The Tigers’ unbeaten start to the Championship season came to a thumping end
Barry is the Hull City correspondent, and previously covered Nottingham Forest for the Nottingham Post/Nottinghamshire Live. Barry has reported on Hull City’s League One title success and Championship campaigns
Hull City’s early-season positivity balloon was well and truly popped on Saturday with a 3-0 home thumping by Blackburn Rovers, who took full advantage of the Tigers’ struggles.
Without some key players and with a virus sweeping through the camp earlier in the week, City suffered a first defeat of the season in front of their own supporters, as Sergej Jakirovic’s side failed to back up Sunday’s home success against Oxford United.
Attention now turns quickly to Saturday’s visit to Ashton Gate in the final outing before the international break, though there remain plenty of questions going into the last week of the transfer window.
Here’s a look at the key talking points from a disappointing afternoon….
What to take?
First things first, City were awful, almost from start to finish, all over the pitch. From back to front, they were second best everywhere. Aside from a short spell about 15 minutes in when Yuri Ribiero almost headed his own net, Oli McBurnie and Joel Ndala both saw efforts well saved; that was as good as it got. Those were the only two efforts on target, and shortly after that, Rovers assumed control, and once they took the lead, there seemed to be no way back. The two goals at the start of the second half killed any faint hope.
As bad as City were, it’s difficult to know what to take from the game given the impact of illness in the days before. It’s not any kind of excuse, but it was a contributing factor. Anyone who has suffered from a sickness bug will know how tough it is to get out of bed, let alone play in the Championship.
It clearly had a huge impact on the performance and perhaps explains why they looked so uncharacteristically off. This is most definitely something we haven’t seen so far. It’s now about how they respond.
Goals, goals, goals
The problem is, they’re going in their own net. Eight in three games. After a stirring effort to keep out Coventry on opening day – given they’ve scored 12 in two games, that looks even better – the Tigers have now shipped three win the Carabao Cup at Wrexham, two against Oxford and then three in this game.
The worrying thing is at the CBS Arena, City looked relatively solid, but were soft from long throws against Gary Rowett’s men and then on Saturday, Rovers cut them to pieces so many times from all angles. It’s not like you could say it was all down the left or right, it was through the middle, too.
Semi Ajayi has been a huge miss in terms of his physical ability and reading of the game, but he’s not there and they’ve got to find a way to cope without him, and defend better
A big positive
It’s difficult to claim there are too many positives when you’ve been tonked 3-0 at home by a team who had lost their opening three games of the season, but seeing Mohamed Belloumi back on the pitch was a real highlight and he looked really bright in his short cameo.
Belloumi being back is like the proverbial new signing, and while City need to be careful with him, it’s wonderful that he’s well on the way back, and Liam Millar won’t be too far behind him.
It was also heartening to see Cathal McCarthy make his debut. At times, it was tough for him, of course it was at the age of 18 having only signed for the academy from University College Dublin in the summer, but he grew as the game wore on, and it’s a credit to him that he has been handed such an opportunity so soon.
It was a risk
We said it at the time when City allowed both Alfie Jones and Sean McLoughlin to leave the club, that replacing them with players who had chequered injury records was a huge risk. Both McLoughlin and Jones were reliable, durable players who were hardly ever not available for selection, and while the money was important, as was their desire to play regularly, it did leave question marks over their replacements’ ability to be available.
On paper, Semi Ajayi and Akin Famewo were excellent players, but their injury records in recent times suggested that there could be issues, and so it’s proved. A game into the season, and Ajayi was lost, and then in the third game, Famewo and Charlie Hughes were not available.
Hughes missed a large chunk of last term, while John Egan has had struggles before. It’s left City in the third league game of the season, calling on an 18-year-old who has never played a senior game before to start in the Championship. Perhaps a consequence of their transfer situation, but still, anything but ideal.
Bounce back
On the pitch, this has been the first real setback since Jakirovic arrived. Results have gone well throughout pre-season, and even the penalty loss at Wrexham didn’t really dampen spirits.
This, however, was a convincing defeat and for the first time, real questions will be asked about City’s performance, albeit one with major caveats.
The Championship is such a tough league, and these games can happen even with a fully-fit squad, let alone one ravaged by injury and illness, but it’s crucial they respond with a positive display at Bristol City on Saturday going into the international break.
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