Late drama a fitting end to Tigers’ eventful season
Pictures: Hull City
Hull City 1 - 1 Nottingham Forest
Sky Bet Championship
By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City correspondent
It was drama right at the death as the best action was saved until second-half stoppage time in this dead-rubber. Much of it was little to write home about – but Keane Lewis-Potter’s 94th-minute equaliser was a fitting high note to end this most eventful of seasons.
Ahead of kick-off, City’s new owner Acun Ilicali was mixing it with fans in the packed Botanic pub, while photos of his Tigers-branded jet went viral – two things we would never have expected to appear in the same sentence, but offer a taste of things to come under the new regime. Whatever happens next year won’t be dull, that’s for sure.
The game kicked off to a backdrop of Forest fans in full voice, beach balls and lilos bouncing around the sold-out North Stand, but, as the previous Saturday’s 5-0 drubbing at Bristol City had made clear, it was Hull City who were already on the beach. Forest, who were taunted by the fans in the equally raucous Chris Chilton Stand singing, “You’re not famous any more…” still have work to do, of course, and whether they will have the opportunity to regain that fame depends on the play-offs, today’s result setting up a tie against Sheffield United.
The visitors had made seven changes for this final league encounter, including two first starts for Richie Laryea and Jonathan Panzo, and it was an up-tempo start to the proceedings, even if chances in front of goal were few and far between.
The Tigers enjoyed the bulk of the early possession, and Jacob Greaves – fresh from winning Young Player of the Year at the club’s annual awards – looked positively inspired by the accolade, with some perfectly timed challenges and passes. An interesting statistic shared by the BBC’s David Burns before the match revealed that Greaves and fellow award-winner Lewis-Potter (a hat-trick of accolades for him) were the first home-grown players to complete a season for the Tigers since 1966. Whether that’s the case next season remains to be seen.
As the 10th minute approached, Allahyar Sayyadmanesh exploited a slip by Joe Worrall and surged into the area. Tobias Figueiredo pulled off a perfectly timed tackle to intercept him, and there was no margin for error here, otherwise it would have been a nailed-on spot kick to the Tigers.
In the 25th minute, Sayyadmanesh was nearly in again when he wrestled his way past Figueiredo and the on-rushing keeper Brice Samba, and for a moment it looked as though he’d be able to pop it into the open goal in much the same way as against Reading – but it was not to be, and he fell to the ground injured. He was down for a few minutes before he recovered to play on.
On the half-hour mark, Joe Lolley shot well wide and high from about 25 yards as Forest began to get a bit more of a grip on the match, but the vibes were very much “end of season with little to play for” from both sides.
In the 37th minute, Greaves put in another exceptional challenge, this time to intercept Philip Zinckernagel who was racing down the left, and there was a scramble in City’s goalmouth towards half-time that saw a shot by Alex Mighten blocked by the pack of City defenders.
About five minutes into the second half came easily the best chance for either side so far, as Xande Silva shot just wide at the near post from a low cross by Zinckernagel.
In the 57th minute, Sayyadmanesh, in the centre of the box, stuck a leg out and only just failed to connect with a looping cross from Callum Elder, and as the hour mark approached, the home crowd were briefly awoken from their torpor by another passage of good attacking play from the Tigers. Still, though, no real sniffs of goal.
A few minutes later, Sayyadmanesh, racing down the right, was too quick for Figueiredo, who was booked for tripping him up. George Honeyman’s free kick, however, failed to yield a shot on target. As Forest took it back up the other end, Zinckernagel booted it well over into the North Stand fans.
As a visit from Roary in the West Stand Upper distracted everyone in the press box for a few minutes, there was a City corner before Forest substitute Brennan Johnson picked up Samba’s goal kick and powered forward, but he could only shoot wide of the right post.
With 15 minutes to go, Nathan Baxter was called on for the first time, and he did well to parry Johnson’s low cross before saving the follow-up from substitute Sam Surridge. Moments later, Lewis-Potter headed over from a cross by Sayyadmanesh.
City’s first substitutes came in the 77th minute in the shape of the two Toms – Eaves and Huddlestone, the latter getting an especially warm welcome from the home fans.
In the 81st minute, Eaves waved frantically to Lewis-Potter to cross to him, which he duly did, but the big number 9 headed into the side netting from a difficult angle at the far post.
Breaking away after a Forest corner in the 83rd minute, Huddlestone intercepted the ball and slid a lovely pass to Eaves, who, despite lacking the pace to leave his marker, managed to hold up the ball and get it to Elder, who won a corner. Another corner came in quick succession, but it came to nothing and it looked like it was drifting to the inevitable 0-0.
With just a couple of minutes to go, Lewis-Potter was left punching the turf in frustration after skying a brilliant chance from about 15 yards out after being played in by Huddlestone, and seconds later Baxter made another great close-range stop to deny Mighten.
However, anyone who had decided to give up on the match and beat the traffic would have missed out on all the late excitement. In the 91st minute, Huddlestone upended Surridge in the box – penalty to Forest, no real complaints (except from Huddlestone). Johnson stepped up and made no mistake, and the huge contingent of Forest fans erupted in delight. Red smoke bombs were let off, with some landing on the pitch, and Johnson himself was booked for “excessive celebration”.
But the jubilation was cut short seconds later as Lewie Coyle picked up the ball on the right and lofted it towards Lewis-Potter, who took the slightest of touches on the six-yard line to put it past Samba. It’s arguable that Coyle’s kick would have gone in anyway, and as he wheeled away he looked like he’d thought it was his goal. Regardless of who got the final touch, it prompted utter pandemonium in front of the 18,000 crowd at the MKM Stadium – the highest league gate in five years.
All that was left after the final whistle was for the players to do a lap of honour, with a few fans breaking on to the pitch to congratulate them, but there was never going to be a large-scale invasion. What most fans had wished for at the start of the season had come true – Championship safety, and a regime change. There’s so much to look forward to in 2022-23… and, with the World Cup meaning the break is shorter than usual, it won’t be long before we start all over again.