Hull City Fan View: No real reason for optimism despite better performance

It’s hard to know how to feel as a Hull City fan this evening. Despite losing our sixth consecutive Premier League match at Watford today, there were definite signs of improvement. As I, and the rest of the Hull City faithful, have been shouting out for, Mike Phelan finally decided to ditch his negative, counter-attacking oriented, 4-5-1 formation and played with two strikers. While this change ultimately did not improve the Tigers’ result, the side’s performance today was a vast improvement. However, a defeat is still a defeat. The Premier League is ruthless, and despite an improved display on the pitch, a 1-0 defeat against an average looking Watford side heaps more misery on the club. I just wish that on-the-pitch issues were our only concern!

The game started off badly for the Tigers with Watford charging out of the blocks and hitting the woodwork twice very early on. At this point it appeared, like some many times in recent weeks, that another Premier League drubbing was on the cards. However, this was thankfully not to be. City’s depleted starting XI, which was without the likes of Robert Snodgrass, Andy Robertson and Adama Diomandé, slowly found their feet in their new 3-5-2 formation as the game went on. While it is fair to say that during the first half we never really threatened Heurelho Gomes’ goal, equally, after the opening ten minutes, Watford didn’t ask many questions of David Marshall in what quickly became a scrappy match.

The second half saw the Tigers grow further still into the game with Mike Phelan’s men looking far more comfortable, and much more confident when in possession. However, Watford still looked a threat on the counter-attack with Nordin Amrabat in particular causing endless problems for City’s stand in wing-back Sam Clucas on our left flank. Perhaps fortunately Amrabat’s final product was poor throughout the game, to the frustration of Watford’s talismanic striker, Troy Deeney.

The Tigers’ best, and perhaps only, opportunity of the game fell to Abel Hernandez who latched onto to a long lofted ball which split the Watford defence. Unfortunately, last year’s player of the season wasn’t able to make clean contact with the ball resulting in a comfortable Gomes save. The game was lost in the 82nd minute when Daryl Janmaat’s hopeful cross was turned-in by the returning Michael Dawson, meaning, quite incredibly, that Watford became the first Premier League team in 10 years to win a league game without actually having a shot on target.

Mike Phelan said after the game that he believed the result was ‘cruel’ and that there were still positives to be taken from the game. Once again, as a fan, it’s difficult to know how to react to this. The result was cruel – to lose to an own-goal, scored by your returning, usually solid as a rock captain, in a game where the opposition failed to register another shot on target is, indeed, hard to take. And yes, there were positives – the change in formation being the most obvious. However, the fact still remains that we lost a sixth consecutive Premier League match, three of which were against teams which are likely to be in and around the relegation zone come the end of the season. This is not good enough.

This result has left Hull City fans in a strange mood. On the one hand, as I have already alluded to, the actual performance was a vast improvement on that of our last five Premier League games, which is reason to be positive. On the other hand, our last five Premier League performances were so dismal that it’s easy to forget that a 1-0 defeat to a distinctly average looking Watford side should provide no real reason to be optimistic.

As I said this time last week, the problems Hull City are facing are not exclusively on the pitch. The general state of Hull City AFC is appalling, with not only the squad not being strong or deep enough to compete in the Premier League due to low investment, but also due to the lasting implications of the greatest manager in our history being allowed to simply resign after feeling unable to continue working for the current owners over the summer. Put this on top of the highest ticket prices in Hull City history which has seen even the most loyal Hull City fans driven away from the KCOM, and I don’t know why I am so surprised at current situation.

Is there any genuine wonder why there is no optimism around the club? Results like the one today seem to becoming, more than anything else, simply a by-product of the rot at the very top of the club. Until this rot is removed it will continue to spread, seep down, and inevitably affect every other corner of the club. As a Hull City fan who has seen my side struggle at the very bottom of the Football League pyramid, it scares me that I have never felt more apathetic and less optimistic than I do this season.