Hull 1-3 QPR
Match Report
I didn’t go to this one because the 12.30pm kick-off would have meant an overnight stay in Hull, but I’m now regretting that because the last time I saw QPR win away was against Luton last season. While we struggle against the sides below us – particularly those in the drop zone – we seem to beat teams above us with ease, particularly those in the top six. Hull came into this having not won in three, but they were still fourth in the table and, with 54 points, are looking good for a play-off finish. Yet we won by a two-goal margin. Let’s hope we can repeat that at St Mary’s on Tuesday in the second of a three-game week.
Julien Stéphan made two changes to the team he fielded against Blackburn, bringing Amadou Mbengue back in at right back, moving Ronnie Edwards to centre back and resting Steve Cook, and replacing an injured Paul Smyth with Rayan Kolli. That meant we lined up in a 4-4-2 formation as follows: Joe Walsh in goal; Mbengue, Jimmy Dunne, Edwards and Rhys Norrington-Davies in defence; Isaac Hayden, Nicolas Madsen, Harvey Vale and Koki Saito in midfield; and Kolli and Richard Kone as the front two. We had been told ahead of time that both Chair and Jonathan Varane would be available, but only the Frenchman was on the bench.
We had an opportunity here to do the double over the Tigers, having beaten them 3-1 in the reverse fixture, but that didn’t look likely in the first 10 minutes, when we struggled to get the ball out of our half. The hosts had their first shot in the third minute, one of seven in the first half, two on target. Apart from half a chance for Saito, we created little pressure until our first corner in the 21st minute. Vale was on duty instead of Madsen and his in-swinger ended up in the back of the net after the slightest of touches from Paddy McNair, under pressure from Dunne. It was a good corner, but the hosts could have defended it better, with goalkeeper Ivor Pandur and Oli McBurnie failing to get anything on it. One-nil to the R’s.
That bit of luck gave us a confidence boost and we dominated for the next 15 minutes, with Norrington-Davies getting off our only shot on target in the first period in the 37th minute. Pandur managed to stop it, but then spilled it and Kone almost got there before the keeper scooped it up.
But a couple of minutes later, their Japanese winger, Yu Hirakawa, beat Norrington-Davies to the byline and put in a dangerous cross that Edwards failed to deal with. In the ensuing goalmouth scramble, Joe Gelhardt managed to tap in an equaliser.
So, not a great first half, with both goals coming from defensive errors. But the hosts had the better of it, with an xG of 1.69 to our 0.10 and seven shots to our two. We’d need to go up a gear if we were to get anything from this game.
Hull almost scored again in the 57th minute, after a shot from distance got a flick-on from McNair and then took a deflection off McBurnie. Walsh had to get down quickly to stop the ball going in, making the best save of the match.
For the next 20 minutes, neither side looked like scoring, with the closest being a whipped-in cross from Vale in the 73rd minute that Kolli should have got his head on. In the absence of a bit of magic, the game was heading for a draw, which, given Hull’s position in the league, would have been a decent enough result. But a bit of magic is what we got.
With typical tardiness, Stéphan didn’t make his first substitutions until the 80th minute, when he brought on Daniel Bennie for Kolli and Varane for Hayden. The 19 year-old has been scoring for fun in the development squad, but had yet to shine in the first team, in spite of getting his first start against Blackburn. This time, he came good, scoring an absolute worldy from outside the box four minutes after coming on. It didn’t look like there was anything on, but he struck the ball with such power – and placed it so well in the top left-hand corner – there was little Pandor could do. Get in!
After that, the hosts ramped up the pressure, hoping for an equaliser, but leaving spaces behind for the visitors to exploit. And exploit them we did, with several chances falling for Kone. The Ivorian had a header saved in the 89th minute, missed a sitter in the 91st, and then saw a right-footed shot from the side of the box saved. It looked like it just wasn’t going to be Kone’s day, but in the 95th minute he won the ball on the half way line, took a couple of touches, then, with great composure, guided it past Pandur into the bottom right-hand corner. That’s his eighth goal of the season, only two less than Burrell.
As Hoopsa said, we’ve looked one moment of quality away from winning in our last three away fixtures, all of which finished 0-0, and this afternoon it was provided by Daniel Bennie. We’ve also managed to finish strongly in those previous three, but without finding the winner; this afternoon, we scored twice. It felt like Stéphan got the tactics right, although his decision to leave it so late before making any substitutions had me tearing my hair out. He also replaced Mbengue with Jake Clarke-Salter in the 85th minute – good to see him back on the pitch – and Saito with Kieran Morgan in the 93rd.
It’s easy to feel optimistic after an away win against a top side – and this game saw Bennie get on the scoresheet for the first time, as well as two of our first-team players return from injury. But we shouldn’t get carried away. Our points tally is exactly the same as it was after the same number of games last season – and we have a better squad now, thanks to some smart business over the summer.
Does that mean Stéphan is no better – perhaps even worse – than Martî Cifuentes? True, two of the players we’ve added to the squad since Martî’s departure – Kwame Poku and Rumarn Burrell – are injured, and Ilias Chair was available this time last year, having scored a brace in our 4-0 victory over Derby in our 33rd game. It’s also possible that we may end up finishing higher than 15th with some of our players returning. (We only won three of the remaining 12 last season.) But at this point Stéphan has been a disappointment, particularly with our lack of progress in the two cups. I imagine a top 10 finish is the bare minimum he’ll need to achieve to remain in post. At the end of this game we were briefly in 10th place and one point off the play-offs, but by 5pm we were 13th and four points off.
I don’t fancy our chances against Southampton, who leapfrogged us today, after which we’ve got Sheffield United at home. Let’s hope we do better in the final game of a three-game week than we have done previously this season.
You can watch the highlights on Sky Sports here.
Who would have believed it possible? A great victory from a team that continues to puzzle supporters and frustrate bookies! Regarding Stephan, I do feel he has not used subs as quickly as he should or rotated players enough. It is almost as if he wants to flog the last piece of energy out of them before replacing the Starting XI. That to me indicates someone without a 'Plan B' or 'Plan C' prepared, something essential in this league.
Great win - great report - I think we’ll stuff Southampton though