What a peculiar game to end the calendar year. Entertaining, intriguing, passionate, all of these things. But peculiar too. Bizarre, in fact.

The draw means Hull City are a healthy eight games unbeaten and, although the tightness of the division means that such a fine run of point-attainment isn’t matched by high upward leaps in position, the prospects for 2011 are cautiously good. Many are making the comparison with 2007-8 now, as it was over the Christmas and New Year period – and specifically, to me, Caleb Folan’s equaliser at Stoke on New Years Day – that began the murmurings of who we might actually be able to reach the top six.

The peculiarities of the visit of Reading to the KC Stadium mean that we can’t rely on just actual football to achieve this goal once again. The intrusion of an attention-seeking official or two may have an effect. The official for this game made some baffling decisions, to say the least. I’m not going to say he was wrong – I’m always wary of that, as I hate appearing rose-coloured in my vision only to be proved incorrect afterwards – but he was certainly confusing in some of his interpretations of incidents and the laws. The City fans, bless them, were less forgiving and, in some cases, they really couldn’t be blamed.

Anyway, we’ll get to all that in a bit. Nigel Pearson made two changes from the side that won so heroically and belatedly at Sheffield United on Boxing Day, with Andy Dawson returning to the left back role after suspension and Paul McShane receiving a tardy call-up to the centre of defence after Anthony Gerrard pulled something – a hamstring, a thigh muscle, a member of the hospitality staff – in the warm-up. Read it aloud in a bombastic voice then – Mannone; Rosenior, McShane, Zayatte, Dawson; Ashbee, Harper, Koren, Devitt; Stewart, Simpson. Liam Cooper got a late issue of a substitute’s outfit alongside Jimmy Bullard, expected to play by dunderheaded people who think that 20 impressive minutes at Bramall Lane cancels out nearly two years of almost exclusive footballing inactivity. (more…)

Footballing jinxes come, and usually they go. City are no different to any other club in this regard. A win on television? Done that. A penalty shoot-out success? Finally. A trip to Wembley? Aye. Top flight football in Hull? At long last.

Placed alongside the last of these two, City’s ongoing travails at Bramall Lane rather pale into comparative insignificance. Not since the 1970/1 season had City won at Sheffield United, in a match fondly recalled by those present as the “Battle of Bramall Lane”. Nigel Pearson’s men have ended that decades-long hex with a more modern day battle.

City’s recent form had offered a few hints that this series could be ended. The Tigers were unbeaten in six games, and hadn’t lost away from home since September – another six match-run that now has another added to it.

The weather in South Yorkshire was decidedly more football-friendly than in Hull. There was virtually no snow on the ground, and while it was cool, any concerns over the game we’d had were completely unfounded. Although the pitch was, understandably, not in pristine condition it was a fine day for football.

City made just one change to the side that comfortably beat Bristol City last week, with the suspended Andy Dawson being replaced at left-back by Kevin Kilbane. It meant that jet-heeled Manchester United loanee Cameron Stewart and the resur…gent Jay Simpson were paired up front together as the Tigers unveiled a Boxing Day XI of: Mannone; Rosenior, Gerrard, Zayatte, Kilbane; Koren, Ashbee (c), Harper, Devitt; Stewart, Simpson.

That meant that Jamie Devitt was rewarded for a solid showing last week by given left-wing snood-sporting duties for a Yorkshire derby, while James Harper was returning to Bramall Lane for the first time since leaving the Blades last summer. Jimmy Bullard and Richard Garcia were deemed fit enough for the subs’ bench.

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