May « 2010 « Amber Nectar

May 8, 2010

PREVIEW: City v Liverpool

Had this season progressed a little more to the liking of both teams, tomorrow could have been simultaneously a title decider and survival decider. Instead, City are already down, Liverpool cannot make even the top four, and a disappointing 2009/10 for both teams comes to an end with a whimper.

All eyes on the future, then. Iain Dowie gave youth its chance last week at Wigan, and it responded impressively. Goals from Cullen and Atkinson, with Cairney a dominant presence in midfield – they, along with Devitt and Cooper, are reasons to view next season with a degree of optimism. It’ll be interesting to see whether the temporary City boss gives them another run out against much stronger opposition tomorrow. With Folan and Bullard both injured and there being little point in risking Ashbee and Zayatte, places need filling and using them to provide invaluable experience in a dead rubber to younger players seems the sensible option.

Liverpool haven’t had a much happier time of it this season. Out of the title race since autumn and well off the pace for Champions League qualification, riddled with debt, their two best players either injured or off-form and an unsettled manager, it’s not a particularly bouyant Liverpool that’ll completely the formalities in East Yorkshire tomorrow. They’ll be without Maxi Rodriguez and Glen Johnson, adding to longer-term absentees Insua, Aurelio, Skrtel and Torres – bad news for any loathsome Hull-based tourists, though better news for City fans hoping we can record a first-ever victory against Liverpool.

We’ve been looking forward to summer since the Sunderland defeat condemned us to demotion – lazy nights in beer gardens, Yorkshire already top of the County Championship and a World Cup to get overly excited then disproportionately frustrated about – but one more time, Premier League football comes to Hull and it’d be nice to finish on a high. C’mon City.

Filed under: Uncategorized — Andy @ 1:59 pm

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May 4, 2010

REPORT: Wigan 2 City 2

If you’re a pedantic, over-optimistic mathematician then, finally, you can be quiet and join the rest of us in mourning Hull City’s ex-status as a Premier League club. Bereft of life, it rests in peace. And it was finally tinlidded in a way that can only be described as “typical City”.

The scene is set. Wigan are 2-1 down in injury time and, despite the game holding about as much importance to the fabric of the nation as Wigan itself, send their goalkeeper forward for a last-ditch corner. City clear the corner to halfway, lose possession again and this time the cross results in a defender, who has never scored before, having time and room to control with his chest and put away an overhead kick from just eight yards out.

Typical City indeed. (more…)

Filed under: Match Reports — Matt @ 4:09 pm

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RESULT: Wigan 2 City 2

An injury-time equaliser from Steve Gohouri confirmed what was already obvious as Hull City were relegated from the Premier League.

A victory would have kept the large ‘R’ away from the Tigers’ name in the table under the season’s end next week, but Gohouri’s late overhead kick rubberstamped something that has felt depressingly inevitable for weeks.

A youthful City side went behind thanks to a well-taken Victor Moses goal on the half hour, but Will Atkinson scored with an excellent header on his full Premier League debut from Kevin Kilbane’s cross just before the break.

Mark Cullen also scored on his full debut, nipping in with terrific awareness to head home a George Boateng cross from close range just after the hour, but City couldn’t hang on as Gohouri chested down a cross and hammered in a close-range bicycle kick to snatch a point for the Latics.

It means City end the season without an away win, something that even the abject relegation sides of recent decades managed to avoid, and also lost out on the chance of a League ‘double’, having beaten Wigan at the KC in the autumn.

The season, and Premier League life as a whole, comes to an end with the visit of Liverpool to the Circle next Sunday. Report to come.

Filed under: Results — Matt @ 10:12 am

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May 2, 2010

PREVIEW: Wigan v City

Our final Premier League away of the season, and for the immediate future, takes us to Wigan tomorrow. It’s a 1.30pm kick-off at ESPN’s behest – the satellite broadcaster selecting the game for live coverage in this dim and distant days when survival seemed a credible prospect for City. Now, the issue is settled – at the time of writing City are not mathemetically relegated, but the game is up, and a point for West Ham today would see table compilers affixing an “R” to our name.

So, a dead rubber then. We’ve not had many in recent years. Of late, seasons have tended to go just about to the death, but this one died last week – and arguably with the defeat at home to Burnley. So, we must scramble around for reasons to attach any importance at all to the game. Here goes: it’s our last chance to end the season without the embarrassment of failing to win an away game. City fans on the road have been horribly short-changed for a very long time – one away win since 2008 – and the players frankly owe the travelling support a victory.