Tetteh hits stunner as Tigers bag home points against West Brom
Pictures courtesy of Hull City
Hull City 2 - 0 West Brom
Sky Bet Championship
MKM Stadium
Attendance: 17,021
By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City Correspondent
The Tigers took their time to get going in front of the Friday night Sky TV cameras, but in the end they ran out comfortable winners against a West Brom side who’d had 70 per cent of the possession.
The Baggies also registered more than 20 shots, six of those on target. City, meanwhile, had just two, but, crucially – they both went in the back of the net.
Such clinical finishing has not exactly been a hallmark of the Tigers of late, and most fans would admit it hardly looked likely after one of the most turgid opening half-hours seen at home this season.
Indeed, the much-vaunted pre-match pitchside DJ and dazzling light show, complete with flamethrowers, threatened to overshadow the football once the whistle had blown for kick-off.
The club couldn’t have done much more in its efforts to crank up the atmosphere before the match began, but it only served to prove that the only thing that can truly blow the roof off the MKM Stadium is City goals.
And for a long, long time, goals really didn’t look remotely like coming, as both sides got bogged down in midfield for long periods.
There were a couple of half-hearted attacks at either end in the first five minutes, during which Darnell Furlong headed well over from a good position. It was a bit of an early warning sign for the Tigers, who had made four changes to their line-up on the back of two disappointing away matches that seemed to cement their mid-table status.
City were playing as though they had accepted this fate, and barely made any in-roads into West Brom’s half, while the Baggies continued to press forward.
In the ninth minute, a floated cross from Jed Wallace nearly found Mark Albrighton at the back post, but a fortunate bobble allowed Karl Darlow – making his home debut – to clutch hold of the ball.
In the 16th minute, a free kick by John Swift on the right of the area was well cleared by the City defence. Then a low 12-yard shot from Wallace was well held by Darlow, who then did even better to flick Daryl Dike’s effort wide.
A foul on Benjamin Tetteh half gave promise of some action just inside West Brom’s half, but Sean McLoughlin put it straight into touch, which summed up City’s efforts so far. Light show 1, Tigers 0… they were in dire need of some of their own fireworks.
And then, in the 33rd minute, City lit the blue touchpaper.
Tetteh, just outside the area in a central position, nodded the ball to Regan Slater, who, despite pressure from Okay Yokuslu, managed to slot the ball back to Tetteh running wide on the left, about 10 yards out. He turned, barely looking at the goal, and struck from an acute angle into the top right-hand corner of the net. One chance – brilliantly taken.
Suddenly City seemed like a different team. North Stand was bouncing. The Tigers started powering forward, and Tetteh was nearly in again moments later.
City forced corner after corner before the half-time whistle blew and the bewildered Baggies could regroup and figure out how they were losing this one.
From the restart, West Brom continued to press in search of the equaliser, and Darlow did really well to stop an effort from Dike who, seconds later, regained the ball but sliced it well wide.
In the 54th minute, a long-range shot from Xavier Simons fizzed wide of the right post. A few minutes later, Tetteh timed his run perfectly and stayed onside, and attempted another shot from a similar acute angle as in the first half, but Josh Griffiths got a touch to it before it was put out for a corner.
Ozan Tufan took the corner… and it looked for all the world as though Sean McLoughlin had nodded it in straight from the kick – for his first goal since 2019. However, it had in fact come off Baggies defender Dara O’Shea, who was later credited with the own goal.
McLoughlin will naturally be disappointed… but they all count, as they say, and it mattered not to a jubilant North Stand, who were, by now, chanting, “How **** must you be, we’re winning at home…” before they changed it to “We’re winning on Sky…”
West Brom came closest to grabbing one back in the 62nd minute as a free kick from Swift rocketed off the left-hand post, and the rebound was skied by O’Shea. Had that gone in, it could have made for a tense last half-hour, but in the event, City strolled to the victory.
Darlow pushed away a long-range shot from substitute Adam Reach, but chances were diminishing for the Baggies as the Tigers shut up shop and were content to protect their 2-0 lead.
The North Stand even attempted a chant of “You’re getting mauled by the Tigers,” knowing full well that 2-0 isn’t a “mauling” – but that opposition fans the land over are severely triggered by it. And, let’s face it – home wins like this have been so few and far between that this felt a bit like a mauling, didn’t it…?