Bruce's fury at 'worst ever' penalty decision as Hull City crash 4-2 at Crystal Palace
STEVE Bruce claimed his Hull City side were undone by the "worst penalty decision" he has ever witnessed as Crystal Palace grabbed a 4-2 victory in the Championship promotion battle at Selhurst Park.
City fell to another heavy away defeat last night as Kevin Phillips' hat-trick sent Palace on their way to an emphatic victory in the showdown of two automatic promotion rivals.
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Robert Koren disputes the second penalty with referee Mark Haywood.
Consolations from Jay Simpson and David Meyler sandwiched Wilfried Zaha's solo goal but could do nothing to prevent the Tigers from falling down to third behind Watford.
Bruce offered no excuses for his side's sloppy performance, but hit out at the decision that gave Palace a lead from the spot in first-half stoppage time.
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Glenn Murray's shot was blocked by a diving Jack Hobbs, only for referee Mark Haywood to point to the spot on the advice of his linesman.
"I've got no complaints with the result, they were the better team on the night," said Bruce.
"However, the referee and the linesman, in the first half in particular, practically made it impossible for us.
"The penalty is arguably the worst penalty decision I've ever seen. The referee is 25 yards away from it but he doesn't see it. No one in the ground sees it apart from a linesman who is 55 yards away.
"I've seen it and it's a shocking, shocking decision.
"That gave them the impetus to go on and perform, like any team that gets a goal before half-time."
City's third consecutive loss took the shine off their 5-2 win over Birmingham on Saturday and opened the door for Watford to climb back up to second with a 2-1 victory at home to Sheffield Wednesday.
Palace are now within a point of City in fourth, but draws for promotion rivals Cardiff and Leicester offered a semblance of positivity.
City will watch on at their rivals as they wait for Monday's televised trip to Burnley and Bruce said: "There's still 10 games to go. There's still going to be lots of twists and turns.
"We've been beaten twice by four away from home (after Bolton last month) and that's something we'll have to work on. But we weren't helped in the slightest."
Palace manager Ian Holloway had sympathy for the Tigers when admitting the penalty decision that gave his side a lead in first-half stoppage time had been fortunate.
"We were a bit fortunate to be honest," he said. "Was it a penalty? I'm not sure. It was very harsh.
"But with the attacking players we've got you're going to cause defenders problems. We've got some wonderful footballers.
"We have beaten a very good team and we march on."
• CITY reserves will play host to Hartlepool United at North Ferriby tonight (7pm).
• Gallery: Hull City at Crystal Palace in pictures
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by VoiceNreason
Thursday, March 07 2013, 11:25AM
“Having been at the game tuesday i am well able to comment the scandalous decisons by the 3 blind mice. After Murray had the first penalty saved and the game entered the one minute of added time the game was going nowhere. It was dead. It had 0-0 all over it. The linesman was the only one who saw something....but what ??
From that moment City had to open the game up and take chances. In the end the games finished 4-2. They say that officials dont affect games but they do and also bigger games than this one was. No need to worry. 10 games and 30 points left.”
by Brucies_Nose
Thursday, March 07 2013, 7:29AM
“I think it was a case of Crystal Palace (and Zaha in particular) being a dirty diving twunt and the referee/linesmen being biased as hell, and then City not being able to commit to tackles because of the fear of conceding another penalty/free kick. Also, I agree with the slide in quality of the defensive back line in corelation to Macca's absence.
http://tinyurl.com/adv5p7c”
by HCAFCscarb
Thursday, March 07 2013, 12:43AM
“JUST A FEW OF THE GAMES TO COME
================================
Cardiff v Leicester
Watford v Cardiff
Hull v Cardiff
brighton v Palace
Palace v Leicester
Hull v Watford
Leicester v Watford
Hull V Middlesborough
===============================
Teams will drop points against rivals
and no doubt in games there expected to win”
by HCAFCscarb
Thursday, March 07 2013, 12:33AM
“Play off place will do me fine Tigerholic
reason being NO ONE can EVER be sure of an automatic promotion place
especially in the championship .
OF course i HOPE we do grab automatic and we have a great chance of doing that
with so many of the top clubs still to meet in the coming weeks.
Anyone of the top 6 teams could get the top 2 spots just as anyone in the top 6
could end up 7th.
