City come up short against in-form QPR

Pictures courtesy of Hull City

Hull City 1 - 2 QPR

Sky Bet Championship

MKM Stadium

Attendance: 19,180

By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City Correspondent

Hull City went down to an in-form QPR side who have now won four on the bounce – but it was yet another limp defeat that keeps the Tigers very much in the relegation mix.

A fantastic late strike from Joe Gelhardt on his home debut offered City a lifeline, but the damage had been done, puncturing a hole in the confidence gained by a gritty win at Millwall at the weekend.

Ruben Sellés named three changes ahead of kick-off – Cody Drameh in for Lewie Coyle, who was injured at Millwall; Harry Vaughan making his first start for about a year, in place of Mason Burstow; and Gelhardt in ahead of the injured Abu Kamara.

QPR had the first say, as in the fourth minute Paul Smyth forced a save at the near post from Carl Rushworth. The resulting corner briefly looked dangerous, but it was soon cleared.

But the Tigers began to settle, and in the eighth minute, played in by Vaughan, Steven Alzate picked up the ball about 18 yards out. “Shoooot!” cried the North Stand. He duly obliged, but his effort fizzed just wide of the right post.

Moments later, Vaughan made a jinking run into the left side of the area, dancing past one, then two defenders, before forcing a save by Paul Nardi at the near post. The North Stand began chanting his name.

Gustavo Puerta’s corner was met by the head of João Pedro, but, agonisingly for City, no one in the six-yard area could connect with the flick-on. It was the Tigers’ most dangerous moment so far.

But almost as soon as the Tigers appeared to have settled, QPR began to grow into the game. After about the 20-minute mark they enjoyed a decent spell of possession, during which a 20-yard shot by Ilias Chair went right straight into the arms of Rushworth.

They did a fair bit better in the 26th-minute, though, when Morgan Fox rifled a 25-yard effort that took the slightest of deflections off Alzate and went just wide of the near post.

Rushworth flapped at the corner, and it was partly cleared before the keeper was wrong-footed and Fox saw another effort bounce off the same post. All of the game’s early momentum had by now largely dissipated.

In the 33rd minute, a foul on Vaughan on the left edge of the area resulted in a free kick, taken by Puerta – but instead of lofting it into the mixer he went for the shot, and could only put it a yard over the bar.

The atmosphere was little more than a general hubbub. While fans are regularly vilified for not getting behind the team, they can hardly be blamed if there’s not much to shout about, and there really wasn’t.

Vaughan, by far the liveliest of the lot, was trying his best to find the spark – and in the 38th minute he made another run into the left of the area but shot straight at Nardi. The North Stand launched into a brief chant of “Something good” – an admirable attempt, perhaps sung more out of hope rather than being descriptive of the action in front of them.

Vaughan had a shot blocked a few minutes later as City briefly surged forward, before Regan Slater was booked for stopping a QPR attack.

City started the second half positively, putting pressure on QPR from the off. In the 49th minute, they very nearly took the lead, after Pedro picked the pocket of a QPR defender before playing in Gelhardt. His shot was blocked, and Pedro stumbled over it before it fell to Slater, but he fired inches wide of the right-hand post. 

A few minutes later City were awarded a free kick 30 yards out, which Puerta chipped over the top and it was headed behind for a corner. Puerta took that too, and bent it into the six-yard area. With keeper Nardi floundering, Gelhardt could only head over the bar.

A clear reminder of the need to make this pressure count came a minute or so later when Rushworth palmed away a 12-yard shot from Smyth before Kieran Morgan’s close-range follow-up hit the side netting.  

This proved to be a harbinger of doom as, in the 64th minute, the visitors did indeed take the lead. Alfie Jones pulled off an amazing slide to clear off the line from Kenneth Paal, but after a goalmouth scramble during which Alzate spurned a couple of chances to clear, Paal was there to put in the rebound.

Matt Crooks (also making his home debut) and Mason Burstow replaced Puerta and Vaughan in the 67th minute – but barely three minutes later, QPR had doubled their lead.

This time it was through a bit of individual brilliance by substitute Koki Saito, who did very well to wrong-foot Drameh on the byline before taking a shot from an almost unfathomably acute angle to beat Rushworth.

All of a sudden the Tigers were all at sea, and time was running out for them to steady the ship. As they went on the attack there were loud appeals from the South Stand for handball against Paal after Gelhardt’s shot deflected off him into the arms of Nardi, but the referee was having none of it.

With 10 minutes to go, Matty Jacob replaced Burns, but it really did feel like the game was up now – and as substitute Alfie Lloyd sought to break clean through on goal, City fans could be forgiven for fearing the worst, but Drameh did well to keep him at bay.

Five minutes before time came the spark the match had long been needing – and City were back in it through another bit of solo skill.

Alzate threaded the ball through the middle, and Crooks knocked it back to Gelhardt, who produced a lovely 25-yard chip that flew over a helpless Nardi. A thing of absolute beauty and a contender for goal of the season (not that there is all that much competition, as it stands…).

As five minutes of injury time was announced, came a roar from the crowd louder than had been heard all game. There was a corner that brought brief hope, but it came to nothing, and that was that. Too little, too late.

This team has more fight and bite than it ever did under Walter, but City are, at the moment, frustratingly incapable of building on their hard-fought results.

Every week seems like one step forward, and one (if not two) steps back. The latest movements in the transfer window do offer some hope, but the Tigers simply must put a run together soon if they are to break free of the trapdoor – otherwise their chances of survival will start looking as threadbare as the MKM Stadium’s pitch…