Andy Munro on Blues’ win at home to Hull City.
If you’d asked even the most optimistic Bluenose beforehand, nobody would have been confident that we’d get a point on the board let alone three. After all, we were playing the Humberside galacticos, managed by Brucie who has proved that he is to the English Championship as Pep Guardiola is to the European version.
With the prolific Hernandez backed up by the talents of Snodgrass, Diame and Huddlestone, it seemed that we would be under the cosh and the opening exchanges seemed to bear out that bleak forecast. Then, having repelled boarders in these opening stages, Blues quickly grew into the game with the restored Caddis and Cotterill combo becoming a real thorn in the opposition side while Toral drifted into pockets upsetting the opposition back four.
In fact, it was these players who were responsible for breaking the deadlock following some typically dogged work from Cotterill, Toral was allowed to literally pirouette his way past a Hull defender before slamming the ball home, albeit with the assistance of a substantial deflection.
After that exchanges evened out with Blues relying on the woodwork a couple of times to save the day while at the other end Toral was unlucky with a diving header and Donaldson nearly scored the Championship goal of the season with a bicycle kick acrobatically kept out by the Hull keeper.
In the second half, the Blues had to dig deep but defended with vigour although Kuscak had to make a superb double save and Robbo literally proved that he could ‘handle’ any attacks. Gary Rowett resisted the “Diego” chants and, instead sensibly brought on Davies to help shore things up for the tiring Cotterill. On the subject of chants, there was a quick Chairman segway as the Tilton started with “We Hate Carsson” and ended with “There’s Only One Randy Lerner”.
Mind you, the support was excellent throughout with repeated spine tingling renditions of Keep Right On as a smattering of Tigers fans watched on with the majority shamefully deciding to stay in their lounges back on Humberside while their team battled to get something from this key fixture.
Blues are now back in the play off mix but securing it will still be a major achievement.