Eight weeks after it was postponed, City and Aston Villa have finally agreed upon a date for their fixture at the Circle.
The original game had to be put back after Aston Villa reached the League Cup final back in January, and the match will now take place on Wednesday 21st April (7.45pm). It’ll be City’s fourth-to-last game of the season, sandwiched between Birmingham away and Sunderland at the Circle, and means that three of the last four matches will all be played at home. A deliberate move by City? Not a bad one if so.
The man tasked with steering City out of the relegation zone with nine games left is former Oldham, Crystal Palace, Charlton, Coventry and QPR boss Iain Dowie.
A short statement on the club’s official website states that the 45 year old has been given a short-term contract with the Tigers, his obvious and immediate task being to keep City in the Premier League. Assisting him will be Tim Flowers and Steve Wigley, who is presently working in the England U21 setup.
His job is a formidable one. City lie three points adrift of safety and with a hefty goal difference deficit – however, with relegation-certainties Portsmouth providing his first opposition on Saturday he at least has the chance to make a winning start. More to come…
Hull City’s first Premier League manager no longer holds that position. While his departure may bring relief to some, there is nonetheless great sadness that it has ended this way. Looking beyond recent frustrations, consider Phil Brown’s achievements… In his first six months he saved us from relegation, the next year he achieved what many City fans thought would never be achieved, promotion to the Premier League, via a first ever trip to the national stadium. In our inaugural Premier League campaign we grabbed the world’s attention, fearlessly taking on some of the global game’s biggest teams.
Sure, the latter half of the season proved gut wrenching as we fought the drop, but ultimately we retained top tier status despite being tipped by the majority of pundits to make Derby’s record low season long points tally look relatively respectable. All of these things happened on Phil Brown’s watch, and though the media will recall the permatan, the public team talk and karaoke, ultimately we will remember helping relegate Leeds, Wembley, winning at the Emirates and mixing it with the big boys. When the dust settles, history will remember Phil Brown’s tenure at Hull City favourably.
Here we consider the highs and lows of Brown Phil’s reign, noting the defining games, words and looks of the most successful manager in Tigers history. (more…)
A statement on the club’s official website states that he’s been placed on gardening leave with immediate effect, with Brian Horton now in charge of first team affairs. He’ll be assisted by Steve Parkin, pending an expected announcement later in the week about a new full-time manager.
We’ll have much more on this soon, but in the meantime – no matter how disappointing City’s form has been over a prolonged period – it’s hard not to feel incredibly sorry about how it’s turned out for the man who took us to Wembley and the Premier League.
Perhaps, given unlimited time and extensive research, it could be possible to conjure up something more galling than yesterday’s injury time happening at the Circle. It’d probably involve an unholy triumvirate of twattery consisting of Arsene Wenger, Gordon Brown and Michael Winner kneeing you in the knackers while pinching your wallet and shagging your wife, but even that doesn’t quite seem to do it. Not even alcohol made much of an impact on this.
And so once again, City just miss out against one of the Sky Sports Mega Four. We’ll leave (for now) the inevitable yet warranted complaint about why we can raise our game for one of the bigger clubs yet failed so dismally on the road against comparatively lesser lights, and try to seek the positives in the fact that we did at least compete yesterday.
A dreadful flap by Boaz Myhill ruined a heroic afternoon for the ten-man Tigers as Arsenal scored a 93rd minute winner at the KC to leave City in desperate trouble in the Premier League relegation zone.
Myhill inexplicably chose to push back into the danger zone a speculative Denilson shot into the path of Nicklas Bendtner, who steered in a simple rebound that got the Gunners out of jail.
City had been down to ten men since first half injury time, when George Boateng received a second yellow (which could have been a straight red) after putting his studs through the knee of Bacary Sagna. The game was already 1-1, with Andrey Arshavin’s shuffle and shot being cancelled out by Jimmy Bullard’s penalty, given when Sol Campbell brought down Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink.
Few wouldn’t have expected an Arsenal cakewalk in the second half but nonetheless the gifted visitors were hassled and closed down by a rampantly committed City side and while they had plenty of possession, they rarely had a shot and certainly got little on target until Denilson’s late effort brought out the worst in Myhill.
City are also waiting on news of a knee injury suffered by Kamil Zayatte, though some heart could be taken from a superb performance in the back four by Liam Cooper as his second half replacement.
The Tigers are three points adrift of safety and have played a game more than some. Next week’s match at Portsmouth is beyond massive, while the forthcoming visits of Fulham, Burnley and Sunderland to the KC will now define the season as a whole. Gallophobic match report to come…
It has been over a month since our last home game, and given our dismal away form (in our last three games we’ve lost at Blackburn, West Ham and Everton) some home comforts will be welcomed. The only thing is, we’re playing arguably the form team in Europe, Arsenal have won their last four games in a row, this week steamrolling over Porto 5-0 to advance to the Champions League quarter finals.
Still, we seem to save our best performances for the ‘big clubs’, take our 1-1 draw against Chelsea and 2-1 win over Manchester City in February. It may take such a performance to save Phil Brown’s job, talk is rife that hammering in this game will make it his last, as City languish 19th in the Premier League.
Being without the talismanic Stephen Hunt wouldn’t help, the Tigers top scorer this term has been having foot trouble and he might miss out if injections don’t have the desired effect. Craig Fagan is back in contention after suspension and Andy Dawson has been declared fit after an asthma attack.
As for the Gunners, Cesc Fabregas is their main concern with a hamstring tweak, whereas the state of Tomas Rosicky’s groin (hur hur!) will be assessed before kick off.
The game is live on ESPN, kick off is at 5.30pm.
In the meantime, enjoy tousled Tiger Jimmy Bullard’s appearance in a new commercial for Wash & Go…
A trip to Everton is a tricky prospect at the best of times. Without a win away from home in a year, travelling to a side who’ve recent scalps at home have included Manchester United and Chelsea, it’s hard not to feel a sense of foreboding about this.
Not that a trip to Everton is necessarily mission impossible. They’ve had an iffy season so far, lying tenth in the Premier League and nowhere near the top four that must have been their ultimate aim this time out. They’ll also be disappointed with how their UEFA Cup campaign ended recently, a 3-0 defeat at Sporting Lisbon ensuring that this will be a trophyless season for David Moyes’ men. All that remains is the chance to put together a late run in order to qualify once again for Europe.
It’s bad, but it could have been worse: City have confirmed that Anthony Gardner will be out of action for at least six weeks after ligament damage was confirmed as the ankle injury he sustained at West Ham.
Ever the optimist, Phil Brown has suggested the player could still be involved at the end of the season, though his lengthy and unfortunate history of injuries may mean we’ve seen the last of him for the 2009/10 campaign. Nonetheless, given his stricken deameanour when being stretchered off at Upton Park thirteen days ago, perhaps we should be thankful that his absence is being measured in weeks rather than months.
