Hull end difficult week at the Turf

Last updated : 30 October 2009 By Tony Scholes

It's another home game for the Clarets, and for the second week in succession we play one of the two sides we have never previously met in the top flight.

With another international break coming up next month we'll have a wait of another three weeks before we are back home against Aston Villa and will be looking to get ourselves back into the top half of the Premier League table.

Our Opponents


Hull are currently just in the bottom three, a point away from Wolves who are a place about them. Last week they drew 0-0 at home against bottom club Portsmouth and it all seems to have kicked off from then.

Earlier this week the bookies had stopped taking bets on Brown losing his job and such was the speculation that he confirmed an early press conference yesterday, presumably to confirm he was still there.

By the time he did get there he was having to explain the departure of chairman Paul Duffen, his staunch ally, and he looked anything but comfortable in front of the questioning media.

Whilst Brown remains the likely news in the board room is that former chairman Adam Pearson could be riding back onto Humberside after resigning as chairman of Derby County this week.

Meanwhile it is business as usual in terms of the football with Brown and Brian Horton in charge of a team that has had as much difficulty as us in defending and along with Blackburn Rovers we have conceded the most goals this season with 22 each.

It's in stark contrast to the Hull City of last season at this stage. They'd accrued no less than twenty points in their first nine Premier League games, but since then it has been the sort of struggle that hits new teams in the division and they've won only 23 points since from 39 games.

Their 35 point total was enough to keep them up last season and in the summer there were a number of changes made to the squad. In came the likes of Seyi George Olofinjana from Stoke and Paul McShane from Sunderland costing around £5 million in total. Other signings included Reading's Stephen Hunt and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, released by Celtic.

On loan at Hull are Stoke defender Ibrahima Sonko and Villareal's American striker Jozy Altidore who was interesting Burnley just ahead of his move to the KC.

Hull do have a better away record than Burnley, they picked up a point at Wolves in September. This though represents a real opportunity for us to get back to winning ways.

Click HERE to see all Hull's results this season


Team News


Phil Brown will have to make a change in goal with American Boaz Myhill ruled out with a knee injury. Matt Duke looks certain to come in for Myhill with Tony Warner expected to take the goalkeeping position on the subs bench.

Jozy Altidore was out last week and he's upset his manager this week by discussing the reasons on the internet. I'd expect him to feature although much will depend on whether he's been forgiven.

Record signing Jimmy Bullard was used as a substitute in their last away game, just his second appearance since his move from Fulham because of injury. He's carrying a knock just now but should he start it will be his first start in Hull's colours.

Their team for the home draw last week against Portsmouth was: Boaz Myhill, Paul McShane, Kamil Zayatte, Anthony Gardner, Andy Dawson, Bernard Mendy, Dean Marney, Seyi George Olofinjana, Stephen Hunt, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Geovanni. Subs: Matt Duke, Steven Mouyokolo, Kevin Kilbane, Will Atkinson, Richard Garcia, Kamel Ghilas, Nick Barmby.

Click HERE to see the full Hull squad


Team selection for Owen Coyle will centre on the fitness of goalkeeper Brian Jensen and left back Stephen Jordan. Neither of them had trained this week until Friday but both took part in training this morning and it is likely that both will be fit.

Should Jensen not make it then it will give Diego Penny his first league start since the opening day of last season. He was in particularly good form in his last reserve outing and got nothing wrong last week when he came on as a substitute.

Jordan's place would most likely go to Christian Kalvenes. It was Kalvenes who started the season at left back in the opener at Stoke with Jordan playing in the centre that day. However, with the signing of Andre Bikey a couple of days later he was left out and has made just one late substitute appearance since.

If both Jensen and Jordan are passed fit then we'll are likely to line up: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Andre Bikey, Chris Eagles, Wade Elliott, Robbie Blake, Steven Fletcher. Subs from: Diego Penny, Jonathan Lund (should Penny play), Michael Duff, Christian Kalvenes, Joey Gudjonsson, Kevin McDonald, Fernando Guerrero, Steven Thompson, David Nugent.

Last Time


This will be our first ever top flight meeting with Hull City and our first home game against them in almost two years. That last meeting came on 6th November 2007 and was won 1-0 by Hull City.

It was a shocker of a game and it proved to be a final game for Steve Cotterill who left the club two days later.

The big talking points of a poor game came in the closing stages. With 85 minutes on the clock David Unsworth was sent off by referee Chris Foy for preventing a goalscoring opportunity.

Foy must have been the only person in Burnley who failed to see Unsie play the ball and out came the red card whilst the big screen flashed 'Unsie's going to get you'.

Almost immediately we were close to winning it when Myhill saved well from Alan Mahon but Unsworth's absence at the back proved costly when Michael Dawson, now with Sunderland, headed in a winner in the third minute of stoppage time.

It was the same Burnley team who had played so well three days earlier at Bramall Lane yet despite the referee's poor decision we deserved nothing after this performance and we would have been beaten earlier but for an outstanding performance from Gabor Kiraly.

The points took Hull one point clear of us in the table, both of us just below half way.

The teams were;

Burnley: Gabor Kiraly, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, David Unsworth, Stephen Jordan, Wade Elliott (Ade Akinbiyi 72), John Spicer (Steve Jones 82), Chris McCann, Kyle Lafferty, Robbie Blake (Alan Mahon 45), Andy Gray. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Jon Harley.

Hull: Boaz Myhill, Sam Ricketts, Michael Turner, Wayne Brown, Damien Delaney, Richard Garcia, Dean Marney, Ian Ashbee, Bryan Hughes (Dean Windass 81), Fraizer Campbell (Jay-Jay Okocha 90), Stephen McPhee. Subs not used: Matt Duke, Andy Dawson, David Livermore.

Previous games against Hull


Previous 20 Seasons

Season

Div

Ven

Result

Att

Scorers

1992/93

2

a

2-0

5,751

Heath(2)

.

.

h

2-0

9,974

Heath Slawson

1993/94

2

a

2-1

11,232

Davis Deary

..

h

3-1

10,574

Pender Eyres(2 1pen)

1995/96

2

h

2-1

10,613

Nogan Allison(og)

..

a

0-3

4,206

.

2005/06

C

h

1-0

11,701

Akinbiyi

..

a

0-0

19,926

.

2006/07

C

h

2-0

11,530

Duff Noel-Williams

..

a

0-3

17,731

.

2007/08

C

h

0-1

9,978

.

..

a

0-2

15,838

.



Click HERE to see all our results against Hull