|
Hull are tonight's visitors, one of the two clubs relegated with us at the end of last season, and the only side we beat away from home in the Premier League when we completed the double over them with a 4-1 win at the KC Stadium last April.
Such is life in the Championship that, having played three home games in the last week, we will now go another three weeks before Turf Moor opens its doors again for first team football, and that's the visit of Barnsley, again on a Tuesday night.
It's imperative therefore that we get a positive result tonight to take into that break, which includes the international break, and more so because it will halt any potential slide down the table that has started due to winning only two points from the last three games.
A win would set us up nicely with five of the next seven games after tonight away from home.
Hull, like ourselves were relegated although their Premier League experience did last two years. The second of those seasons proved to be something of a disaster with the club struggling financially and eventually putting manager Phil Brown on gardening leave and placing Iain Dowie in charge.
That proved disastrous and Dowie had a poor run that saw them drop below us on the final day of the season and cost him his job too. During the summer, Dowie found his time was up and they finally agreed a termination of Brown's contract.
In their place came Nigel Pearson who had just enjoyed two good years as Leicester boss. In his first year he'd won promotion to the Championship and he followed that up last season with a play off place, and they only missed out on a Wembley final on penalties against Cardiff.
Pearson has brought five new players into the club. His first signing was Nolberto Solano from his previous club Leicester and he then added former Reading midfielder James Harper from Sheffield United, Robert Koren from West Brom and Arsenal's Jay Simpson.
There are also three loan players currently at Hull. John Bostock from Spurs, Liverpool's Daniel Ayala and Anthony Gerrard from Cardiff.
And - after there were eventually no takers - he's had Jimmy Bullard back in his squad recently and he's featured in recent games.
They've certainly picked up and haven't conceded a goal in any of their last three league games, winning two of them and drawing the other. That's moved them up to 15th place in the table, just one point behind us. The win at Norwich on Saturday ended a long run without a win away from home,; the previous win on the road came at Fulham on 4th March 2009.
Pearson has targeted a return to the Premier League and is expecting a top six finish from a side that was nothing like as decimated despite the supposed financial meltdown. The major players to leave were Daniel Cousin, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, Boaz Myhill, Stephen Hunt, Steven Mouyokolo and Dean Marney.
There's been a bit of a sickness and diarrhoea bug going round at Hull and both Richard Garcia and Kevin Kilbane, the scorer of Hull's goal against us last season, were kept away from training. It look as though they've had no further problems with that and the only other problem they do have is Jimmy Bullard's back problem, although he is expected to play.
They beat Norwich on Saturday , with Paul McShane playing behind the back four in a 4-1-2-1-2 formation. Their team was: Matt Duke, Paul McShane, Daniel Ayala, Anthony Gerrard, Andy Dawson, Ian Ashbee, Jimmy Bullard, Tom Cairney, Robert Koren, Craig Fagan, Jay Simpson. Subs: Mark Oxley, Kevin Kilbane, Richard Garcia, John Bostock, Nick Barmby, Will Atkinson, Mark Cullen.
There are no injury problems for Burnley and the only decision Brian Laws has to make is whether to make changes from the side that drew 0-0 with Bristol City on Saturday.
It wouldn't come as a surprise to see former Hull midfielder Dean Marney restored the side, probably at the expense of Graham Alexander and the only other potential change looks to be the option of restoring fit again Ross Wallace with Jay Rodriguez then the one who would miss out.
If we did make those two changes our team would be: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Andre Bikey, Danny Fox, Jack Cork, Wade Elliott, Dean Marney, Chris Eagles, Chris Iwelumo, Ross Wallace. Subs from: Lee Grant, Michael Duff, David Edgar, Leon Cort, Graham Alexander, Martin Paterson, Steven Thompson, Jay Rodriguez.
|
We went in front with a penalty that even the most biased of fans would have called soft. Tyrone Mears went down in a challenge and looked surprised to get the decision, and Graham Alexander stepped up and made no mistake from the spot.
Grezza had suffered some criticism in the week leading up to the game, having not had the best of games against Wigan, but he was to have a major impact on this game.
That was about it in the first half but after the break, Jones turned in a display that had the fake tanned Phil Brown going apoplectic on the touchline. He thought Hull should have had a penalty and then saw them have a goal ruled out from a free kick. Brian Jensen made a mess of Geovanni's free kick but Jones incredibly gave us a free kick for pushing in the wall.
Geovanni wasn't happy, opened his mouth and got a yellow card. Soon after he was harshly carded for a foul to give the Burnley fans an opportunity to sing a rendition of 'Time to Go'.
It wasn't time to go for Grezza though. He received a ball from Kevin McDonald (does anyone remember him?) and hit home a shot from outside the box to give us a 2-0 win.
"Getting sacked in the morning," was how the Burnley fans taunted Brown, but he lasted a few more months.
The result took us to tenth in the table. Little did we know that the decline was just about to start.
The teams were;
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Tyrone Mears, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, Stephen Jordan, Graham Alexander, Andre Bikey, Chris Eagles (Fernando Guerrero 85), Wade Elliott, Robbie Blake (Kevin McDonald 72), Steven Fletcher (David Nugent 78). Subs not used: Diego Penny, Michael Duff, Joey Gudjonsson, Steven Thompson.
Hull: Matt Duke, Paul McShane (Bernard Mendy 59), Anthony Gardner, Kamil Zayatte, Andy Dawson, Kamel Ghilas, Dean Marney, Seyi George Olofinjana, Geovanni, Stephen Hunt (Nick Barmby 70), Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink (Jozy Altidore 58). Subs not used: Tony Warner, Steven Mouyokolo, Kevin Kilbane, Richard Garcia.
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 | . |
2009/10 | PL | h | 2-0 | 20,219 | Alexander(2 1pen) |
| . | . | a | 4-1 | 24,369 | Paterson Alexander(2 2pens) Elliott |