Hull City 1 West Ham Utd 0 (19/10/08)

[bubbles1966]

at the beginning we had the possession and playing ok. nothing special but ok. after the goal we tried to response and we got close. but after that cole chance we were very bad. we couldnt just make 4 passes. we also have to remember with who we were playing. hull isn't something special. it was the same hull at the same ground that lost 0-5 to wigan. if we dont manage to win teams like hull, bolton and west brom we wont finish higher than last season.on the other hand the crisis may affect the players but they must do better.

That's the point many on here are missing Cyprus. We have played the dregs of the division (except Spurs, of course) and since the beginning of September are struggling to get results.

Should have won counts for bugger all...... and if we cant shoot straight or defend set pieces - should we really win?

[k-r-c]

Anyone have a video of Ilunga's disallowed goal?

[HammerinHank]

That's the point many on here are missing Cyprus. We have played the dregs of the division (except Sp*rs, of course) and since the beginning of September are struggling to get results.

Should have won counts for bugger all...... and if we cant shoot straight or defend set pieces - should we really win?

The same Hull that defeated Arsenal and others, the same Hull that sits at flippin' 3rd place!

Anyone disreguards them at their own peril. They've been refreshing, I hope Phil Brown stays gaffer with them. 'Course, I didn't care to see them gain victory yesterday.

By the same token, poor or not, WBA isn't sitting in 10th for being a poor team either exactly.

[libero]

UtJ

My digs against Zola's predecessor were never sly - I was pleased when he was appointed, but felt he ended up not doing the job I'd hoped he'd do. I directly criticised him for his signings and injury/fitness record - but never slyly because I thought, and still think, he's a decent, good, honest and fair person.

I don't think Bellamy and Dyer are in any way similar cases. In my opinion Bellamy was a good signing whose injury problems meant that he spent practically a year at the club without achieving anything. I hope he now goes on to prove his value to the club. I hope he proves to be one of Curbs best signings (along with Upson and Parker).

Dyer was simply a dreadful signing in my opinion. For so many reasons I've already mentioned on other threads. It's hard to find anything positive to say about him, but I promise I'll try to after he's played 50 games for us

I'll take your advice and try to market my "Libero goggles". They might also be useful for reading the Financial Times these days and could help me through the current economical crisis. Of course I'll send you a complimentary pair to help you get into the Zola era with a little more optimism

[mattyD]

FWIW I thought Cole had a very good game - all apart from the fact he can't finish and never seems to even threaten the goal. That said I thought the main problem was that the way GZ sets the team out to play, it isn't gonna work against teams like Hull and Bolton, with the expectations of underdogs, they put lots of men behind the ball and soak up the short passing - which gives them the momentum and the basis to go on and get something, which they duely did and then of course sit back and hold on. It seems very naive to me that the coaching staff think that we can play like that. This is not a Zola out rant but under Curbs, the game would have been half killed, Hull would not have been given the momentum but rather the onus to do soemthing, when or of that doesn't happen, the away team can then gain the ascendancy. Still, if we had a goal scorer we would have got something.

[bubbles1966]

Should have won counts for bugger all...... and if we cant shoot straight or defend set pieces - should we really win?

the same Hull that defeated Arsenal and others, the same Hull that sits at flippin' 3rd place!

Anyone disregards them at their own peril. They've been refreshing, I hope Phil Brown stays gaffer with them. 'Course, I didn't care to see them gain victory yesterday.

Hull are doing well.... as are Stoke and WBA......so the standard logic that the relegated teams will all go down seems unlikely to stand this year, and some teams who imagined themselves to be comfortable survivors at the start of the season will struggle.

Some are trying to explaining the defeat to Hull as a blip. So was Bolton. So was WBA. So was Watford.

4 "blips" in 6 games?

Whilst there is no need to panic it's foolish to be complacent and imagine that a relegation battle "can't" happen to us.

Some things need correcting certainly by the time we go to Middlesbrough at the start of November.

[hongkonghammer]

Wow..lots of negativity after a loss. there's a surprise :shock:

For what it's worth I thought we were the better side and created the far clearer cut chances. I counted 6 clear cut chances from under 8 yards. The team kept the ball well and tried to build from the back and get the full backs involved early. A lot of people were slating Curbs for not playing this type of football. My only real complaint was that we played the last 10 minutes with 4 strikers but our only striker who could win a header for some reason was coming deep or pulling to the near post. Not once did we put it in the mixer and hit Cole. That really did wind me up as it was blatantly obvious that Hull were happy with 10 behind the ball at that stage. Thought Behrami was excellent and his energy is pretty amazing and he should real drive later on to beat a player and make something happen. Thought Upson was solid (barring the goal were he got caught flat footed) and in general everyone was decent. Faubert has a wicked delivery on him but can be pretty frustrating with some of his decision making.

All in all though a game that I really think we should have one but probably evens out with one of our earlier season wins where we probably should have lost. Looking forward to seeing how we cope with the L'Arse and what plan Zola and Clarke will formulate.

More positives than negatives in terms of display.

[steveyrockstar]

Another terrible performance. 11 zombies stroking the ball around gently at a snails pace is not what we meant by "passing football", Franco. Have a f***ing word.

Alright Norman knee-jerk, bit of an exagerration? We didn't play particularly well, but we didn't play that badly either. Hull did their job very well, but on another day, we could've easily taken a couple of our chances - a la Fulham game - and everyone would've been content.

[Dan1326]

Alright Norman knee-jerk, bit of an exagerration? We didn't play particularly well, but we didn't play that badly either. Hull did their job very well, but on another day, we could've easily taken a couple of our chances - a la Fulham game - and everyone would've been content.

You watch, we'll do l'Arse because they don't pack the defence.

[sendô]

For all the possession we had, we lack penetration or real conviction. They looked the more dangerous on the attack, even though we had arguably the better chances, but then all our chances seemed to come from when we played more direct.

Still, on a positive note, it's nice to see us patiently trying to build up an attack rather than just punting it from CB to CF. At the moment we look an average mid table team lacking conviction up front. If Bellamy can get back into form and the patient passing game continues, we'll look good.

[Adam W]

I totally agree about the lack of tempo in our passing, it was the same against Bolton the other week. It makes it very easy for teams to get men behind the ball and defend against. If we want to improve we need to move the ball around quicker.

As for Hull they reminded me of Bolton a few years ago under Fat Sam, pack the the middle of the park and sit behind the ball and then play the long diagonal ball up the pitch. Not pretty to watch but effective.

[FEH]

from the highlights on MOTD looks like we create the better and more chances, just didnt take them and they took theirs.

May I know where I could watch the MOTD online,please? Thanks in advance. Not found in footytube or eplmatches.com

[hornsey]

May I know where I could watch the MOTD online,please? Thanks in advance. Not found in footytube or eplmatches.com

NOT MOTD but the highlights none the less....

http://www.football.virginmedia.com/pag ... Id=3155898" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[hornsey]

NOT MOTD but the highlights none the less....

http://www.football.virginmedia.com/pag ... Id=3155898" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;[/quote]

just watched it, No Illunga 'goal' unfortunitly.

[FEH]

NOT MOTD but the highlights none the less....

http://www.football.virginmedia.com/pag ... Id=3155898" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

just watched it, No Illunga 'goal' unfortunitly.[/quote]

Cheers, Hornsey. But I'm an overseas iron so unfortunately, I cannot access the highlights ~ sigh..