Altidore Leads Tigers to Victory Over Man City
By: Matt |
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Hull City 2 Man City 1
Hull City gained a massive three points by despatching Man City on Saturday afternoon, 2-1. Goals from Jozy Altidore, his first in the Premier League, and George Boateng proved enough as the Tigers dragged themselves out of the relegation zone, and all the way to 14th place.
Altidore opened the scoring for a suprisingly dominant Hull City, and Boateng hit a 25 yard missile to take the Tigers lead to 2 – 0 in the 54th. While Adebayor pulled one back for Citeh in the 59th, the amber and black cruised to the finish, taking all three points, and climbing up the table.
Check out Altidore’s first league goal for the Tigers here.
Category: Team News
Rooney Slays Tigers
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Man Yoo 4 Hull City 0
Around 74,000 people in the Manchester area were treated to the Wayne Rooney show on Saturday, with the England striker blasting four goals past Hull City, to move Utd. to the top of the Premier League.
With the rest of the country watching FA Cup football, Senor Rooney surely wished he was banging them in vs Spurs in that competition, but with Leeds defeating Utd. three weeks ago, it was Hull at home in the league instead.
The Tigers made United work for it, battening down the hatches after Rooney’s 8th minute opener, managing to hold them off until a late outburst saw the England man grab three more from the 82nd minute onwards.
Not much the Tigers could do about this one, again, United away is not a match that will decide whether we stay in this division or not. Portsmouth seems to be in freefall with no hope in site, while Wolves and Burnley ahead of us have looked mortal in the relegation scrap as of late. The Clarets loss today to Reading in the cup will certainly sting, although they will now be able to focus on their league campaign, as we have for the past few weeks. Above all the Tigers controlled play for long stretches of the second half, which Brownies men will take heart in, as they look forward to their massive home clash with Wolves on Saturday.
Highlights here of Rooney’s mauling.
Category: Team NewsCity Sign Zaki…Offside Asks ‘Why?’
By: Matt | 4 Comments
Tigers Sign Pharaoh
Hull City announced the loan signing of Egyptian marksman Amr Zaki today, from Cairo club Zamalek.
Their have been mixed feelings on this one. Some feel his goalscoring record justifies the cash, well others point to his almost unfathomable ill-discipline. I fall in the latter camp.
Why did we sign him? Yea, he scores goals, Ok. But he also tends to vanish once he leaves any and every club he has been at. And I don’t mean in a figurative sense. He literally goes missing. Check these comments from former manager Steve Bruce:
“I can honestly say that in all my time in football I have never worked with someone as unprofessional…I’m sick of answering questions about Zaki’s whereabouts and I don’t want anything to distract the players from preparing for another massive game for us on Sunday against Everton.
Zaki’s behaviour has shown total disrespect to the club who pay him a very good wage and equally as importantly, to the fans who sing his name from the stands. I think it’s time for them to know the truth about the man”
And that’s not all. Aside from skipping out on his English clubs, Zamalek also gave him the boot this year for going AWOL. How about these quotes from Zamalek board member Hazem Emam :
”We are open to offers for Zaki. Any worthy offer will be accepted. The club can no longer bear such actions. Missing training for several days without giving any explanation is an inexplicable action from a professional player like Zaki.”
The player should have informed the technical staff of his intent to skip training. We don’t want any problems in the team.”
So can anyone explain to me why Adam Pearson thinks Zaki won’t simply take the first flight back to Cairo as soon as he is subbed for JVofH or Ghilas midway through the second half of a match? Is this really someone the club can rely on to help drag it out of the relegation zone? Was there no other available striker who might actually stick with the club?
Its quite baffling really. In my honest opinion, a striker isn’t really the issue. The lads currently employed can put the ball in the net, provided they have the service. They haven’t had the service. So why not a playmaking midfielder? Very strange indeed.
Category: Team NewsHull City Offside Makes Its Debut in Asia
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Yes, you read that correctly. Myself and Paul Cockerton, editor of City fanzine ‘The Three O’clock at Kempton’, had a virtual (email) sitdown with ESPN Star (ESPN for Asia) to chat about Hull City this season.
You can check out the whole interview here.
So next time your in Pakistan, or perhaps Singapore or China, discussing the current form of Jozy Altidore with the locals, know that your loyal blogger is their primary source of info. Or not.
Although if any of you loyal readers did want to get me this t-shirt, I would understand. Even if it is for ladies.
Category: Team NewsTigers Mauled in FA Cup
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Wigan 4 Hull City 1
Hull City were destroyed by a Charles N’Zogbia inspired Wigan side in front of a sparse crowd at the JJB on Saturday.
Geovanni gave the Tigers the lead with a delightful free kick, but City were undone by four second half goals to go out of the competition.
Not much to say, just a pretty awful day all around. A miserable loss in front of basically no one. At least now we can focus strictly on the league, and not be distracted by a cup run. Blah.
Geo’s up, over and down free kick.
Category: Team NewsHull Comeback Stuns Bolton, Gets Megson Sacked
By: Matt | 1 Comment
Hull City 2 Bolton 2
A stunning comeback by Hull City after being 2-nil down to Bolton has led to Gary Megson being sacked by the Lancashire club. Stephen Hunt nabbed the crucial goals, after Ivan Klasnic and Kevin Davies had given Bolton the lead. Although on paper it may look like a bad result for the Tigers, who would have liked to win this relegation battle, in actuality the Tigers will be delighted with picking up an away point, especially after being down 2-0.
