Let's get the good news out of the way. Based on our performance today I can safely book my end of May long weekend. That will be a cycling trip to Mont Ventoux and I'll spend two hours on a very small seat that makes your butt hurt, although I'll be moving slightly faster than Joel Lynch at full sprint. In the process I will be subjecting myself to gut wrenching agony with the distinct chance that I may not make the summit, in which case I will be utterly devastated. Can anyone think of a better way to spend a Saturday afternoon?
Onto the bad news. That feeling of disappointment that comes from watching QPR get outplayed by a team in the relegation zone. You know it well, that feeling you get when we've done well away from home and you've repeatedly watched all the highlights and read all the stories you can on how well we've done and you can't wait to get to Loftus Road to see us in action. That feeling of we could do better.
Like the Brentford game, we started slowly and went 1-0 down at the first attempt Hull made. Teams have figured out that with Freeman playing on the left we're effectively using a 4-3-3 structure and are exploiting the space in the vacant left wing area. Hull pressed and harried us and didn't allow us much space or rhythm and we struggled to make any headway, even with the bulk of possession. Their first goal was a simple set of passing moves to open our defence for Bowen to run in and slot the ball home. Credit for the assist should go to Lumbering Lynch for being too slow to close him down and then showing him the way to goal. Their second came from a corner and was a shambles. Everyone seemed to be intent on pushing at the Hull players rather than watching the ball. With no one jumping for the ball it just needed a slight contact to nudge past Lumley. Looks like our defenders will be back to basics for a Monday morning defence boot camp.
At two down it felt like there was a long and painful afternoon ahead, sat in a cramped small seat watching Joel Lynch being out sprinted by the Hull forwards. But a quick response from Pav to get a goal back lifted spirits. We had figured out that their left side was as good as ours and started to pass the ball to hooped shirts, and some neat passing moves that created threats every time we had the ball forward. With Pav, Angel and Eze now warmed up it seemed we were the more likely team to score. As the pressure increased on the right, Bidwell and Freeman started to get more space on the left and we started to stretch the Hull defence. We forced the Hull keeper into action and he needed to make two fantastic saves to deny Wells and Eze. Then the woodwork rescued Hull from an equaliser after a smashing 30 yard Rangel strike.
Half time 2-1 to Hull. We'd recovered from Derby and Brentford to win, what would be different this time? Hull made a double substitution at half time to shore up their left side of defence and that paid dividends as they weathered the first fifteen minutes of pressure and we failed to capitalise with a goal. Schteve gambled by replacing Cameron for Hemed. With our defensive screen removed, Hull dutifully scored and at 3-1 it was pretty much game over. The last role of the die were throwing Matt Smith and Osayi-Samuel into the mix. BOS did well in his cameo, getting loose on the right to create the melee that resulted in Freeman's goal.
Match Verdict. Not good enough to for the playoffs. Overall rating today is 6/10 as a team. A final Freeman free kick that just missed the upright epitomized our performance. Good, but not good enough.
Referee Analysis: 3/10 Idiosyncratic performance and didn't do anywhere near enough to stop Hull wasting time for throw ins, goal kicks and fake injuries. Best moments were giving a drop ball for a non-free kick and then playing a Hull advantage where they failed to score and bringing the ball back to the original free kick at the half way line. He did seem keen to make the rules up about tackling as he went along. Our man was ably supported by a linesman at the Loft end who was unclear on the offside rule and equally unsure about the difference between ball to hand and hand to ball when clearing goal bound efforts. This only added to the frustration of an afternoon when our overall performance was not up scratch.
