The Tigers lost at home to Stoke for the fifth successive season
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Mark Robins admits he was worried when he saw Kasey Palmer’s effort cannon towards the Stoke City goal in added time of what turned out to be a memorable New Year’s Day for the Potters boss at Hull City.
Palmer, who played under Robins at Coventry City before his move to City 18 months ago, came off the bench and was inches away from snatching a draw for the Tigers when his fizzing drive smacked off the underside of the bar and bounced the right side of the line.
That was the second time in the contest a below-par City hit the woodwork, after Charlie Hughes’ strike in the first half, which saw Robert Bozenik score the game’s only goal six minutes shy of the interval, before leaving the field with a damaged shoulder early in the second half, which brought about a nine-minute stoppage.
“They are all big ones, but this one felt particularly big because of the build-up to the game and the fact that we’ve got an almost cobbled together squad. It makes it really challenging,” Robins said. “Brilliant. The players who came in played really well, dealt with their threats for the most part really well.
“Should have gone two up at least, before their chance – and Kasey can do that. I’ve seen him do that, and as soon as he came inside and checked to hit, I thought it was nestling in the top corner. It would have been a blow for us, but it hit the bar and post and came out. That’s the only bit of luck we’ve had for a long time.
“Seventeen minutes added on because we’ve waited for Robert (Bozenik)to score, he gets his goal, and then his shoulder dislocates. That is not great news at all. He was in some discomfort, some distress when he came off past me. He’s in hospital so we’ll see what the outcome of that is. It’s another blow on top of the news about Vik (Viktor Johansson). Vik is not looking great, so we’ve got to wait and see.
“That’s why we called back Tommy (Simkin) from his loan, and Tommy coming in showed a level of maturity and quality that we needed. It’s a good start for him and the start of his career with us. Hopefully, he will build into a really, really good goalkeeper for us.”
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