Bloody jammy Northerners still managed to get themselves promoted despite Evans saving a late penalty and being outplayed by us at times, especially in the second half. Grrr! :x
Anyway, we played bloody well again and might have deserved the win, the first half was quite evenly matched but after the first five minutes or so of the second half, we dominated and had a lot of posession, created a lot of chances and the game became much more open with lots of space for Jenkins to bomb down the wing, Igoe, Smith and Howard to run the midfield and were comfortable at the back as Hull seemed content to play long balls upto Fagan who was being closely marked by Ifil throughout the game. I can't think of a real clearcut chance, but Fallon should have done better with a header in the second half which he didn't wrap his head around properly. The delivery from wide by Igoe and Jenkins on the right and Duke and Howard on the left was fairly good, although Howard's crosses went from superb to very poor throughout the game.
On the balance of play a draw was probably fair, but the ref was spineless and very home biased. I have no idea what the penalty was for and we must have only won half a dozen freekicks throughout the game, every single 50/50 decision went Hull's way, or so it seemed. The atmosphere was poor most of the game despite the 23,000 crowd but we created a bit of noise and the Hull fans are mouthy cunts. Some of them didn't seem terribly pleased with promotion when I walked back to the car! Nice ground though. Good view
Again, it has to be said that if we'd played like we have the past two games over most of the season, we'd be where Hull and Luton are now.
Evans 8 Another excellent performance, kicking was a bit dodgy but he made lots of good saves, including the penalty. Commanded his area well.
Jenkins 8 Solid at the back, good going forward, totally committed to the cause - as ever.
O'Hanlon 7 Solid without being spectacular.
Heywood 7 As above.
Ifil 8 Kept Fagan very quiet and dealt well with everything that came his way. Man marking suits him perfectly, if only he could improve his concentration and positioning.
Duke 7 Steady but a bit error prone, looked better going forward than he has done lately.
Smith 7 A fairly quiet game by his standards, but worked hard and created chances.
Igoe 8 Relatively quiet in the first half, but sprung to life in the second and was central to everything we created. Superb at times but also disappeared entirely at other points. MOTM.
Howard 6 Lazy, selfish and only interested when the ball was at his feet. Showed some good touches and flashes of skill but largely anonymous.
Parkin 6 Bit harsh perhaps, but he did nothing all game and just looked annoyed and to be going through the motions. Hopefully not a sign of what's to come...
Fallon 8 Worked hard, created some chances and had some as well. Can't fault him, I'd leave him in until the end of the season to see how he does.
