During the weekend of the Open golf tournament at Muirfield, it was most appropriate that Hull City last night took to the field at a links football ground, the Turnbull Ground in Whitby. Perched on the hill above the quaint fishing town, this tricky course held a few bunker traps for the big hitting Tigers, but in the end they carded a comfortable 3 under par score.
The first half saw the following clubs in the City bag:
Musselwhite | |||
Petty | Whittle | Mohan | Holt |
Philpott | Greaves | Heard |
Williams | Mann | |
Donaldson |
An arrow formation designed to launch big drives off the tee. Alas, most efforts landed forlornly in the hay. This was the second team, and it showed. Justin looked irritable and fouled constantly. Petty tried far too hard and played poorly. Williams was, I'm afraid, atrocious in the long rough that passes for a Unibond League pitch. Only Mohan, Mann and Greaves came out with any credit. Mohan looked like the sort of player who might conceivably have spent the ten years in the professional ranks, rather than the 30-handicap hacker he looked last season. Manny crafted some nice dribbles and approach shots without much final product. Greaves scurried around and applied the meaty 3 wood when goal opportunities opened.
A quarter of an hour in Whitby sliced through the City backline and half-decent South African striker Robinson fired a low drive that caught the outside of the post and went wide. Then Donaldson, otherwise totally and utterly ineffective, got on the end of a cross and looped a header onto the crossbar.
To half-time and the expected full change:
Glennon | |||
Edwards | Anderson | Strong | Smith |
Price | Ashbee | Green |
Dudfield | Alexander | Elliott |
That's a bit more like it. The tempo was racked up three or four notches and City started to play the fast, furious turbo-charged that Molby has promised. Elliott was simply too quick for the hapless Whitby back line, who often deployed three players to try - and fail - to stop him. He may wear his collar like Eric Cantona (so VERY 1994) but this boy can play. After 55 a swift move down the right was rolled across the face of the Whitby six yard box and Elliott had a simple putt for 1-0.
Then a corner was won on 61 minutes and the rising Elliott got to the ball first and steered it home off the back of his head. Green and Ashbee were running the show, no-one could live with the skills and tricks of Dudfield nor the raw pace of Elliott, Strong and Anderson were both strong and handy, son, at the back. Smith looked a little off the pace, Price scurried around but contributed little creatively, Edwards sliced a few passes.
But otherwise this was an excellent back nine, crowned by a third goal on the eighteenth green when a swinging Price corner was palmed into the net by the Whitby goalkeeper. He had been warned at half-time that the ball would be "like a slippery fish" on a moist evening by the sea, and so it proved. Even Adam Pearson, sitting amongst the 100 or so City followers during the second half, must've agreed that this was a round of golf of immense promise.
Scorers: Elliott 55, 61; og 90
By: Mike Scott