Off-colour Tigers well beaten by Rovers

Hull City 0 - 3 Blackburn Rovers

Sky Bet Championship

MKM Stadium

Attendance: 20,518

By Sam Hawcroft, Hull City Correspondent

Hull City were brought firmly back down to earth with a comprehensive 3-0 defeat at the hands of Blackburn Rovers.

There had been positive vibes abound after last Sunday’s pulsating 3-2 win over Oxford, with plaudits for matchwinner Oli McBurnie, Joe Gelhardt and John Lundstram in particular.

But missing today were Matt Crooks, with an ankle injury, and Charlie Hughes, absent amid a sickness bug apparently doing the rounds in the camp. And the Tigers certainly played like they were off-colour – looking way off the pace on a deflating afternoon at the MKM.

Steve Jordan was back on pre-match duties – after an absence of several years – with his rousing round-the-stands introduction, but City couldn’t match the energy once the whistle went.

Among the visitors was long-serving former Tiger Sean McLoughlin, who had only left for Blackburn this summer.

Rovers pressed City from the off, and it took a good 15 minutes for the hosts to get going. In the opening exchanges they barely got out of their own half, though Blackburn hadn’t yet carved out any clear-cut chances.

Then almost out of nowhere, City fashioned something: Joel Ndala was set free on the left and picked out John Egan, who looked well-placed to hammer it goalwards but instead sought to cut across to Gelhardt; the latter didn’t get the memo, though, and the ball drifted into space.

Then came nearly an own goal as Yuri Ribeiro’s header towards the near post had Balazs Tóth scrambling to turn it behind. From the corner, Oli McBurnie’s point-blank header was brilliantly kept out by the Rovers keeper, who then denied Ndala moments later with a sharp stop from 18 yards.

But just as City began to look brighter, Blackburn drew first blood. Augustus Kargbo threaded a superb ball through the gap between Cathal McCarthy and Cody Drameh just on the edge of the area, finding Ryan Hedges, who finished neatly from the corner of the six-yard box – dinking it past Pandur with impressive accuracy.

That 18th-minute strike took the wind out of the Tigers’ sails. Once again they found themselves hemmed back, and Hedges should have doubled the lead around the half-hour but headed over from a promising position.

Soon after, McBurnie was fouled on the edge of the area. Gelhardt’s free kick hit the wall, Egan swung and missed the rebound, before Ndala headed well over. It was a sequence of miscues that would go on to sum up the afternoon… the atmosphere was flat, the lunchtime kick-off lacking spark, the crowd desperately waiting to be given something to cheer.

Right on half-time a scramble in the box came to nothing, and with Hughes and Crooks absent the Tigers looked short of ideas. Still, at only 1-0 there was the hope of a response after the interval.

Instead, they made the worst possible start. Moments into the second half, Lundstram was adjudged to have fouled Hedges, conceding a free-kick 30 yards out – much to the City defender’s anger.

In a clever move, Todd Cantwell eschewed the obvious goalwards shot, instead picking out Hedges running into space on the left of the area. His strike flew across the face of City’s back line, brushing the faintest touch off Yuki Ohashi on its way in.

Barely four minutes later, it was three. Ryan Alebiosu shrugged off Giles to surge into the area and forced a save from Pandur, but the keeper was helpless as Cantwell slammed in the rebound from 12 yards. All too easy.

“Mauled by the Rovers,” sang the visiting fans in the North Stand. Fair enough.

Sergej Jakirovic’s response was to bring on Kyle Joseph for Kasey Palmer, but City remained under siege. From a corner, the ball appeared to hit Dominic Hyam on the back – it cannoned off the crossbar and away, the woodwork sparing the hosts a fourth.

In the 69th minute, as City prepared for a rare corner, Ndala was replaced by David Akintola. But the moment fizzled out immediately, Gelhardt’s delivery failing to clear the first man.

A couple of minutes later came the Tigers’ big chance to claw one back. Gelhardt fed McBurnie, who teed up Akintola in a great position – but the substitute couldn’t sort his feet out. Between the three of them, any could have pulled the trigger, yet somehow the chance slipped away. It summed up City’s day, really.

As the last ten minutes (mercifully) approached, Blackburn cut through City’s defence again, only for Hedges to shoot inches wide. He lay flat on his back, head in hands, until Pandur helped him up.

Late changes saw Brandon Williams and Mohamed Belloumi – making his long-awaited return from ACL injury – replace Slater and Gelhardt. The return of Belloumi was at least something to cheer, but the contest had long since been over. In truth, it hadn’t really been a contest since half-time.

There were bookings apiece for McLoughlin and McBurnie for a bit of afters once the full-time whistle had gone, ironically raising the tempo higher than it had been for much of the game…

But it had always been a tall order to expect this to match last Sunday for entertainment. Blackburn were arguably a tougher prospect than Oxford, and this defeat – for all the positive vibes about the summer’s new additions – underlined City’s lack of depth. To say the absence of Hughes and Crooks was keenly felt is an understatement, and with a young bench, the Tigers’ limitations were somewhat exposed.

For 18-year-old McCarthy, thrust into a full debut at centre-half after impressing in pre-season, this was always going to be a baptism of fire against clever, seasoned attackers. What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, eh?