The Tigers returned to winning ways in style with a dominant home display
Hull City delivered arguably their most complete performance of the season on Wednesday night to beat Wrexham 2-0 and return to winning ways at the MKM Stadium.
Goals in each half from Kyle Joseph and the returning Oli McBurnie sealed a deserved victory for City, who responded to Friday’s hammering against Middlesbrough in style.
Despite their dominance, the Tigers still needed Kieffer Moore to miss a first-half sitter and then deny the Welsh international from the penalty spot, to preserve just a fourth clean sheet of the season and move Sergej Jakirovic’s men back into the top six.
Here, Tigers reporter Barry Cooper looks back on a sixth home win of the campaign, eclipsing the five of last term…
Guess who’s back
It took just over four minutes for Oli McBurnie to mark his return from a nine-game spell out with a goal. You could see the goal coming before it happened, so brilliant was his movement across his marker.
Having held the ball up initially before laying it off to Darko Gyabi, who was also excellent, and rather than stop and admire it, he got himself forward to get on the end of Giles’ perfect ball in.
McBurnie has been such a major loss, but to have him back and already on the scoresheet is a massive boost, especially given the news about Gelhardt.
Midfield improvements
There’s been plenty of talk about City’s midfield struggles and rightly so. And in fairness, this was one of the best displays in that area for a while.
Regan Slater and Darko Gyabi were both excellent in the engine room and that’s exactly what was needed on a night where all eyes were on the Tigers after Friday night.
For Slater, Gyabi and Matt Crooks, that’s the standard they must reach and now go on and reproduce that once again on a consistent basis.
Belloumi’s brilliance
The Algerian wing-wizard has been a big miss over the past 12 months for City, but he showed just what a top player at this level he is with some of his movement and vision.
That was evident for the opening goal when he picked up the ball wide on the right, before making his way into the box and picking out Matt Crooks, who shot and then Joseph turned home the rebound.
Bellloumi is a big player for City, and having him back is a huge boost, especially at a time when Joe Gelhardt is facing an extended spell on the sidelines.
Back among the goals
After a four-game spell without one, Kyle Joseph notched his fourth goal of the season to get the Tigers off and running in the first half with a smart finish.
Often maligned, Joseph was back through the middle up front in the absence of Enis Destan through injury and Oli McBurnie on the bench, so for him, getting on the scoresheet was crucial.
His pressing early on was also absolutely crucial, and more like we saw from him and the Tigers earlier in the season. He gave City the platform to allow McBurnie then to come on and kill the game off.
The curse strikes again
It never rains, but it does seem to pour consistently for the Tigers when it comes to injuries (and FA Cup draws for that matter). It’s almost like somebody is having a joke at City’s expense.
They give us Oli McBurnie and Liam Millar back, but then take Joe Gelhardt away. The loss of ‘Joff’ is a major blow, especially at a time when he’s in stunning form with eight goals in his last 10.
You have to feel for the manager, who consistently cannot pick what we would expect to be his strongest team, and that is inherently frustrating.
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