The effect of Sky Sports upon English football has been stunning. The game is now awash with cash, which has transformed the professional game beyond recognition. One can argue that their overall impact has been beneficial, funding the sport’s drive to leave the dark days of the 80s behind and bringing more live matches to the nation than could have been imagined two decades ago. Based upon this, you can even forgive them professional ignoramus Chris Kamara.

Yet, their effect upon one club remains consistently, bafflingly, infuriating negative: Hull City. Their television cameras appear to have the automatic consequence of guaranteeing a defeat for the Tigers while providing three free points for their opposition – it’s tantamount to only having 44 games per season and starting three points behind some sides.

Following the midweek injury to Damien Delany, the manager brought Sam Collins into the defence and gave a debut to David Livermore at the expense of John Welsh, as City lined up: Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Collins, Dawson; France, Livermore, Marney, Fagan; Parkin, Duffy. Derby had their midfield duo of Idiakez and Johnson together once again, while former Tiger Adam Bolder was on the bench.

It was a cool, blustery afternoon at the Circle and the match began in a quiet fashion, a Ryan France shot from distance that was charged down by the commanding Moore being the first attempt in the opening skirmishes.

On eight minutes, Derby took the lead. Smith flicked the ball through nicely to Oakley, stood clearly offside. He fastened onto the pass, sped clear from his illegally gained head-start and beat Myhill with an excellent shot from 20 yards.

A neat move by Derby, one must acknowledge – the pass was astute and the finish ruthless. However, Oakley was plainly offside and the linesman’s inability to spot this was unacceptably poor. That the goalscorer turned to look at the flag-waving dunderhead upon beating the goalkeeper spoke volumes. We will, alas, return to this assistant later.

The goal opened the game up a little. Fagan sent a shot curling just wide, while Idiakez sent a presentable shooting chance from a free-kick over. However, City were playing anxiously. Long-balls were sent into the lightweight and frankly ineffectual Duffy; balls into open space were being sent to the Beast. A knot of worry was gnawing away at the side, translating itself into some frustratingly aimless play.

The better football was coming from the visitors, with a slick move on City’s right giving Seth Johnson a golden chance to double the lead, but he headed over. Things were continuing to go against City, prompting Parkinson to make another first-half substitution – the weak Duffy trotting off for Nick Barmby, a decision that was well received by the majority of the 15,000 crowd.

It introduced a spark of life into City’s general performance, although the cutting edge in the final third remained painfully absent. However, with half-time imminent a witless challenge on Fagan by Boertien in the area gave City a penalty. It was a clear infraction and good play by Fagan to transfer the ball away from a clumsy lunge.

Parkin stepped up and swept the ball to Bywater’s left as he dived right, and The Beast had notched up his third goal of the season to give City a slightly fortunate parity at the break. Relief abounded.

It didn’t alter the match too much, which is unlikely to be responsible for a clutch of new Sky Sports subscriptions. Neither side was playing with too much cohesion, although City fashioned a couple of half-chances when a Marney free-kick, awarded after a crude challenge by Moore, nearly arrived at the unmarked Beast. Livermore also tried his luck from 25 yards, and found it slightly out.

The game plodded on. Tommy Smith had a great chance to give Derby the lead when he collected a Howard flick-on, but from a dozen yards his shot flew into Myhill’s grateful clutches.

Then, with a draw looking drearily probable, the assistant referee intervened. The same one. A Barnes cross from the Derby right flicked Dawson’s upper arm from short range and went out for a corner – or so one would presume. However, the linesman took an alternative view to that of the players, crowd and laws of the game in awarding a penalty. The protests were long and loud, and of course futile. As City fans gathered at the front of the East Stand to share their opinions with the flaggy fuckwit, Smith’s penalty just squirmed past Myhill to give Derby the lead once again.

One would like to report that City, spurred on by this manifest injustice, laid siege to the Derby goal. Alas, it was not so, although the tempo of our play did increase somewhat. Marney sent a free-kick sailing over, Fagan shot just wide again and Parkin tested Bywater’s agility as the game entered injury time – all five minutes of it.

Parkin was now the only threat, and he had an outstanding opportunity when the ball broke to him at the far post, but he fatally hesitated and the chance was smothered and City fell tamely to a third successive defeat.

Positives. Hmm. Well, Sky are presenting intending to only visit one more defeat upon us this season, a figure that us unlikely to be expanded upon given the consistently poor fare our games serve up. And we’re not bottom. And, err, hmm.

In fairness to City, we played very well for periods at West Brom and started superbly against Barnsley. The start of the season has not yielded any points but it has shown that we can play good attacking football.

The application of some defensive discipline and a new partner for the Beast up front are the most urgently required remedies, and are certainly not beyond our wit. It is probably a good thing that we now have a week before the next game at bottom-placed Ipswich – a useful period for everyone to gather their thoughts after three opening defeats. (AD)