Misery for City as Posh pile on the pressure

Picture credit: Hull City

Hull City 1 - 2 Peterborough United

Sky Bet Championship

By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City correspondent

Football fans love pre-match omens. And they weren’t good for City, it has to be said.

It was their 13th match of the season, Peterborough had lost their last six away games on the trot, and it was being televised on Sky. And so it came to pass, as the Tigers slid back into the bottom three with a gutting defeat, including a penalty miss that will haunt Josh Magennis for a long time to come.

Grant McCann had made three changes from the defeat at Huddersfield, most notably bringing Tom Huddlestone back into the starting 11.

The first warning sign for the Tigers came on just six minutes, when Jack Taylor picked up the ball in acres of space about 25 yards out, and as City’s defence scrambled to get back, he shot well high of the target from outside the box.

Three minutes later at the other end, Di’Shon Bernard saw a glancing header from a corner go wide, and on 13 minutes he shot over from a far better position in the middle of the box.

City’s best chance thus far came on 17 minutes when Ronnie Edwards was booked for a foul on Keane Lewis-Potter. The resulting free kick was punched away by Posh keeper David Cornell, and the ball fell to Tom Huddlestone, who smashed a 20-yard volley into the right-hand post.

Cornell came off his line well to deny Potter through on goal a couple of minutes later, and on 21 minutes he was called on again to parry Potter’s in-swinging cross.

After a foul by Greg Docherty on Siriki Dembélé on 24 minutes, Jorge Grant’s free kick 25 yards out went just wide of the left post, and shortly after, an impressive passage of play by Peterborough resulted in a last-ditch save by Matt Ingram after Nathan Thompson managed to get behind the Tigers defence. It wouldn’t have counted, as Thompson was offside, but nevertheless, it was cause for concern.

As the half-hour mark approached, there was a blow for the Tigers as Huddlestone’s impressive return was cut short. He left the field injured, to be replaced by Richie Smallwood, and there followed a nervy bit of ping-pong in the Tigers’ box. With their talisman gone, City began to look increasingly wobbly.

They did manage to break through a great ball from Lewie Coyle to Mallik Wilks racing down the right, but he flashed his attempt disappointingly wide of the mark and it was deflected for a corner, from which a collision in the box saw a few bodies clatter to the ground. Bernard seemed to come off worse, but he recovered after a brief stoppage.

Moments later the home fans were aggrieved as Josh Magennis’s penalty shout was given short shrift by the referee. Magennis then had another go, shooting low and hard straight at the keeper.

Peterborough came forward once again as half-time approached, and a shot from Sammie Szmodics forced a save from Ingram. Then from the resulting corner, Posh made their attacking efforts count with an absolute beauty of a goal by Jack Taylor, who, picked out by Grant on the right, stepped up to curl an unstoppable 20-yard shot into the top-left corner.

But for only the second time this season, City hit back - and almost immediately. Elder flung in a cross from the left-hand side that fizzed across the goal area and found an unmarked Magennis looming towards the right-hand post. He planted a downward header on to the turf and into the roof of the net. In a few crucial seconds, City had managed to avoid what would have been an inevitable chorus of boos at half-time - and dampened, for the moment, the chants of “we want Bruce back” from a distinct corner of the East Stand.

Magennis nearly created a second goal on 53 minutes, playing a lovely ball in to Lewis-Potter from the right, but the young number 11 chipped it over from just a few yards out. A second Elder-Magennis connection a few minutes later only just failed to come off, as City began to put more pressure on the Posh defence. Wilks even attempted a bicycle kick eight yards out, but only managed to connect with thin air and the ground beneath him.

Lewis-Potter shot over on 63 minutes, and then came a glorious chance for City to take the lead when Dan Butler conceded a penalty with a foul on Wilks. Big Josh stepped up to take the kick…and blasted it further into space than William Shatner.

It was a sad conclusion to a decent shift by the Northern Irishman and a turning point that will likely give him nightmares, as it was Peterborough who went clinically back in front on 72 minutes. Dembélé latched on to a through ball from Grant and made no mistake from about 12 yards out.

McCann immediately brought on Tom Eaves, and 10 minutes later his header hit the crossbar, but Peterborough had pretty much parked the bus - even so, they very nearly bagged a third at the death following a calamitous decision by Ingram.

He had come upfield as the Tigers mounted a last-ditch attack, but Peterborough broke back with the City keeper in no-man’s land. Szmodics, racing through on goal, looked odds-on to score, and indeed he did have the ball in the back of the net, but it was ruled offside. It was no consolation to the City fans, though, for it would only have made a grim night even grimmer.

The full-time boos were back, and, this time, there were chants of “you’re getting sacked in the morning” directed at McCann from the East Stand.