Toothless Tigers sunk again as Sky Blues take points
DISCONSOLATE: Jacob Greaves reflects as City are beaten at home by Coventry. Picture credit: Hull City
Hull City 0 - 1 Coventry City
Sky Bet Championship
By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City correspondent
This ‘city of culture’ clash between the former and current holders of the title may have begun with a Remembrance ceremony – but it was a day to forget for the Tigers as they notched up their 10th defeat of the season.
Minute’s silences at football grounds are a dying art these days, and so it proved here with most fans initially breaking out into somewhat jarring applause after the Last Post, then finally putting a lid on it until all that could be heard was the sizeable contingent of Coventry fans on the North Stand concourse.
Grant McCann had reshuffled his pack yet again ahead of kick-off, making four changes – bringing in Andy Cannon, Josh Emmanuel, George Moncur and Tom Eaves, for Lewie Coyle, Mallik Wilks, Josh Magennis, and the entirely absent George Honeyman, who was apparently out through illness, not injury, as he watched proceedings from the stands.
But if the aim of the shake-up was to ring some positive changes, it had entirely the opposite effect as Coventry started to tear through the Tigers’ defence almost from the off, and it only took nine minutes for City to concede the first goal - something that’s becoming a bit of a habit, to say the least.
Jacob Greaves had put in a superb tackle on Viktor Gyökeres to thwart the initial approach, but there was no one near the loose ball, which was picked up by Ian Maatsen. He lofted it to Matt Godden, whose central diving header beat Matt Ingram from about eight yards.
On 13 minutes, Godden found himself clear on goal again, and it looked on course to be a certain second for him and the Sky Blues, but Ingram just managed to push the ball wide.
City were struggling to get a grip on the game, with clear-cut chances hard to come by; on 22 minutes, Di’Shon Bernard’s header in the box was easily collected by Simon Moore. A mistake in the Coventry defence nearly let in Eaves on 26 minutes, but he was unable to get the ball under his feet.
CLOSE ATTENTION: Substitute Mallik Wilks tries to burst through three Coventry players. Picture credit: Hull City
Ingram came to City’s rescue once again in the 32nd minute, leaping to his left to keep out a goalbound shot by Gyökeres.
A couple of minutes later, Callum Elder played Eaves in with a perfect cross from the left. Moore again scooped up Eaves’s effort from six yards, but the offside flag had already gone up.
Greaves did well again with a strong challenge on Gyökeres in the 38th minute, with the referee denying City’s appeals for handball in the build-up.
As half-time approached, there was a lengthy stoppage as City Captain Richie Smallwood was treated for an injury. Then Coventry had four quick corners in succession, the final in-swinging ball being gratefully collected by Ingram as the whistle blew at last, and the boos rang out … again.
Sean McLoughlin replaced Smallwood as the Tigers came out for the second half, but it was Coventry who came out of the blocks with more purpose, looking by far the more dangerous and winning a corner, from which Kyle McFadzean headed over.
Godden only just failed to latch on to a long-range pass from Jake Clarke-Salter on 50 minutes, and three minutes later Eaves was booked for a foul on Clarke-Salter. Gustavo Hamer’s subsequent 25-yard free kick went well wide.
The Tigers broke for a rare attack a minute later, Emmanuel having the best opportunity to shoot from about 12 yards out, but he failed to connect with the ball. Elder then lofted a long-range free kick into the box, but that too came to nothing.
TUSSLE: Di’Shon Bernard keeps it tight at the back. Picture credit: Hull City
There was yet more heart-in-mouth defending as the hour-mark approached, with Gyökeres shooting wide after the Tigers failed to clear – a big chance to grab a second had gone begging, to the relief of the City fans, of whom only those in E3 and E4 could be heard trying, but not quite managing, to out-sing the Sky Blues fans in full voice.
The 62nd minute saw another reshuffle by McCann, who brought on Wilks and Magennis for Moncur and Eaves, with Lewis-Potter dropping behind the new front two. But still they struggled to wrestle possession from the opposition, and it took quite a few minutes for the Tigers to mount a meaningful attack.
They came the closest yet to an equaliser on 70 minutes when Elder’s long throw was flicked on by Greaves, who found Wilks, but he headed agonisingly wide.
On 75 minutes, Coventry substitute Jamie Allen sliced wide as the Tigers again looked horribly exposed at the back. Five minutes later, as a 20-yard shot from Cannon was easily collected by Moore, the stadium’s resident peregrine falcon swooped low and clinically picked off a helpless pigeon, circling around the stands on a victory lap with its prey.
The same couldn’t be said for City, who came away empty-handed yet again - despite trying to throw the kitchen sink at Coventry in the dying minutes, which saw Moore tip over Wilks’s bouncing downward header, and a dangerous free kick from Elder going just wide deep into added time.
It was ironic that the defeat followed Grant McCann’s comments about “being judged on performance” – because this wasn’t in any way, shape or form a good performance.
As speculation continues to grow around a potential takeover of the club, you could say this match was a complete turkey.