All too easy for Hatters as home jinx haunts sloppy Tigers

Pictures by Hull City

Hull City 1 - 3 Luton Town

Sky Bet Championship

By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City correspondent

City’s Jekyll-and-Hyde form continued in front of the biggest crowd of the season so far, as they capitulated to a Luton side who have automatic promotion to the Premier League firmly in their sights.

Were it not for Tom Eaves’s injury-time consolation goal, it would have been the Tigers’ longest home goal drought for 30 years.

Swelling the 16,555 crowd were the fans in the West Stand Upper, which had been reopened for the first time in nearly five years. No longer was the entire stand and concourse the sole domain of the press and media, for whom, no doubt, it took some getting used to.

On the walk through West Park to the MKM Stadium earlier this afternoon, it had felt like things were turning a corner, at least in terms of the season.

Despite a chilly breeze, there was warmth in the sun, daffodils in bloom and buds on the trees. Would the Tigers follow suit? Or would we yet again follow an impressive away victory with a dispiriting performance in front of another large home crowd?

The answer started to become clear after just nine minutes, after Luton had gradually put on the pressure in the opening stages. Harry Cornick had twice found himself in a dangerous position in City’s penalty area, and the Hatters seemed to be creeping past City’s defence all too easily.

And all too predictably, it wasn’t long before the Tigers were a goal behind. Elijah Adebayo’s shot from a tight angle on the left appeared to take a slight deflection and trundled meekly over the line.

City, to their credit, did at least attempt to hit straight back, and a foul on Keane Lewis-Potter by Jordan Clark on 11 minutes gave the young striker – newly called up to England’s under-21s this week – chance to hit a free-kick in a good position about 20 yards out, but it sailed well over the bar.

A few minutes later he drew a foul from Allan Campbell to the left of the area, but that too came to nothing.

If the Tigers were going to have much hope of getting one back, it looked more like it would be through a set-piece, and hopes were raised again when Lewis-Potter was fouled by Peter Kioso on the right of the area in the 25th minute. Once more, though, the Hatters snuffed it out.

A couple of minutes later, though, a well-worked move in open play led to Ryan Longman taking on a long-range shot that found its way through the Luton defence for James Shea to save at the second attempt.

In the 29th minute, the ball fell to Luke Berry in a central position, and his first-time hit flew over the bar, but it looked powerful enough to have troubled Ingram had it been on target.

As the Tigers continued to push for the equaliser, they won a couple of corners in quick succession around the 35-minute mark, but still they couldn’t trouble Shea over-much.

In the 40th minute, George Honeyman, in the middle of the park, did well to slide the ball through to Lewis-Potter. He advanced towards the area from the left, was challenged by Kioso, and won another corner, from which Tom Eaves fired well wide of the right post.

Moments before the half-time whistle blew, Eaves found himself in space on the left of the area, but his slide-rule pass across the face of goal met absolutely no one in an amber shirt, to the frustration of the home fans.

City nearly found the equaliser a minute after the restart, when Berry fouled Jacob Greaves just outside the left-hand corner of the area. Honeyman’s kick was met by the head of Alfie Jones, but it went inches wide of the right post.

Shortly after, City powered forward again, and Lewis-Potter stung the palms of Shea with a powerful shot from the left side of the box.

In the 53rd minute, the crowd began to respond to this promising attacking spell, roaring on the Tigers as Lewis-Potter did very well to stay on his feet in the area and pass to Honeyman, who found Eaves, but he scuffed it wide of the left post.

However, any hope of getting anything out of the game all but went up in smoke in the 56th minute, as another defensive calamity undid all this good work and resulted in another laughably easy goal for Luton.

Sean McLoughlin was caught in possession at the back and, despite the best efforts of Honeyman to track back, all Cornick had to do was roll the ball in from about 10 yards.

City manager Shota Arveladze then made a couple of changes in the 66th minute, bringing on Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and Tom Huddlestone on for Richie Smallwood and Greg Docherty.

Sadly for City, Huddlestone’s first act of note was to bring down Jordan Clark just outside the area, for which the veteran earned himself a yellow card. James Bree stepped up, and hit a beauty of a shot that cannoned off the underside of the crossbar – and there was no doubt here as to whether this one was over the line.

It was game well and truly over at 0-3 down, with a little under half an hour left; the remainder of the game would be about saving face.

In the 81st minute, both Sayyadmanesh and third substitute Marcus Forss (on for Longman) had glorious chances to do just that, in a rare moment when Luton’s defence looked at sixes and sevens, but both had shots easily blocked.

With about five minutes to go, and just before Luton were about to take another dangerous free-kick, a young fan ran on the pitch and grabbed a selfie with Ingram, which for many turned out to be the highlight of the game.

Whether any action was taken against the boy isn’t clear, and at the time of writing, we await the appearance of said photo…

However, as proceedings dwindled to a close and fans began to drift away in droves, it became evident that there was a medical emergency unfolding in the East Stand, as stewards could be seen holding up large foil sheets to shield one of the tunnels to the concourse.

Eaves grabbed one back seconds before full-time, getting ahead of his marker and slotting in from close range from a cross by Forss.

Again, though, it was like watching a different team from the one that has done so well on the road of late. Perhaps they should, as one wag on Twitter suggested, be driven around in the team coach for an hour before each home match…