TypicalCity undone by the Blades

Pictures by Hull City

Hull City 0 - 2 Sheffield United

Sky Bet Championship

MKM Stadium

Attendance: 20,426

By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City correspondent

The new regime may have erased quite a few awful legacies of the recent past, but there can be fewer things more constant in our history than the spectre of TypicalCity. It was a frustrating afternoon, to say the least, for the Tigers, who fell to their first home defeat this season in front of their first 20,000-plus crowd in five years.

The anticipation ahead of this Yorkshire derby had reached fever pitch, with Hull City posting regular social media updates on the spiralling ticket sales – 17,000… 18,000… 18,500… 19,000… and then the magical 20,000. Oh, how wonderful it would have been for all of these new and returning fans to have seen a famous victory over old enemies – but that’s generally not how it ends, as old cynics will know.

The Tigers were simply second-best against a Blades side who ended the day on top of the Championship, despite having the best of the chances – chances you just can’t miss on occasions like this.

It was a fast-paced start by both teams, and the first shot on target came in the third minute, courtesy of Oscar Estupiñán – a downwards header easily dealt with by Blades keeper Wes Foderingham. A minute later, at the other end, a long-range effort from Sander Berge went a couple of yards wide.

In the sixth minute, Sheffield United registered their first shot on target, a 25-yard shot from Tommy Doyle that was comfortably claimed by Matt Ingram. Moments later, Oli McBurnie needlessly shoulder-charged Ingram in the area, and the City keeper – fairly dramatically, it has to be said – plummeted to the ground. McBurnie went nose to nose with the referee, and stern words were had.

Then, just 11 minutes in, came yet more injury turmoil for City. Benjamin Tetteh, stretching for the ball, suddenly pulled up and fell to the turf. After a few minutes being attended to by the physios, he took a painfully slow hobble from the field, barely able to put one foot in front of the other.

Tetteh was replaced by Ryan Longman, and one of his first acts was to play a ball across to Tufan running free on the left – it had looked a promising move but the pass was slightly mistimed and Tufan was ruled offside.

The injury to Tetteh had seemed to deaden the atmosphere among the huge crowd somewhat – and then, in the 20th minute, a Blades goal proved even more of a buzzkill. McBurnie fired home from the edge of the area after standing up to a challenge from Alfie Jones. It was one that Ingram could perhaps have done better with, although there may have been a slight deflection, making the ball bounce a bit awkwardly.  

The Blades were, by now, getting the upper hand ­– but if they did appear to have a particular vulnerability, it was being hit on the break, and in the 26th minute the Tigers had a glorious chance to equalise after a mistake by Oliver Norwood saw him dispossessed by Callum Elder, who played in Oscar.

He ran the length of the Blades half, with just the keeper to beat, and you’d have bet your mortgage on the league’s top scorer to put it away – but Foderingham somehow pulled off an incredible double save from the big Colombian, and injured himself in the process. There was another lengthy hold-up before he was able to recover.

Things quietened down towards the end of the half, as the Blades were intent on pushing the Tigers back. City looked a bit short of ideas, eliciting a smattering of boos as their attacking moves ended up back with Ingram on a few too many occasions. Half-time couldn’t come soon enough – they were in desperate need of a break and a regroup.

But first there would be six minutes of added time, entirely expected after those long injury stoppages – and City did try to push forward a couple of times, most notably through Tufan. Breaking clean through after being played in by Oscar, he decided to chip the keeper, but his shot hit the roof of the net. It was another disappointing miss as he’d had enough space and time to bury it.

Things didn’t really get much better for City in the second half. In the 52nd minute, Ingram did well to hold on to a snapshot from Iliman Ndiaye, who, in space about 10 yards out, should have done better.

Towards the hour-mark, there was yet another long injury stoppage after Anel Ahmedhodzic, going up for the ball in the City area, caught Tobias Figueiredo with his trailing heel. The City fans in the North Stand were clamouring for a red card, but a yellow was shown while Figueiredo lay prone. Indeed, the only red that could be seen had come from a flare thrown from the away end in the direction of City fans in the East Stand.

At last, Figueiredo was back on his feet and re-entered the game, as the volume increased – and so did the number of objects thrown between both sets of fans, as well as the numbers of police officers lining up between E3 and E4.

Just after the hour mark, Longman went close, shooting over from inside the area after latching on to a great ball from Elder. Perhaps spurred on by the newly invigorated North Stand fans, the Tigers were enjoying a better spell of possession at this point, and in the 67th minute they won a couple of corners in quick succession. The first was headed out by McBurnie, and from the second attempt the ball fell to Lewie Coyle, about 30 yards out, but the captain skewed it well wide.

As the 70-minute mark approached, it was time to introduce Jean Michael Seri – but one of his first acts was a poor corner that only reached the first man.

A few minutes later, Coyle felt aggrieved to concede a free kick on the left-hand side of the box, as it had looked for all the world like a good tackle, and fortunately the resulting kick was straight at Oscar.

But with just 15 minutes to go, the Tigers were hit by a sucker punch. Seri failed to close down Ndiaye, who squared the ball to Berge, in space on the right, and he managed to get beyond Greaves and Slater and skewer a classy shot into the back of the net from an acute angle.

New signing Dimitrios Pelkas was then introduced, along with Sean McLoughlin, before the game was stopped again, this time after an incident among the home fans in the North West corner.

Hull City later confirmed that they were investigating allegations of racist abuse towards Sheffield United’s Kyron Gordon, who had been warming up on the touchline. Media officer Dan Briggs said: “Shota [Arveladze] was a part of the discussions that took place [pitchside], but we are speaking to the referees, the security and Sheffield United to ascertain what happened.”

With eight minutes to go, the Blades were still on the attack. Doyle stretched to connect with the ball in the centre of the area but could only toe-poke it wide, before substitute Rhian Brewster’s curling shot went wide of the right post.

Nine minutes of injury time were announced – again, no surprises there. It didn’t spark much of a roar from the home fans, though. They knew the game was up and many were streaming for the exits.

As the final seconds ticked away, there was a bit of handbags involving quite a few players after a clash between Coyle and Rhys Norrington Davies, which resulted in bookings for Figueiredo and Brewster [but, oddly, not for Coyle, who looked like he’d been the instigator]. Seri’s resulting free kick went straight into the arms of Foderingham.

The controversy towards the end of this match, though, may well be what dominates the headlines in the coming days – it was a sour note on which to end a day that had begun with so much positivity.