The Tigers’ star was in fine form to help his side win on the road for the third time this season
John Egan described Joe Gelhardt’s winning goal in the 90th minute at Stoke City as an ‘unreal moment’ after Hull City came from a goal down to win 2-1.
City were awful in the first half but were just a goal down to Sorba Thomas’ thunderous volley 17 minutes in, but Sergej Jakirovic made two changes at the break with Mo Belloumi and Kyle Joseph coming on to turn the game.
Belloumi diverted Gelhardt’s volley into the path of Semi Ajayi to head in the equaliser three minutes into the second half, before the Algerian winger slid in the Leeds United loanee to slam home the winner.
“It’s a huge three points,” Egan told Hull Live. “We weren’t at the races in the first half, and in the second half we played really well, so we’ve done well to nick it in the end.
“We just didn’t turn up, but I think it’s probably happened a few times this season where first half we haven’t been at the races, the second half we’ve kind of adjusted things at half-time, figured out what we need to do, and then turned it around.
“We probably know we need to start games a lot better, and that has to come from us, too. We need to know where to hurt them, because they came out of the blocks first half, and then the second half was probably the opposite.
“It came from us going in behind and people running behind and getting up the pitch. We were a bit sloppy in the first half, playing in front of them. I know as a defender you need to try and stretch teams, and we need to as a team, play forward, to get teams off you, and I think Semi (Ajayi) played a great ball over the top to Mo (Belloumi), and we ended up getting a set piece. Semi scored a really good goal to give us a platform, a bit of belief to go on and try and get a win.
“It was unreal. We won the ball high up the pitch, and Mo slid him in, and you’re just waiting to see the net bulge when it goes to Joffy.
“When he scored, it was brilliant, so late as well, they’ve got little time to bounce back. Once the ball hit the net, it was up to us to see it out then. We did that, and I think it’s a really big three points.”
On the scenes at the end, Egan says it was a lot of fussing over not a lot as tempers flared after an emotional end to the game in the Potteries, and praised the 1,400-strong away following.
“It’s funny,” Egan explained. “Everyone going head to head with each other, but no one’s going to throw a punch, really, are they? So it’s probably a bit pointless. Just absolute handbags. It is what it is, a little bit of a scuffle. Nothing too out of line, really. Emotions run high; it’s what happens in football. People get angry.
“Winning away from home, especially because you look up and you see the amount of fans that came to the game from Hull, spending their money, spending their time coming to watch us and support us. For us to be able to send them home happy means a lot.
“The backbone of every football club is the fans, and our fans travel in their numbers. Fantastic away support every week and we can only thank them, but the best way to thank them is to give them three points and send them home happy.”
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