Ayala error costly as Pulis rues failure to seal win
Middlesbrough were busy accustoming themselves to the view from the summit of the Championship when, for once, they were let down by their usually trusty defence.
Britt Assombalonga’s goal early in the second half had appeared enough to propel Tony Pulis’s side to the top of the table, until a moment Daniel Ayala will want to forget gifted Hull an unexpected path back into a contest they appeared destined to chase in vain.
The Spaniard, who spent a brief spell at the KCOM Stadium at the outset of his career, inexplicably pushed Chris Martin to the turf to leave referee Darren England with little option but to point to the penalty spot.
Jarrod Bowen was calmness personi- fied to send Darren Randolph the wrong way to score only the second league goal conceded by the Teesside club since the opening day of the season.
“We didn’t control the ball enough, especially in the first half,” said Pulis, as his side dropped to third after missing an opportunity to replace faltering Leeds at the head of the table.
He added: “Give Hull some credit, they worked very hard, but once we scored we needed to get the second goal.
“The lad’s been very clever in stepping across Danny for the penalty but the bottom line is that we need to get more goals.
“We’ve got a good group of lads who work hard and do their best and sometimes they’ll fall a little bit short.
“We’re disappointed because we had the chance to go top, but we’ve still only lost once this season.”
Before the game, the Middlesbrough manager had stressed the importance of at least one of his strikers reaching 20 goals this season.
Assombalonga contributed his fourth of the campaign with an unflustered close-range volley from Jonny Howson’s cross as the Hull defence collectively switched off, although their manager, Nigel Adkins, claimed the forward was offside.
The officials clearly did not concur, awarding only Middlesbrough’s 12th goal in 15 hours of Championship football.
Even such a modest scoring rate has usually been sufficient to secure victories due to Middlesbrough’s miserly rearguard, who had looked in little trouble until Ayala manhandled Martin with 20 minutes remaining.
In response, Pulis threw on Martin Braithwaite, Mo Besic and Stewart Downing in a late triple substitution to force the issue, and from the latter’s cross, goalkeeper David Marshall produced a stunning save low to his right to block Howson’s header.
Braithwaite might have had a late penalty, but Pulis admitted: “We just needed to be more clinical.”
Hull have won just once in seven games, but, as ever, Adkins attempted to stress the positives.
“We needed a response after the defeat at Reading and I thought we got that,” the manager insisted. “We deserved at least a point.”