Late Connolly leveller earns Tigers a point against Sky Blues

Pictures courtesy of Hull City

Hull City 1 - 1 Coventry City

Sky Bet Championship

MKM Stadium

Attendance: 21,888

By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City Correspondent

Hull City are up to fifth after Aaron Connolly’s late goal rescued a point from a performance that was encouraging, even if it didn’t entirely live up to “the greatest show” promised by the pre-match light-and-fire extravaganza.

While Hull City v Coventry City on a Friday night might not be many people’s idea of “the greatest show”, it was a spirited encounter with a few notable bright spots for the Tigers (aside from the flamethrowers) – namely the debuts for new signing Jaden Philogene and Liverpool loanee Tyler Morton, whose brilliant assist set up Connolly’s equaliser.

Philogene showed his class from the off, impressing the boisterous North Stand with some early trickery. Played in by Seri in the fourth minute, he danced into the box and helped City win a corner, but it was cleared by Coventry defenders.

In previous home matches this season, City have often started slowly and cautiously. Not tonight. Two more corners followed a couple of minutes later, one taken short, the other long, as Coventry struggled to get out of their own half for much of the opening phase.

The Tigers enjoyed a good spell of pressure during which Philogene again impressed on the left-hand edge of the penalty area, drawing cheers from the North Stand fans as he feinted left and right to evade his marker, before, in the 18th minute, Connolly shot just wide from a difficult angle.

In the 24th minute came the first real chance for the Sky Blues as a shot from Jay Dasilva flashed inches wide of the right-hand post. Moments later, Alfie Jones did well to charge down Milan Van Ewijk and put the ball out for a corner, as the City defence was beginning to look more than a little hesitant in the face of the increased pressure.

And this pressure brought almost instant reward –Joshua Eccles’ corner was met by the head of Joel Latibeaudiere, who rose highest and powered an unstoppable header past Matt Ingram into the bottom-right corner of the net.

The sea of sky blue erupted in the sold-out north-east corner (props to the thousands who travelled up the M1 on a Friday night), and play was halted as a blue flare was thrown on to the pitch (no props to whoever threw that, though).

Suddenly all the noise was coming from that direction as Haji Wright ballooned over from close-range. This wasn’t in the script – this wasn’t the greatest show the home fans had been expecting, especially given the fact that, last time out, the Tigers had beaten league leaders Leicester on their own patch. 

Five minutes before the break, Liam Delap came close to levelling matters before Connolly saw an even better chance go begging, dragging the ball inches wide of the left-hand post from a corner.

Ruben Vinagre made way for Cyrus Christie at half-time, and barely a minute after the restart a low 20-yard shot from Twine was batted away by keeper Ben Wilson.

In the 51st minute, a long-range shot from Eccles went just wide of the right post, before Matty Godden’s effort was blocked by Jones, and Liam Kelly had a shot saved by Ingram – another good spell of pressure that had the Sky Blues fans in full voice once again.

Three minutes later Twine blazed high and wide, putting his hand up to acknowledge his blunder. He did better a minute later, played in by Philogene, but hit it straight at Wilson, who saved comfortably.

Morton replaced Jean Michael Seri in the 59th minute, and it wasn’t long before he tried an 18-yard daisycutter that missed the left post. Then his impressive cross-field ball found Lewie Coyle, who played in Philogene. He darted past Eccles and put a dangerous ball into the box which only just evaded the clutch of Tigers there.

In the 68th minute, a foul by Van Ewijk on Philogene conceded a free kick inches from the left-hand corner of the box. Twine stepped up… and bent it high and wide. Moments later, Twine was in again, taking a pot-shot from about six yards out, but it was hastily kicked away by Wilson.

In the 75th minute, Twine had yet another go, this time shooting wide of the right post from about 20 yards. He then had another shot blocked – but he just didn’t seem able to properly wrap his feet around anything.

Kyle McFadzean was carded in the 81st minute for a cynical foul on Delap, who thumped the turf in frustration, having been cut down in his tracks as he raced towards the box. From the resulting free kick, up stepped Twine… and, again, he ballooned it high and wide. It truly wasn’t his day.

It was, however, Connolly’s day after all. With three minutes of normal time left on the clock, Morton, on the left, lofted a 20-yard ball into the area. With his back towards goal about 12 yards out, Connolly got his head to it and flicked it into the back of the net.

At last, the other three sides of the stadium were bouncing – and then it all started kicking off.

Yellow cards were flying about everywhere (seven in total during the last 10 minutes), plus one for Liam Rosenior for his touchline protestations at what he deemed a “rugby tackle” by Binks on Delap in a centre-circle clash that had been nowhere near the ball. For, right at the same time, Latibeaudiere was being carded for bringing down Philogene. It was difficult to know which melee to focus on, and it seemed as though the referee had also missed the off-the-ball incident.

As Rosenior was reprimanded, “his nanna’s from Hull” rose from the North Stand, and the Tigers manager returned the favour by applauding the fans.

All in all, a fair result, then. Maybe it wasn’t the greatest show, but with the exciting Philogene in the side, you sense that it might not be too long before City deliver a real blockbuster…