
I’d love to end with a bit of hope and optimism but I’ve run out. I have none. We’ll be all but relegated on Saturday night. I’ll be pleasantly surprised if we aren’t (although I don’t fancy anymore false hope) but we will be. At least then we can enjoy the last two games of the season before we spend the summer wondering what the hell will become of our football club.
Ratings: Duke 6, McShane 4, Dawson 5, Sonko 7, Mouyokolo 6, Fagan 5, Kilbane 5 (Olofinjana), Bullard 7, Boateng 7, Cairney 6 (Geovanni), Hesselink 6 (Altidore).