Woeful Tigers tamed in front of biggest home crowd of season
Pictures by Hull City
Hull City 0 - 2 Barnsley
Sky Bet Championship
By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City correspondent
If you ever doubted that TypicalCity was a thing, then this most typical of City performances will surely have proved you wrong.
The Tigers were playing in front of their biggest crowd in four years, on a crisp night under the floodlights, against the league’s rock-bottom club who’d not won away all season. Of course we were going hand it to them on a gilt-edged plate. Of course.
And how. City managed to serve up what was easily their worst home performance of the season, with young keeper Harvey Cartwright making his first start, who despite shipping two goals, was among the few players to come away from the match with any credit.
It proved to be a birthday to forget for both manager Shota Arveladze and Keane Lewis-Potter, who turned 49 and 21 respectively today.
City had come close to taking the lead as early as the second minute, when Di’Shon Bernard made a great run and crossed from deep on the right to Lewis-Potter just left of the six-yard box, but he couldn’t get hold of it and skewed the ball wide.
But from then on it was pretty much all Barnsley. A cross-cum-shot from Remy Vita in the eighth minute was easily collected by Cartwright, whose every touch was warmly applauded by City fans desperately willing the 19-year-old to keep a clean sheet. He might have been a bit rattled by the ball going in the net a few minutes later, though it was clearly offside.
Barnsley continued to press in these early stages, and in the 14th minute Cartwright pulled off a great save with his outstretched right hand to deny Domingo Quina from close range, and the rebound was hastily cleared.
City were struggling to keep hold of the ball. A short break in play due to an injury to Lewis-Potter should have given them time to pause for breath and regroup, but Barnsley immediately regained possession and went on the attack again, and the Tigers continued to struggle to get the ball into the Tykes’ half.
There were a couple of fairly aimless attempts to hoof the ball upfield, but Barnsley’s defenders had the measure of them, and City’s passing play was all but non-existent.
Barnsley’s sustained period of pressure finally paid off in the 27th minute after the Tigers had continually failed to clear their lines, allowing Carlton Morris to cross from the left to Callum Styles, who smashed it past Cartwright from the centre of the box.
The crowd of 16,421 - swelled by the admirable £2 ticket offer for children and friends of -members - were growing restless now, as this was shades of Derby away all over again.
City have been a bit Jekyll and Hyde this season – mostly Hyde, it has to be said – and this had turned out to be a horror show well before the interval.
In the 38th minute, a long-range shot from Amine Bassi stung the hands of Cartwright, who fumbled the ball but hastily recovered to smother it. He would be right to feel aggrieved, though, at being left horrendously exposed far too often.
In the 43rd minute, Lewis-Potter latched on to a cross from Bernard and hit a lovely curving effort from 25 yards, but it just didn’t dip quite enough and sailed comfortably over the crossbar.
Good work from Brandon Fleming to hold up the ball won a corner in first-half injury time, but within moments City were pegged back in their own half – and then it got worse. Barnsley bagged another.
The ball dropped to Morris on the right-hand corner of the box and he unleashed a great strike into the top corner that had Cartwright beaten all ends up. Again, though – not the keeper’s fault, and he’d be forgiven for expecting an easier day out against the bottom club.
Perhaps surprisingly, Arveladze made no immediate changes at the break (indeed, many City fans were left ruing the fact that the rules didn’t allow him to substitute all 10 of them). And they did start a little brighter, or less badly, depending on how full or empty your glass tends to be.
Five minutes into the half City won a corner, but from Fleming’s kick Sean McLoughlin headed it straight at keeper Bradley Collins.
The game drifted aimlessly for a time and then, in the 58th minute, came two changes of personnel – albeit one seemingly forced by injury. Marcus Forss headed straight down the tunnel to be replaced by Tyler Smith, while Greg Docherty came on for Richie Smallwood.
Any hope of a shift in approach, though, was quickly snuffed out as Quina raced down the left into a dangerous position in the box, but City managed to smother the attack.
The modest contingent of Tykes fans in the north-west corner of the North Stand, who, due to the pandemic, had not witnessed their side win away in more than two years, were out-singing the home fans. And guess who their last away scalp in front of the fans was? Yep, you’ve got it.
In the 70th minute the Tigers had a great chance to save some face when a long ball from Regan Slater found Smith racing clean through with only Collins to beat, but he shot straight at the keeper. Oh, for a goal-hanger like Allayhar Sayyadmanesh, who surely would have buried that one. It summed up the whole evening, really.
Five minutes later Docherty ballooned a cross, intended for Bernard, well out of play, to the sarcastic jeers of the Barnsley fans, and that packed East Stand began to thin out a bit. Even at £2, some fans clearly felt ripped off.
And, let’s face it – if this match had been played in your front garden you’d have shut your curtains. “You’re getting mauled by the Barnsley,” the visiting fans taunted.
Perhaps those who warned against disrupting what had become a close-knit team under Grant McCann were right. But the current crop have shown that they can perform against the best in the league… so, will the real Hull City please stand up?