This was a great battling victory and after Hull had looked dangerous on the break we gave them a dose of their own medicine by scoring with a classic breakaway goal from Isidor.
BEFORE
Once again I’m so glad that the international break is over and we can get back to the real stuff. That late, late equalizer against Leeds was probably the best thing I’ve ever witnessed at the SoL and I’ve a feeling the fun will continue this afternoon. After a poor start Hull have come back well in recent matches and currently lie in fourteenth position. Of course Burnley went above us yesterday and the situation at the top of the league has become very tight but a win would put us on top again and then the others can do the worrying. My heart sank a bit when I saw that Burstow might play a part in today’s game as I never like to see ex-players ready to have a go at us but there’s a good chance that ex-Hull Aaron Connolly will come on for us at some stage and he’s recently shown that he has goals in him. He’ll also feel that he has something to prove. I’m really looking forward to watching the game along with other members of the London Branch and my match prediction is a 3-1 win for us.
THE MATCH
I got the team-news on the way over to the bar and saw that there were no changes from the side that started against Leeds. There was also only one change among the subs with Aouchiche replacing Ba. I was the first of the faithful to arrive so after getting a beer in I had the pick of the seats. I noticed online that most other fans were expecting us to win too. It took me a while to see that Burstow was on the bench for them. We were playing in that blue wallpapery away kit.
We started brightly and won the first corner in the second minute but when Roberts took it on our left, there was an infringement and that was that. We were soon back in attack down the right but Isidor just failed to get on the end of a piercing pass from Roberts. It took Hull over six minutes to make a serious foray into our half but they showed that they could break quickly. We continued to put pressure on down both flanks and I could sniff a goal coming before long. In the fourteenth minute Rigg again demonstrated his great use of the back-heel as we broke down the right but he was rewarded with getting splattered a second later. Incidentally, I couldn’t hear the commentary as hits from the 1980’s were playing over the bar’s P.A system. Isidor had a low shot straight at Pandur in goal in the seventeenth and a few minutes later Hume went on a powerful run down the right but he crossed straight into the hands of Pandur when he really should have done better.
Our third corner led to a Cirkin shot being blasted well over but we were keeping the pressure on. Hull also continued to look zippy on their occasional counter-attacks but so far our defence had dealt with them comfortably. It remained goalless at the half-hour mark and we were finding it hard to crack the home side’s packed defence. The onscreen stats showed that we’d had two-thirds of the possession and I just hoped it wasn’t going to be one of those days when the opposition nicked the winner. Regis was looking very thoughtful as he sat in the dug-out and made lots of notes. Two minutes before the break a low Jobe shot went inches wide of their right post and members of the faithful in the bar suffered convulsions. There appeared to be no added time at all and just before the whistle went Patto touched the ball for possibly the first time. It had been a frustrating first period for us and those rapid Hull breaks were still giving me the heebie-jeebies.
As we kicked off again, I still reckoned we’d win it but I’d refined my prediction to 1-0. Hull were in more offensive mode and Patto actually had to make a save in the fiftieth minute. Next thing Belloumi had a powerful shot that wasn’t far wide and Bedia hit the post so Hull had definitely upped the stakes. Now it was us who had our arses to the wall but it also meant that we could hit them on the break. As the hour-mark approached I was hoping to see Connolly come on and do his Roy of the Rovers stuff. Shortly afterwards in the sixty-third a last-ditch Cirkin tackle led to a rebound that produced Patto’s most spectacular save so far and also a Hull corner. The corner was quickly cleared and the ball fell to Isidor lurking not too far from the half-way line. He ran the whole length of their half, shrugged off a defender and chipped it round Pandur to put us into the lead and send the faithful in the bar berserk. That lad has got class.
We were more on the offensive after the goal and as Dave Mackay said in my 1962 Charles Buchan Soccer Annual, “The best form of defence is attack. As long as you’ve got the ba, they cannae attack.” Who’d argue with Dave? In the seventy-fifth we made a change and it was Connolly coming on to replace Isidor. Hull were seriously going for that equalizer while in the bar everybody else left and it was down to a hardcore of our fans. In the eighty-first Rigg hit the side-netting but it was mainly us defending in depth. Four minutes of added time were announced and when Hull win a corner in the ninety-third I reached for my brown trousers but it only resulted in a header that sailed miles wide. It ended 1-0 followed by several complicated high-fives with fellow fans.
