Tigers may appeal Huddlestone red card
Hull City may appeal the dismissal of Tom Huddlestone in Saturday’s 4-0 Premier League defeat at Everton.
The former Tottenham midfielder saw red for a challenge on Idrissa Gana Gueye when the game was neatly poised at 1-0, a decision that home boss Ronald Koeman thought was “harsh”.
For third-bottom Hull, three points from safety, the problems continue to mount as they are set to be without Huddlestone for three matches against West Ham, Middlesbrough and Manchester City.
Manager Marco Silva has still to decide whether to appeal, but he admitted: “He is a really important player for us;. It gives us problems in the next games as well.”
The Tigers competed well at Goodison, trailing only to a goal from youngster Dominic Calvert-Lewin before the dismissal. After that, substitute Enner Valencia capitalised on the man advantage to double the lead, before a double from Romelu Lukaku took his impressive tally for the season to 21.
“It’s disappointing. I saw one game for 70 minutes, and after I saw another game (following the red card), said Silva, who is still looking for his first away win since taking charge in January.
“We didn’t deserve that decision and we didn’t deserve what happened after it.
“Up to that point, we were competing and we played as a team. We had some problems in the first half, but we caused problems for Everton aswell.
“Everton scored in the first half and we had a very good chance to score as well.
“We started the second half very well and had 25 good minutes with the quality to push Everton back. We made a change to our system but then after we had done that one decision, which I didn’t understand, changed the game (the red card). Our team, our players and Tom didn’t deserve this.
“We lose a player for three games because of this and I don’t know why. It’s not a situation I want to talk about too much.
“We played against a very good team who have been doing very well recently and I’m not sure there have been many teams that have caused them the problems we did for 70 minutes.
“We went there to compete and for 70 minutes this is true and we came close to a result. After that, the game changed.”
Everton’s current home run of six successive league wins – 3-0, 4-0, 6-3, 2-0, 3-0 and 4-0 – has not been bettered since 1932 and has moved them level on points with fifth-placed Arsenal to open up the prospect of a late charge for Champions League qualification.
Calvert-Lewin relished hitting his first Everton goal in only his sixth appearance. It was the perfect way to mark his first start since early January after injury.
“I am over the moon. It has felt like an eternity to get back,” he said.
“It is hard to describe really. I’ve run it through my head over and over again growing up as a kid, so, to finally do it, I kind of got lost.”