Poor start from Hull end their Bluebirds sees home hoodoo
CARDIFF City fell to defeat at the hands of Hull City after failing to claw their way back from a disastrous start at the MKM Stadium.
Two Hull goals inside the first 11 minutes – the first from Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and the second from Lewie Coyle - gave Cardiff a mountain to climb in the Humberside sun. Despite a valiant second-half fightback, which yielded a number of chances and a headed goal for Aden Flint, they just didn’t have it in them to produce two remarkable comebacks in as many matches.
Morison once again ripped up the team which came back to beat Reading last week, opting for seven changes. Most notably, Oliver Denham, the 19-year-old centre-back, was brought in for his first Championship start. Uche Ikpeazu had his first start in a Cardiff shirt, too.
Cardiff reverted to three-at-theback again, but it all fell apart right at the start, just as it did against Reading six days before. This time, they were punished far more heavily.
An awful back pass from Mark McGuinness, who was also recalled to the starting line-up, just eight minutes into the match, presented Sayyadmanesh with a golden opportunity to round Dillon Phillips.
The Hull man did exactly that and put the Tigers ahead. A horribly sloppy goal for Cardiff to concede.
But he had barely picked the ball out of their own net before Phillips had to go and grab it again.
A cross from Keane Lewis-Potter was cleared poorly by McGuinness and Cody Drameh and it allowed
Regan Slater to pick the ball up on the edge of Cardiff’s box before squaring it to Coyle.
He smacked it sweetly, first time, with his left foot and buried it into the bottom corner.
Cardiff were devoid of ideas or an attacking plan, really. The closest they came was on the quarter-of-anhour mark when Ikpeazu produced a spectacular overhead kick, which was bound for the top corner, but Matt Ingram was equal to it.
The Bluebirds finally managed to take the sting out of proceedings and grew into it a little more, but clearcut chances were few and far between.
Morison opted to change things up at the break. He went for a back four for the second half and introduced the creative sparks Tommy Doyle and Rubin Colwill.
But the change in shape almost worked against them straight after the restart when Slater fired a wicked ball across the six-yard box to LewisPotter, who looked certain to add another goal to Hull’s tally. However, Phillips produced a stunning save to deny the Tigers man from pointblank range and give Cardiff a morsel of hope.
The Bluebirds then, to their credit, started to put their stamp on things. They ticked more with Colwill and Doyle in tandem in midfield and began to look the more threatening.
It was, indeed, Doyle who had their first big chance of the second half when Colwill had pounced on a loose ball from Sean McLaughlin at the back.
Mark Harris eventually found Doyle about 10 yards from goal, but the Manchester City loanee just snatched at his effort as it dribbled narrowly past the post.
Then Doyle provided the inch-perfect assist for Flint. The midfielder whipped in a beautiful corner and Flint muscled his way through a sea of Hull defenders before sticking his header convincingly into the back of the net.
Cardiff were back in it and, in fact, just seconds later could have had their equaliser. Phillips pumped a long ball downfield and his opposite number,
Ingram, charged out to clear it. However, Harris, 30 yards out and on the angle of the box, got there first and lobbed the Tigers’ No.1 first time, but the ball rippled the side netting.
And that was all she wrote. Hull, who were wearing away shirts in order to stop their home misery hoodoo – they had lost their previous six at home which was a club record – clung on to gain a valuable three points.