The Tigers battled back to earn what at half-time looked an unlikely point
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 continue to be a side that creates no shortage of drama in their games so far this season, and that was the case again on Tuesday night.
Two-nil down inside 10 minutes after gifting Preston North End a couple of cheap goals, City produced a hopeless performance in the opening period, but it was all change in a terrific second in the proverbial game of two halves just as it was at Watford on Saturday.
Oli McBurnie’s first goal came inside a couple of minutes at the start of the second half before he powered in the equaliser 74 minutes in to earn City a 2-2 draw and a share of the spoils.
Credit the manager
Make no mistake about it, that first half display was as bad as anything City have offered up in the last few seasons since they returned to the Championship, and there’s been no shortage of competition.
The biggest surprise of the opening 46 minutes was that Preston were only 2-0 up and the boos were not even louder than they were, but credit the boss, his staff and the players for turning it around, and acknowledging that he got his setup wrong.
They were abject and hopeless all over the park until Jakirovic changed it at the break and injected some life and spark into the second half performance, and they got their rewards and could have snatched it in stoppage time only to be denied by Daniel Iversen’s fine stop from John Lundstram’s rasping volley.
McBurnie’s magic
That’s now seven for the season for Oli McBurnie and already, on the final day of September, he’s surpassed Joao Pedro’s total of six for last term.
You just cannot keep him out of the headlines, can you? Two more goals to get City a point from a game they looked dead and buried in at half-time, and two more fine, poacher’s finishes from Ryan Giles’ balls in.
No matter what the situation, with McBurnie in the team, City have a chance of getting something out of it. The biggest surprise is that he’s not back in the Scotland squad because there surely isn’t a striker available to Stevie Clarke in such good form.
Defensive disaster class
Once again, City showed why they have conceded 16 goals in their eight league games so far. The two Preston goals were so bad, it’s almost unbelievable that they should happen at such a level. It’s easy to highlight individuals, and on Tuesday night, it was Cody Drameh and Ivor Pandur directly at fault, but throughout the season so far, it’s been a collective shambles.
Even as good as the Tigers were in the second half, they still afforded North End some major openings. Alfie Devine should really have sealed it at 2-1 when he blazed over.
This has to stop because they cannot keep shipping two goals a game. The defensive mess that they are as a collective is going to hold them back if it doesn’t improve. Any chance of a boring 1-0 against the Blades?
Giles latest
Ryan Giles notched up two more assists to add to his tally on Tuesday night. The left-back teed up McBurnie for both of his well-taken goals
That’s now five assists in just eight games for the former Boro ace, and he’s showing the form that saw City spend £4m a little over 12 months ago to sign him from Luton Town. That tally really should be six had Cody Drameh buried the one Giles laid on a plate for him at Watford.
Giles limped out of the contest in the closing stages, but the feeling is that he had just suffered cramp as a result of two energetic displays in such a short period of time and that he’ll be OK for Saturday.
Our Canadian Boy
After 342 long, long days, Liam Millar is finally back on the pitch and how City have missed him. It may have been a performance running on adrenaline, but the Canadian winger was superb in the second half. His movement caused all sorts of problems for his former club, and it also freed up space for Giles to exploit, which was summed up by his perfectly weighted pass through for the second goal.
Millar being back and available is a major, major boost to Jakirovic. We just have to hope that he has a little more luck than Mo Belloumi and doesn’t do his hamstring on Saturday.
Above all else, it’s just great to see him back in a Tigers shirt and playing in the Championship. Being out for so long is cruel on anyone, especially a player as popular as he is.
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