Match report - Hull of a Ride

We embarked on the journey up the wonderful A17 to see what Hull has to offer after its city of culture award in 2017.

Arriving and parking at the Royal Infirmary was a doddle - first impressions of Hull were “it’s grim” until we walked to the old town and museums quarter. There were some lovely old buildings, nice pubs and we sat in a rather quiet square in the sun sipping on yorkshires finest. It could have been Barcelona.

The football on the other hand, couldn’t.

The changes to the lineup were more forced than tactical (injuries). Having watched the Canaries limp to the 1-1 draw last week one might have expected Hernandez to start or Hugill to play a part. But Hugill was left on the bus with Sara (I’m hearing interesting comments about Sara’s training effort making his omission even more intriguing).

The first 30 minutes we were all over Hull. Relatively fluid passing and cutting through them along the floor with ease. Chance after chance wasted a bit like the Wigan match. Our skill and pace was too much for them. What was clear though was that there did not appear to be a plan. Not an ounce of tactic. Just the management hoping that skill and fast play would be enough. We then did what any Sunday league manager tells their defence not to do and tried to clear straight up the middle without looking. An unlucky deflection off our own player, fell kindly for Hull who tapped it home.

Confidence drained, skill and pace left the room and the NCFC team without tactics, without skill and without pace looked very poor.

The ref was kind to us most of the game and awarded a free kick to Norwich 25 yards out in Nunez territory. Having watched his videos I said to the supporters around me, “he’ll get this having seen his free kicks before” and blast me bor, he did.

Game on!

A revitalised Norwich, mainly lead through Hernandez and to some extent Gibbs then proceeded to pepper the Hull penalty area. Ramsey will rue a two yard miss when it seemed easier to score. But it wasn’t to be. And the main reason being again…we lacked clear tactics or a plan. We were relying on our players being better than theirs and hoping a piece of skill would come off. There was not an inkling that we had assessed their videos and spotted weaknesses to target. There was no inkling that we were structured in a way to break them down. It was just, toy with them, we’ll create a skill from nothing and get a shot. This is where we need to improve next week. Smith needs to prove he can outwit an opposing manager.

Positives
Nunez, great FK but all round play was energised
Gibbs looked decent coming forward
Hernandez provided more in ten minutes than Milot all match

Negatives
Lack of a plan, again.
Yet another defensive brain fart gifts a goal
Smiths determination to pick Sarge, Milot, Kenny

Posted By: Tony Martin on August 14th 2022 at 08:56:11

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