A Good Friday as blackout City end home hoodoo
Pictures by Hull City
Hull City 2 - 1 Cardiff City
Sky Bet Championship
By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City correspondent
The Tigers officially secured their Championship status for next season with a convincing and long-overdue home victory against a much-altered Cardiff side whose safety had already been assured.
City manager Shota Arveladze had yesterday hinted at changing to the away strip in an attempt to cast off their home form hoodoo, and this they did, donning the stylish ‘blackout’ kit, in contrast to the Bluebirds’ all-white – and it took just eight minutes for it to have the desired effect.
While the east of Hull had earlier claimed bragging rights in front of just over 10,000 fans in the big derby match across the river, a sold-out Chris Chilton Stand and well-thronged West Upper helped the official attendance in west Hull to 15,685, the second-highest league crowd of the season – this despite the North Stand being largely empty barring a few busloads from South Wales.
In the first couple of minutes it was Cardiff (with seven changes from last time out, including 19-year-old debutant Oliver Denham) who made the first attacking foray.
Moments later, though, Keane Lewis-Potter raced down the left and drilled a cross across the face of goal, but there was no one there to connect with it.
However, in the eighth minute, Jacob Greaves played Lewis-Potter in with a long ball down the left. KLP powered ahead again, just managing to get in front of his marker, and put in another cross that Cardiff keeper Dillon Phillips rushed out to meet – but Allahyar Sayyadmanesh, on his first home start for the Tigers, beat him to it. He raced in down the middle, picked up the ball before Phillips could get to it, and tapped into the empty net for his first goal in a City shirt. Cue unbridled joy in the sunbathed stadium – it had been a long time coming.
Four minutes later, Lewis-Potter went on another blistering run down the left, rode an incoming challenge brilliantly, and played the ball back from the byline. After a couple of deflections it fell to Regan Slater on the 18-yard line; he squared the ball to Lewie Coyle, whose low left-footed drive beat Phillips – a first league goal for him too, returning from injury. It was a dream start for him, and the Tigers – 2-0 up at home after just 11 minutes.
The only similarity between the keepers at this point was really their shocking-pink kits. Matt Ingram, by far the least busy of the two, was called into action in the 14th minute, making a very good stop to keep out a shot from Uche Ikpeazu, but much of the play was up the other end as City looked more confident passing the ball about than they had for some weeks at the MKM Stadium.
More danger for the Bluebirds came when a foul on George Honeyman by Denham led to a free kick deep on the right, from which Sayyadmanesh leapt up to head wide of the target.
Cardiff enjoyed a brief spell of pressure as the minutes ticked towards half-time, and in the 43rd minute a central 30-yard free kick from Will Vaulks found Mark McGuinness in a dangerous position in front of goal; he shot wide, but had been ruled offside anyway.
City, unchanged after the restart, very nearly made it 3-0 less than two minutes in as Slater broke free on the right, with Lewis-Potter racing towards goal to the left of him. Slater passed to KLP, but his shot from the centre of the box was well saved by Phillips.
As the half wore on, perhaps a little complacency crept in as Cardiff grew into the game and managed to mount a few more attacks, winning three corners in the space of about 10 minutes, but they never troubled Ingram much. Vaulks was unmarked and allowed a bit too much space and time on a couple of occasions, before Ryan Wintle sliced wide on the hour mark, to jeers from the home fans.
Mark Harris had a go in the 65th minute, and given the time he had to shoot, he maybe could have done better with his effort from the left-hand corner of the 18-yard area, which was well held by Ingram.
In the 69th minute, Aden Flint was booked for an off-the-ball incident with Sayyadmanesh, who fell to the ground, clutching his face. He was then substituted, leaving the field to a standing ovation from all sides of the ground, replaced by Marcus Forss.
In the 76th minute, the Bluebirds came close to grabbing one back when substitute Tommy Doyle shot wide of the post. Four minutes later, they did grab one back. From a corner, Doyle played in Flint, who headed into the top-left corner from close range above the leaping Ingram. Cardiff suddenly realised they had something to play for after all, and it made for a bit of a nervy last 10 minutes.
But City didn’t crumble; they continued to put the pressure on, with Honeyman geeing up the fans in the South Stand as he took an 88th-minute corner.
Four minutes of added time were announced, during which Cardiff’s only attempt was a row Z-er by substitute Ruben Colwill, which summed up the majority of the Bluebirds’ afternoon.
The final whistle blew at last – and with it came the confirmation that the Tigers will definitely be playing Championship football next season. The kit may have been black, but the future is the brightest it’s been for a long time. What a very Good Friday this has been…