Tigers safe after 10-goal thriller
NIGEL Adkins and Lee Johnson had very different perspectives on an amazing see-saw contest at Ashton Gate.
For Hull boss Adkins, the point secured from a ten-goal thriller clinched Championship survival and completed the job he was brought in to do during the winter.
Home head coach Johnson, on the other hand, had to reflect on a result that may well prove fatal to hopes of a place in play-offs.
Twice two goals behind, Hull refused to lie down. They led 5-4 late on and were only denied victory by Joe Bryan’s equaliser deep into six minutes of stoppage time.
Adkins said: “Again, the players have shown great character and a real sense of togetherness and some of our attacking play was tremendous.
“We wanted to be in control of our own destiny today and it is great to achieve safety on the back of a positive result.”
Adkins was full of praise for two-goal Harry Wilson after the Liverpool loanee’s eye-catching display.
“Harry is an exceptional talent,” he said. “The way we play gives him a chance to express himself and he has been able to find out that Championship football is very different from Under-23 games.
“Of course, I am not happy to concede five and there were some really poor ones from our point of view.
“But overall, we have come out of a brilliant game to watch, having not been beaten by a team desperate to get into the play-offs.
“I was very happy that we caused Bristol so many problems. Now we want to continue building on our recent form in the last two games.”
Wilson shot Hull in front from just inside the box on 16 minutes.
But by half-time, they were behind to Marlon Pack’s 37th minute long-range strike and a cool 40th-minute finish by Famara Diedhiou.
A well-placed header from Diedhiou on 53 minutes put the home side 3-1 up, only for goalkeeper Frank Fielding to concede a 56th-minute own goal when a header from Hull substitute Fikayo Tomori ricocheted off a post and went in off him
Bobby Reid plundered his 21st goal of the season from a 64thminute through ball to make it 4-2 but Wilson then beat Fielding at his near post with a sweetlystruck 30-yard free-kick from the left.
Substitute Abel Hernandez fired in from close range to level for Hull. And when Fraizer Campbell converted a low cross from substitute Kamil Grosicki on 84 minutes, it seemed the Tigers would roar to an unlikely win.
But Bryan had other ideas, shooting home from the edge of the box to spare the home side’s blushes.
Johnson admitted: “We are all a bit shell-shocked. Our attacking play deserved even more goals but some of the defending was schoolboy errors.
“Having played well in the first half, we got ourselves 4-2 up and in a great position to take the points we needed.
“We will keep fighting but obviously, we now need a storming finish to the season and hope things go our way.
“Perhaps we lack enough leaders on the pitch. Players can be divided into followers, standardsetters and leaders, and we need more to graduate from the second of those categories to the third.”