Goals
30 - Gary Alexander - Julian Johnsson headed the ball in to the area, and Alexander sprung Torquay's offside trap to beat Dearden from inside the area. The home side protested furiously, but tv footage shows that Alexander was definitely onside.
61 - Steve Woods - A free kick was swung in from the right and Woods headed home completely unmarked at the back post. Awful defending.
Hull City
(4-4-2) Musselwhite, Van Blerk, Wicks, Whittle, Edwards, Matthews, Greaves, Johnsson (Sneekes 79), Williams (Whitmore 83), Alexander, Dudfield (Roberts 67)
Not Used - Glennon, Holt
Bookings - Van Blerk, Matthews, Sneekes
Torquay United
Dearden, Woods, Hankin, Hazell, Holmes, Hill, Brandon, Russell, Rees, Logan (Williams 89), McDonald
Not Used - Northmore, Tully, Benefield, Goodridge
Bookings - Rees, Woods, Brandon
Referee
Steve Tomlin - A fair few bad decisions, but nothing major to complain about.
Attendance
2,403 - Around 400 City
Brief Notes
A shambles, once again. We were outclassed by a side lying next to bottom in the table, and comfortably so. After a so-so start, City began losing any grip on the game they had and the home side took full advantage, using simple football to control the game. Even though we went in ahead at half time, we were fortunate to be so, and as the second half progressed, you could see an equaliser on the horizon. The Tigers were simply awful in the second half, and although they were in with a shout before the break, Torquay were the only side who looked like winning after the break. Indeed, they nearly won all 3 points late on, with Paul Musselwhite pulling off the second of his 2 brilliant second half saves to keep the scores level. The only further chance we had came in the last minute, but Theodore Whitmore played an awful pass and could not take advantage. The bigger picture, however, is that we could only muster this one chance against such a poor side and had our backs to the wall for most of the game. Pathetic.
Where do we go from here? It seems the players and managment are incapable of turning around our away form at the moment. With some tricky home games coming up in the end-of season run-in, we have to start playing dramatically better and therefore picking up points away from home. But after failing to win here and at York, is the improvement actually forthcoming? Automatic Promotion keeps slipping further and further away...
They Said
Brian Little, speaking to the Official Site, www.hullcityafc.net
"The one thing that will stick out in my memory is the second half because of the fact we were very poor. We were 1-0 up at halftime which is more than enough and when you're away from home a scoreline like that is just what you want. Okay we didn't play overly well but we were strong, didn't look like conceding and got a goal, albeit a debatable one."
"From there we gathered ourselves at halftime and felt that perhaps we could go on and win the game comfortably but for 25 minutes in the second half we never got off the edge of our own box. They got the goal from a cross and we were fortunate that Paul Musselwhite pulled off a couple of good saves because we could quite easily have lost."
"The two halves were in complete contrast really and I can't explain why. It is becoming a bit of a nightmare for me as I keep reading that I tell the players to go out in the second 45 minutes of every game and defend. I've also read that I'm criticising the players for that but I rarely do that as they're a great bunch of lads. They've expressed their opinions after the game about getting up to the halfway line but unfortunately it's too late when the final whistle has already gone."
"After speaking a lot and doing plenty of work on that particular area following the game against Hartlepool the other week I thought we'd got things sorted. But after the second half at Torquay I don't think we have. I'm not going to make excuses as to why we defended on the edge of our own box but it's certainly not something the players have been asked to do."
On Paul Musselwhite's 2 outstanding Second Half saves
"In fairness of we'd have lost everybody would have been jumping up and down and complaining, but those complaints wouldn't have been listened to. As I've said, we were poor in the second half and thankfully Paul made a couple of great saves that ultimately earned us a point. But the reason he's had to make those saves is because our defenders have never got further than ten yards on from the edge of our box and that disappoints me. If we'd been playing one of the top sides who were flying then maybe you'd expect us to show a bit if caution but not against Torquay and we really should have punished them."
"The fact that we haven't makes life a little more difficult but we'll keep our heads down and try to keep grinding out results. We have to believe that we can win four or five games on the spin and if that comes off for us who knows what will happen?" |
