Last-gasp Óscar steals point against Terriers as home win still eludes Rosenior

Pictures courtesy of Hull City

Hull City 1 - 1 Huddersfield Town

Sky Bet Championship

MKM Stadium

Attendance: 17,928

By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City Correspondent

Óscar Estupiñán rescued a point in the 98th minute with virtually the last kick of the game – going some way to sparing the Tigers’ blushes after what had easily been the worst performance so far under Liam Rosenior.

A 0-1 defeat against a second-bottom side who had, before this match, only garnered eight points away would have been among the most typical of TypicalCity things… and they avoided it with just seconds to spare, despite dominating possession almost throughout.

Just before kick-off came the annual tribute to those who had died in 2022, including former chairmen Christopher Needler and Assem Allam, players Terry Neill and Bernard Fisher, and dozens more much-missed fans. Warm applause rang out as the two big screens played a slideshow of their names and faces.

Huddersfield started the game the brighter, and just over a couple of minutes in, they came close to taking the lead.

Cyrus Christie was forced to slice out a cross which, for a nervy split-second, looked as though it was heading goalwards. From the corner, there was a melee at the back post and City keeper Matt Ingram stood up well, but it proved to be a harbinger of things to come.

A couple of minutes later, Duane Holmes latched onto a mistake by Alfie Jones but he shot straight at Ingram, who held comfortably.

City’s first real chance came in the 14th minute, as a powerful shot from Regan Slater forced a great reaction save from 20-year-old Nicholas Bilokapic, making his Championship debut for Town.

During a period of possession for Huddersfield they forced a couple of corners in quick succession. From the second, in the 19th minute, City earned themselves a record they won’t be shouting about any time soon – it’s now 14 home games without a clean sheet.

After the defence had routinely failed to clear the ball, it pinged around the six-yard area and was eventually pounced on by Michal Helik at the back post. “Helik only scores against Hull City,” joked some members of the Huddersfield press – and, indeed, the Terriers were proving themselves the Tigers’ bogey team, having won the previous five encounters and looking highly likely to make it six in a row.

In the 32nd minute, Greg Docherty shot well wide – it was a rare direct attempt on goal as the Tigers just seemed to be drifting around aimlessly, with no spark or urgency, and producing nothing of substance to encourage the large crowd out of their seats. If ever there was a moment to chant, “This is a library,” this was it – but the sizeable contingent of Terriers fans in the North East corner didn’t appear to grab the opportunity.

A few minutes later, Jones let the ball run to Holmes, who found himself one-on-one with Ingram. The City defender will have been mightily relieved to have seen Ingram save it, and even more grateful to see the offside flag go up – but it was still another example of the self-destructive sloppiness that had led to the opening goal.

That much-needed spark didn’t immediately come after the restart, either, despite the fact that the Tigers were now playing towards the vocal home following in the North Stand and enjoying the lion’s share of the possession.

In the 58th minute, all that could be heard were jeers as Christie ballooned a cross over the byline, before Rosenior made his first changes of the afternoon. Ozan Tufan and Callum Elder were brought on in place of Sean McLoughlin and Ryan Longman.

It looked like the change in personnel – and formation – had done the trick, up to a point. Suddenly the North Stand was roaring at last, as City came so close to the equaliser and easily their best chance yet.

Bilokapic did really well to get his fingers to Estupiñán’s shot from the edge of the area, and tipped the ball on to the right post. Then Tufan shot just wide from 20 yards, before another couple of substitutes raised the tempo yet further, Benjamin Tetteh and Aaron Connolly replacing Docherty and Tyler Smith.

Helik came close again after a Town corner in the 72nd minute, but City regained possession and a few minutes later it was their turn to ping the ball around the Huddersfield six-yard area, but to no avail.

With the clock ticking, and City’s chances of getting anything out of this match ebbing away, you could have forgiven fans for thinking the ads on the screens were more interesting than the action on the pitch – and one of them in particular might have drawn rueful smiles.

“For every Tigers goal scored at home, we’ll donate a full kit to a local youth team,” promised KCOM. Perhaps they should change that to “goal conceded”…

In the 85th minute, as the board then displayed another impressive home attendance (17,928), a fair few of those had already made their way to the exits. City were huffing and puffing around Town’s penalty area but not overly troubling Bilokapic – until a snapshot from Tetteh on the edge of the area flashed over the bar.

“Come on City,” read the retro graphic on the screen as a City corner came in the 89th minute, before six minutes of added time then came up on the board. There was a lengthy delay as Town captain Jonathan Hogg went down in his own area – just another in a long line of Terriers poleaxed in the second half and being accused of timewasting by frustrated home fans and players alike.

Slater then shot low at Bilokapic with seconds to go – surely that was City’s last hope?

But the clock ticked past the 96 minutes (on account of that injury delay), Elder latched on to a high ball, and then played in Oscar.

As he is wont to do, Oscar banged it in past the stranded Bilokapic and into the far corner of the net for his 12th goal of the season – and sent the North Stand absolutely wild, some of them running towards the gutted Town fans. No doubt “limbs” videos are all over social media as we speak.

And some local youth team, somewhere, did get a kit from KCOM after all.