To me this season has been one of my best ever folowing the Tigers
Get Behind the team.
And enjoy the ride...”
by HCAFCscarb
Thursday, March 07 2013, 12:27AM
“hi Oaktown
Opinion seems very split about Bruce Junior across the Hull City Forums...
about 50 / 50
some say he does a good job others say not.
the games i have seen him play he has been ok....
not a star but not to bad...
could be a case of there always has to be one player the fans seem to get down on..
you should join NOT606 Hull City Forum”
by OaktownTiger
Thursday, March 07 2013, 12:03AM
“my ex father in law who goes regular and sends me a condensed match report by email says that Alex Bruce is the weak link in defence and is not a defensive midfielder, what do you guys think ?”
by Tigerholic
Wednesday, March 06 2013, 10:22PM
“I have to say that I have read a lot of the comments which have been posted of late and don't you think it is pleasing to note that we as true supporters would be disappointed with a play off place now but in August we would have taken that with open arms! We have to remember that SB came in with no real expectations but to do well and he has surely exceeded that. If he gets us promoted in his first year then he will have surpassed his remit. We are really in with a fantastic opportunity of finishing in the automatic places and who would have thought that when we played Brighton on the opening day? Give SB the credit he deserves and get behind the boys to a point where if we finishe in the play offs ..so be it but we are crunchingly close to the automatic spot so keep the faith and see what will develop. 10 game and 15 points will do it in my opinion as we all have to play each other.. UTT!!”
by Alantf
Wednesday, March 06 2013, 10:21PM
“Our defence has become inconsistant and that correlates directly with the loss of McShane - a coincidence maybe?
There are some poor teams in this league and they can be dominated by the same tactics applied by a better team. Good teams need a more measured approach and we do not appear to be doing that.”
by costatiger
Wednesday, March 06 2013, 10:17PM
“I dont think we were ever going to win last night and it was obvious how they,ve had around fifteen penalties this season.The first penalty, their lad turned into Meyler then went down.Penalty was good height for a keeper but good save nevertheless.Second penalty,Hobbs slides in and the ball pinged off his thigh and glanced his hand.Only a penalty if you were looking through jodrell bank telescope! What disappointed me was the acres of space we allowed one of the best strikers in the division.When Phillips scored his second,there was nobody near him in the box and then he slightly miss hit his shot.His third was helped by Hobbs indecision as whether or not to go with the runner on his outside or to close Phillips down and that moment was all he needed to step inside and bury his shot in the top corner.Sahas goal highlighted Mcshanes lack of awareness as he was on his way before macca even realised he was there and the chase resembled that between a sprinter and a marathon runner.We wrote the Bolton fiasco off as one of those days,but cracks are starting to appear and i,m wondering if the pressure is getting to us.Everybody seemed to get carried away with the Birmingham win but they were a poor side and its games like last nights where you really measure yourself and,unfortunately,we came up short.We must now attempt to lay the Burnley bogy,just as another top striker Charlie Austin is coming through a bare patch with two goals in his last two games if we are to hold out realistic hopes of automatic promotion.”
by peewil
Wednesday, March 06 2013, 5:56PM
“The only person in the ground that seemed to have seen the handball was the linesman. I didn't see Palace players appealing! It's true that City didn't play their best football with key players not performing well. David Meyler is a good example. He was well below his best. The officials performance always comes under more scrutiny when the game is going against our team but it is true that the referee was blowing his whistle when Palace players were falling over from the most innocuous challenge. He didn't see the 'handball' either and relied on the linesman's interpretation. If Palace hadn't scored then the result may have been different as City came out in the second half playing well. By the time the substitutions were made Palace were well on top. I was impressed with Fathi though and it may be a good idea to start him on Monday. There were a lot more City supporters there than I was expecting. Once again it was great support with lots of encouragement to the team. I was pleased to see 3 or 4 players acknowledging this at the end of the game. a shame all the team didn't come over. It was a long trip for us and I for one came back with strained vocal cords. The atmosphere in the ground was great. A lot of noise and the cheerleaders were good entertainment. Hopefully we will win on Monday night, keep ahead of Palace and beat Watford to claim an automatic promotion. We can do it but if we can avoid slip ups like last night.”