Battling Tigers earn a point with late leveller
Picture credit: Hull City
Hull City 1 - 1 Blackpool
Sky Bet Championship
By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City correspondent
On the face of it, this game felt like it offered more of a level playing field than any match so far this season. Both teams had been promoted from League One, and both were facing squally conditions at the MKM – an atmosphere ripe for slip-ups on the soaked surface.
It was so very nearly City who slipped up, in what had been billed as a ‘must-win’ after a desperate run devoid of victories since the first game of the season. And, though they did not in fact win this ‘must-win’ game, it felt like it at the end, as super-sub Tom Eaves stepped up to avert what was heading towards another horrible, hopeless defeat full of squandered chances.
A nervy first 10 minutes gave City fans little cause for optimism from the off, despite the three changes Grant McCann had made, bringing back Andy Cannon, George Moncur and Ryan Longman. However, as the rain began to hammer down, creating arguably more noise than the few thousand hardy souls braving the elements, Mallik Wilks and Greg Docherty both saw efforts go wide of the mark.
After just 13 minutes, play was stopped due to a lengthy injury to Blackpool keeper Chris Maxwell, which was a bit odd as he’d had barely anything to do thus far. Things were far more dicey at the other end, where Tigers hearts were in mouths as the ball flashed across the face of goal twice in a matter of seconds.
Towards the half-hour mark, City were beginning to show a bit more impetus, but they really should have had the ball in the net after a Keystone Cops spell in front of an open goal somehow saw them manage to not even hit the target.
Maxwell gave the ball away in the area, Wilks swiped and missed, then Longman had a go, and between them they apparently conspired not to score. Was the tide turning? For the first time, Blackpool looked less than at ease at the back.
Wilks looked to have come even closer on 32 minutes when he had a free header saved by Maxwell - had he scored, it wouldn’t have counted as the referee had already blown for a foul in the build-up, but still; it was a straw at which to clutch - something to momentarily rouse those very dampened spirits.
Another bit of pressure in the 37th minute ended in a booking for Wilks who, in his desperation to bag that elusive goal, flung himself into the air and clambered over the top of Maxwell, to the ire of the few hundred Blackpool fans behind the goal who thought the punishment should have been harsher. Three minutes later he found himself through on goal but the Blackpool defence dealt with the threat comfortably.
Then, as has been all too depressingly familiar, the Tigers conceded the first goal yet again, having failed to make any of their pressure count, falling behind to a quick attacking move that was clinically finished off by Blackpool’s new summer signing, Shayne Lavery. That was on 41 minutes - and not long after City were leaving the field to the loudest chorus of boos they will have heard at home this season.
They kept up their attacking intent after the break, but, again, when Blackpool broke down the other end, they were the ones who looked far more like scoring, and they came close to a second in the 57th minute when Lavery shot over from about 20 yards.
Shortly after, Longman made way for Tyler Smith, raising some eyebrows among fans who clearly felt Wilks should have been the man subbed after too many fluffed chances.
On 68 minutes, Moncur forced a save from Maxwell as the Tigers tried desperately for the equaliser. Fans were already revising down those pre-match hopes from ‘must-win’ to ‘let’s just get a point, please’.
That looked even less like happening when, with just over 10 minutes to go, Lewie Coyle was sent off for a second bookable offence. As Blackpool pushed for their second, pulling apart the depleted City defence, that looked like it would be the last act of one of the more miserable evenings in recent memory. But then the unthinkable happened.
City scored.
Eaves, who had replaced Cannon in the 77th minute, found himself through on goal and made no mistake as he thumped it into the back of the net - and turned the evening on a sixpence. The MKM Stadium erupted, the thunderous roar getting ever louder as Tyler Smith very nearly grabbed the winner in the 86th minute, his 20-yard shot saved by Maxwell low to his left.
Deep into the anxious five minutes of injury time ex-Tiger Josh Bowler could have won it for Blackpool but his fizzing shot went wide of the left post, and Luke Garbutt then had his shot saved, to the palpable relief of the City fans.
Up to those final frenetic minutes it had been the same old story – City had had by far more possession, more corners, more shots… and nothing to show for it. But with 10 men, they appeared to play with more urgency than with the full complement, and while that precious point will not have done much to ease the pressure on McCann, he may sleep a little easier tonight.