Attention now turns to Wigan, who the Tigers will face in a Jan 2nd FA Cup tie, before taking on league leaders Chelsea a week later.
Highlights of Hull’s comeback against Bolton can be seen here, with comments from Phil Brown as well.
Category: Team NewsHull Falls Bravely to Champions
By: Matt | 2 Comments
United 3 Hull City 1
The Tigers battled against a Manchester United side desperate to keep up with leaders Chelsea, but fell 3-1 on Sunday. A Craig Fagan penalty had cancelled out a well worked United goal, finished by Wayne Rooney, but the Reds scored two second half goals to end Hull’s resistance.
The Tigers played well overall, and were just undone by some brilliant and at times lucky play from the defending champs. Jozy Altidore in particular looked strong despite being oft-outnumbered up front, and drew the penalty from which Faga equalized. After Rooney sent a kamikaze back pass to Tomas Kuszczak, Fagan inctercepted and crossed for Altidore, who was bundled over by Fabio. With normal penalty takers Geovanni and Jimmy Bullard both unavailable, Fagan stepped up to send the Pole the wrong way, and the KC into delirium.
It was shortlived however, as Rooney made amends by taking over the game, first smashing in a cross which Dawson put into his own goal, and then sliding an inch perfect pass to Berbatov, who rolled it into an empty net. While the loss drops the Tigers into the relegation zone, Phil Brown knows, and has stated as such, that there are not the games which will decide Hull’s fate, so its best the Tigers take heart in a solid performance, and move forward to focus on the massive match vs Bolton on Tuesday.
Category: Team NewsJimmy Bullard is Hilarious
By: Matt | 1 Comment
Hull City 1 Man City 1
The Tigers continued their outstanding run of form with a 1-1 draw against the Citizens of Manchester on Saturday. They have now taken 8 points out of 12 since the arrival of Adam Pearson, and Phil Brown surely will be sleeping a bit easier these days.
A SWP deflected shot gave the light blues the lead, only for a late Jimmy Bullard penalty to salvage the points for the Tigers.
And hilariously, after JimBull scored, he led the team in an hasty pitch side team talk, a la Brownie last season. Absolute legend. Check out the vid here.
Category: Team NewsSuper Hull Down Toffees
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Hull City 3 Everton 2
Hull City continued a timely return to form with a stunning 3-2 victory over Everton on Wednesday night. Racing out to a three goal lead in the first 30 minutes, they fought off a Toffees comeback to seal all three points. Andy Dawson struck a magnificent free kick, sandwiched between a Hunt rebound, and a Marney deflected shot.
Despite the win, one thing is abundantly clear from the below video…we really need to work on our goal celebrations. Hunt’s was just awful, and the other to weren’t much better. C’mon lads, act like we’ve done it before. Even if we haven’t very frequently.
The win will come as a massive relief to Phil Brown, as he has now avoided defeat for three games on the trot. Enjoy the highlights below.
Category: Team NewsSix Goal Thriller at the KC
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Hull City 3 West Ham 3
The Tigers managed to keep up some momentum from their win before the international break, going down 2-0 to West Ham before coming back to draw three all on Saturday.
Jimmy Bullard was in fine form, scoring one and creating another from a free kick deflected in off of Carlton Cole’s noggin. Although the Tigers led 3-2 at one stage and eventually conceded the equalizer, it could have all ended so differently had the Hammers 2-0 lead stood. All in all I’ll take the point, and we look forward to next weeks massive clash with Man City.
Check out some highlights here.
Final Thoughts on Henry-gate.
So with three Hull players directly involved with in Thierry Henry’s slap-tastic assist (and one more so than the others, ahem, MCSHANE) during Wednesday’s WC playoff, and yours truly currently living in Dublin and having attended the first leg at Croke Park, I figured I’d chime in on the already beaten into the ground topic.
Honestly? I don’t blame Henry at all. It was instinct, pure and simple. There is no way in the milliseconds after the ball initially struck his arm that he could make the consious decision to say ‘yes I’ll hit it with my left hand to keep it in bounds’. It was instinctual, and any other player would have done the same exact thing. If a footballer tells you otherwise, they are lying, or Irish (although so am I, and I would have done the same). So the vitriol aimed at Henry is a little dissapointing to be honest. He’s one of the greatest players ever, yet pompus over-bearing journalists talk about his reputation being ‘forever tarnished’, and having him banned. Please. Spare me. Robbie Keane was called for at minimum three handballs in the second leg, none garnering as much as a card. Henry immediatley admitted his guilt after the match, what more would you have him do?
The real responsibility lies with the Swedish officials, who didn’t see/whistle for the infraction. Here, I 100% agree with Irelands ageless manager Giovanni Trapattoni, who said that for matches of this magnitude, the best refs need to be chosen. In matches of the greatest importance, refs who are not afraid to make a big call, who are assertive enough to blow the whistle when needed, even in extra time of a second leg playoff, need to be assigned.
In the end I am most sad about the Irish supporters missing out on South Africa, or rather, South Africa and the world missing out on the Irish. Proof can simply be found in the playoff wiht les Bleus. France maybe brought a shade over a thousand to Croke Park, who barely made a peep, while the Irish brought a veritable army to Paris, and took over the city for a day, much less the Stade de France. Hopefully they can bring their energy and passion to Euro2012, and I think Trap can certainly lead them there.
Category: Team News
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