HILLSBOROUGH FAITHFUL DESERVE MORE

IF Carlos Carvalhal is justified in feeling aggrieved, so are Wednesday’s fans. For 45 minutes they were served up gruel, a display so wretched jeers cascaded from the terraces.

Yes, the home side improved after a secondhalf switch to 4-3-3. But that being the case, why didn’t Carvalhal deploy a more attacking system from the off?

He can hardly claim – as he did against Bristol City and Reading – that his opponents needed containing. Hull have won one away game in the whole calendar year.

Wednesday fans are sick of stodgy, negative football and this Jeckyll and Hyde display will have done nothing to quell their frustration. If anything, the second half only proved their point.

Hull were lucky in the sense that Mazuch’s handball went unpunished, but their composed first-half display deserved more than defeat.

That the Tigers lack depth and quality is undeniable, yet it is certain the players are behind their manager.