Through the floods to a defeat at Hull

Last updated : 27 December 2015 By Tony Scholes

Three second half goals turned this one round in a game that really could have gone either way. After Jake Livermore had sniffed out an opener, we had one golden chance to equalise that was spurned by Andre Gray, and a second goal soon after ended our hopes and left us with our biggest Championship defeat since Cardiff beat us 4-0 back in October 2012 as Terry Pashley bowed out as caretaker manager.

We never thought too much about potential travel problems when we planned the trip, with pick ups, after Burnley, in Barrowford and Baildon, but the pre-match lunch stop was ruled out after a journey that had more than a few difficulties.

I'd heard the news from Whalley before leaving home and soon there were horror stories coming from other parts in our locale and North West football grounds putting up the postponed signs.

Andre Gray missed our best chance

The road from Colne to Keighley was particularly bad in places and we were indebted to some residents who were out in their wellies helping traffic get through one particular flood. We hit further problems with a road closure due to the River Aire bursting its banks at Shipley and I've read this morning that the area remains on red alert.

Once past Leeds, and onto the M62, the rain ceased. They'd had their fair share in Hull but there was no sign of rain when we got there and the only pouring came with the goals in the second half.

This is a ground where we've won on our last five visits. Goals from Martin Paterson, Graham Alexander, Wade Elliott, Nathan Delfouneso, David Edgar, Jay Rodriguez, Dean Marney and Danny Ings have led to us plundering fifteen points since our last defeat there in 2008.

That last defeat was when Brian Jensen allowed one effort to roll through him and into the net and referee Mike Riley left us with a 9-a-side match after he dismissed Hull's Caleb Folan and Jay-Jay Okocha and both Steven Caldwell and Joey Gudjonsson.

There was nothing to suggest in the early stages that the current, and unchanged, Burnley team might not make it six. We were definitely in the ascendancy in the opening exchanges against a Hull side who, initially, looked to have little to offer.

Having said that, we didn't create anything of note and the first save of the game was at the other end where Tom Heaton did well to divert a Mohamed Diame shot wide of the post.

Hull had a little spell themselves during that first half but, overall, it was a nondescript forty-five minutes that rarely came to life and we had to wait until close to half time before we made Allan McGregor do any work in the Hull goal. He saved from Joey Barton and then from George Boyd just as half time was approaching.

Still, there were no real concerns at half time. I wondered how we might get a goal ourselves given the way we were playing but I have to say I had no real concerns that we might conceded either.

It all changed in the second half. Hull began to get forward in greater numbers and they were getting players into wide positions. Whereas in the first half, the ploy seemed to be to bang a ball into our box early, they pushed onto us and opened up the game more, and that proved to be the catalyst to what became a comfortable win for them.

When they scored twice in nine minutes it was all up for the Clarets. Both were good finishes, undoubtedly, but both goals could have so easily been avoided. And things might have been so different had Andre Gray not missed the best chance of the game between those two goals, an equaliser at that stage and who knows what the final outcome would have been.

We quickly made a double substitution after the second goal. Off came Scott Arfield and Gray but it was the Gray change that brought with it some dissent from the travelling fans. To be honest, Sam Vokes would have been the one to come off for me but by then I think it was just a matter of trying to change things.

Michael Kightly and Rouwen Hennings came on. I thought Hennings did well and that included a right foot shot from outside the box that was close to pulling one back for us. I was delighted to see Kightly on; I like the way he plays and he does get us up the field and helps get us making more use of the flanks, but strangely, like Arfield had, he spent far too much time in a more central position.

If he and Arfield had been trying to help out the central midfield then it didn't work. We were soundly second best by now in that area with Dean Marney, on his return to the KC, having a poor game, almost as bad as the one our other former Tiger George Boyd had.

Long before the end there seemed no likelihood of us getting back into it and just to make matters worse they got a third in stoppage time through Sam Clucas and could so easily have had a fourth.

We were well beaten. Hull had been too good for us in the second half of the match and looked a side that are right up there in the table.

So, half way, and we've got 38 points, albeit with 31 of them from the first 15 games. If we were to double that in the second half of the season it would leave us with 76 and I'd expect that to get us a place in the play-offs.

I really don't see us being any better than that and it is interesting to note that we've won only twice against the other teams currently in the top half of the league. That's Sheffield Wednesday and Brentford, whilst we've also beaten 14th place Blackburn and the bottom seven.

I would give it a real shake up tomorrow but there again I'm a football supporter and not a manager and we know it's not going to happen. I've just been asked who I would leave out and my answer was Duff, Arfield, Marney, Boyd and Vokes.

It wasn't good, certainly the second half, but once again some of the overreaction is incredible. That's how it is now in football.

There's absolutely no doubt that we need to get back on track with a run of good results and the sooner the better. We are not too far away now from dropping out of the top six after this result.

That left us with just the return home. Obviously we had to get the previously abandoned lunch stop in and, again, we had a detour because the road was still closed in Shipley. And once home, our driver was returning to a home with no electricity. That's why we had to call in for a McBrew once back in Burnley. It had been a long, long day and it had hardly been rewarding.

For others it was the M62 problems that they had to avoid. All in all, not a good day, but a defeat at Hull is certainly put into perspective when you see the damage and the suffering caused by this latest flooding. Thankfully, in Burnley at least, we've got cloudless skies today.

As for the football and we've got chance to put things right very quickly. Tomorrow is the real Boxing Day - let's get back to form and give our former manager a roasting.

The teams were;

Hull: Allan McGregor, Moses Odubajo, Harry Maguire, Curtis Davies, Andrew Robertson, Ahmed Elmohamady, Jake Livermore (Isaac Hayden 89), David Meyler, Sam Clucas, Mohamed Diame (Tom Huddlestone 83), Abel Hernandez (Robert Snodgrass 84). Subs not used: Eldin Jakupovic, Shaun Maloney, Chuba Akpom, Adama Diomande.

Burnley: Tom Heaton, Matt Lowton, Michael Duff, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, George Boyd (Matt Taylor 76), Dean Marney, Joey Barton, Scott Arfield (Michael Kightly 68), Sam Vokes, Andre Gray (Rouwen Hennings 69). Subs not used: Matt Gilks, Tendayi Darikwa, Stephen Ward, David Jones.

Referee: Mark Clattenburg (Tyne & Wear).

Attendance: 21,842 (including 2,422 Clarets).