Hull City back to flirting with relegation without reinforcements after disappointing defeat to Stoke City

Hull City are in danger of being dragged back into the fight to remain in the Championship after a bitterly disappointing 2-0 home defeat to Stoke City.

Crashing to their third successive defeat in the league, Hull were a shadow of the side that had shown such spirit in last weekend’s defeat to Everton in the FA Cup.

The home side were never really at the races throughout the 90 minutes, barely troubling Jack Bonham in the visiting goal as Stoke chalked up a comfortable away victory.

Grant McCann had started with Tom Huddlestone in midfield alongside the in-form Greg Docherty and George Honeyman. Arguably Hull’s best-starting midfield at the beginning of the season, given the resurgence in form of Richie Smallwood, it was surprised to see him left out as their midfield missed the former Blackburn’s man bite.

As McCann alluded to in his post-match press conference, the busy time of year with three fixtures in six days, the squad rotation was needed to keep players as fresh as possible.

Huddlestone certainly showed signs of rustiness and given that he is coming towards the end of his career, he will need a run of games to get him back up to optimum fitness.

Sadly, Hull struggled with his lack of mobility as they were too easy to play through and were not as compact as they have been in recent months. At times, Huddlestone was too deep which encouraged Stoke to press high and get at the Tigers back three.

Stoke found early joy with their fluidity from midfield to attack and D’Margio Wright-Phillips was the star of the show on his first full league debut.

He showed that he was a chip off the old block from the famous products from the Wright family name with some superb footwork and movement which posed plenty of problems for Hull’s fairly solid backline this season.

For Hull, they struggled in the final third particularly with Josh Magennis departing and Mallik Wilks injured. The Tigers just never got going in that department are now down to the bare bones in terms of numbers with only youngster Josh Hinds on the bench to provide any real backup.

It was a surprise to see Magennis leave for Wigan given they are so short in attack and without a replacement, the Northern Irish striker’s presence would be better than nothing at all.

Neither Tom Eaves nor Tyler Smith really got going in the game and up against the likes of James Chester and Phil Jagielka. Eaves’ physical game, which has ruffled feathers so far this season, was not going to ruffle experienced defenders who love a physical battle.

Honeyman carved out an opening the first half for Eaves was the closest they came to getting a goal with a sweetly struck volley. But as crisp as he struck the ball, it fell straight into the relieved arms of Bonham.

The Potters who had threatened early on were unlucky not to score as Wright-Phillips almost got past Baxter in goal, following an intricate through pass from ex-Hull man Sam Clucas but the Hull keeper just about did enough to smother the ball.

Stoke were finding all types of joy down the Tigers’ right-hand side and treating with another ball into the box which Sean McLoughlin did well to turn away for a corner.

With the momentum that Stoke were building, it was no surprise to see them take the lead on 23 minutes. Some good work by Tom Ince in midfield, got the Potters moving further up the pitch and as the ball fell out to Clucas out wide, his pinpoint cross was emphatically headed by Jacob Brown as he drifted away from his markers to plant a firm header past Baxter in goal.

Greg Docherty was surprisingly withdrawn at half-time for George Moncur, but Hull really struggled after the restart and if anything the midfield looked flatter following that change.

It was Stoke that started on the front foot and once more McLoughlin made a couple of important blocks as the visitors found themselves in good attacking positions.

Stoke soon found themselves two-nil up at with a goal that was not only bore out of quality, Hull had not helped themselves once more with players not fully focussed.

Being a poor second to a challenge on the halfway line, Ryan Longman was beaten to the ball far too easily by James Chester who again got Clucas moving in front of him.

Finding Ince in space 20 yards out, the former Hull forward got the ball out of his feet before rifling home a sublime effort past Baxter and to the delight of the travelling fans.

Wright-Phillips was at the heart of everything good about Stokes attack and he almost capped a man of the match performance with a rasping 25-yard effort that was inches away from finding both and Baxter’s top corner in the Hull goal.

McCann had one last roll of the dice as he introduced Smallwood and Randell Williams and they both made an immediate impact. Smallwood put in a couple of good challenges in the midfield to get the hosts moving further up the pitch and Williams also whipped in a couple of good crosses into the box.

Williams picked out Ryan Longman on a couple of occasions, but surprisingly, the Brighton loanee got his touch all wrong and was indecisive in those key moments. Longman, who has scored some excellent goals in recent weeks, was surprisingly caught in two minds and tried to square the ball back when the home crowd expected him to hit the ball first time. A bad touch let him down in a similar position moments later.

“It’s obviously disappointing. We knew before the game there was two teams in the same sort of systems similar and we had to work.  We had to fight, we had to pick up seconds we had to be good on the ball. We had to be good on transitions. We were none of that.

‘We’ve got a young group and one of the second or third youngest group in the division. The boys understand how cruel this league can be, and it can knock you if you’re not on your game. Today, we had too many off of their games. And that’s always a recipe for disaster when that happens and that was a case” – Grant McCann

McCann was realistic that without help, it is going to be a difficult last four months of the season. The uncertainty around the takeover appears to be taking effect and dragging Hull into the mire without any resolution. Grant McCann, if he’s allowed to continue with his job, is extremely unlikely to bring any new players in under the current owners as they wait for an EFL decision.

Currently sitting in no man’s land and with two weeks left of the transfer window, the squad are in desperate need of reinforcements to make them a Championship force. It promises to be an interesting week once more but with the downturn of results and confidence, a spark is needed to get them back to winning ways.

“The players need some help. Players and staff are working very hard to stay in the Championship to try and get this group to help them continue to do.

“Josh Magennis left, Mallik (Wilks) and Callum Elder are also injured as well as Alfie Jones. We need support in January. We want we don’t want to do is stand still, we want to move forward and move on.” – Grant McCann

With second-placed Blackburn up next for their rearranged fixture on Wednesday evening, Hull are going to have to fight once more to survive and to find the momentum which saw what they were capable of going into the Christmas period.

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