Nowhere near good enough, says Mccann
GRANT Mccann cut a frustrated figure after watching his Hull City side exit the FA Cup at Stevenage after losing 6-5 in a penalty shoot-out.
Despite taking the lead at the home of the struggling League Two side through Tom Eaves’ penalty, City were pegged back eleven minutes from time, an equaliser which sent the game into extra-time.
Stevenage were good value for their shock win, but City passed up no fewer than 19 attempts at goal, with just Eaves’ penalty to show for their efforts.
Eaves, James Scott, Thomas Mayer and Martin Samuelsen all passed up good chances, with the Norwegian in particular guilty of a couple of bad misses, and it was City’s play in the final third which annoyed the Tigers boss.
“I thought we were very wasteful – really, really wasteful in the attacking third, Mccann said.
“We got in there very well in the first half and played well in terms of building up from the back, getting into the final third.
“But then we were just shooting from 25-30 yards, blazing things over the crossbar, not slipping each other in.
“I felt we played as individuals up there. We didn’t really link or try to create for each other.
“It was almost like ‘I’ll shoot, then you shoot, I’ll shoot, then you shoot’. Balls were flying over the crossbar.
“Second half, we started well and it was a good bit of play from Martin to win the penalty.
“Their goal, to give the ball away so cheaply and dangle legs in the middle of the pitch the way we did, and then not clear the ball in our box, was dreadful defending from us.
“After that, the game just fizzled. We had no real spark about us. We had a couple of half-chances – Martin probably should have scored twice.
“Credit to Stevenage – I thought they deserved it. We were nowhere near good enough to win this game.”