Sheffield Wednesday and Hull drew 1-1 in yesterday’s early kick-off
Striker starting to show why he cost Hull £10m
WHEN Hull City splashed £10m on Abel Hernandez just 13 months ago, the idea was that his goals would keep the Tigers in the Premier League.
That plan, however, did not quite pan out and the Uruguayan striker scored just four goals as the Tigers tumbled from the top flight.
The 25-year-old’s job now is to score the goals that will get Steve Bruce’s side back in the big time.
Hernandez has hit the ground running in the Championship and he scored his sixth goal in nine matches to earn Hull a point after it looked like their four-match unbeaten run would come to an end.
Hernandez scored for his country against Colombia and played in Bolivia during the international break before making the 7,000-mile journey back toYorkshire.
“Fair play to him, he’s been halfway around the world,” Bruce said.“Uruguay have Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani, so he’s in good company. He scored for his country and on Friday he was bright as a button.
“He looks worth the money that we paid for him which, for me, is great news.
“Everyone needs a goalscorer and, at the moment, he’s doing well. Long may it continue.”
Scoring goals was Wednesday’s biggest problem last season and they netted only 16 at Hillsborough in the league throughout the whole of the last campaign under Stuart Gray.
Things look like being different, though under Carlos Carvalhal and the Owls had scored ten goals in five outings at Hillsborough before this clash.
It took them 28 minutes to make it 11 in six but they had some haphazard defending from Hull to thank.
After a strong start, Bruce’s side gradually conceded the initiative and then fell behind as they failed to properly defend a corner. Ross Wallace’s delivery was only half cleared and Barry Bannan’s ball back in was headed down by Tom Lees to find Forestieri. Poor positioning from Ahmed Elmohamady and Curtis Davies meant the Italian was onside ten yards out and free to turn and fire the ball beyond Allan McGregor for his second goal since joining
Watford. Having watched his team surrender the initiative, Bruce took action five minutes into the second half, replacing the subdued Mo Diame with Chuba Akpom, and within a minute, Hull were level.
Shaun Maloney and Jake Livermore had shots well saved by Westwood in quick succession but the Wednesday goalkeeper could do nothing to prevent Hernandez from sweeping the ball home from 12 yards after Livermore picked out the striker in space.
Hernandez had looked leggy in the first half, perhaps understandably given his international commitments, but he was a menace after the break.
On the one occasion Elmohamady got forward to deliver a telling cross, Hernandez produced a header of quality that, fortunately for the hosts,Westwood was equal to.
At the other end, McGregor was rarely tested in the second half.
However, he was called into action in the 77th minute to prevent Andrew Robertson scoring an own goal.
Akpom’s introduction had given the Tigers a spark and he certainly left an impact on referee Keith Stroud after crashing into the offifrom cial, who limped off in stoppage time.
Carvalhal said he was pleased his team had proved a match for a Hull side widely tipped to make an instant return to the Premier League.
“I said it would be a challenge for us to compare what we could do,” he said. “I’m very happy with our team and players, we played against one of the strongest teams.
“We scored one goal and could have had more in the first half.
“If we’d got the second, the story of the game would have been different.”