Middlesbrough 2 Hull City 0: match report
A lacklustre Hull City were sunk by two second-half goals at the Riverside.
The Tigers dropped to eighth in the Championship after strikes by Faris Haroun and Ishmael Miller secured Boro's first home win in over a month.
Tony Mowbray’s side might have gone down to ten men after Nick Proschwitz appeared to be denied a goalscoring opportunity by Grant Leadbitter shortly after the half-hour mark, but referee Paul Tierney was unmoved.
Middlesbrough raced out of the traps and were nearly rewarded for their ambition as early as the ninth minute.
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Teenage winger Adam Reach snatched the ball from Andy Dawson, jinking inside to work Ben Amos at his near post.
The nervous City stopper was at sixes and sevens from the resulting corner but steeled himself sufficiently to deny George Friend an easy tap-in.
Amos then lost his footing when clutching at a Leadbitter corner, barely managing to propel his arms forward and keep the ball from crossing the line before struggling to repel a soft shot from Marvin Emnes.
Stephen Quinn tried his luck from outside the area as City tried to grow into the game but Amos was soon under siege again, feebly punching away a speculative drive from Leadbitter.
The sublime met the ridiculous shortly after the half-hour mark, though, as Boro were controversially allowed to continue with 11 men and on level terms.
Mclean dazzled the crowd with a sumptuous through-ball intended for Proschwitz. But Leadbitter raced back to take his man down, both denying the German a free shot on goal and failing to arouse the referee’s suspicions.
The constant push-and-run football fizzled out towards the break but there was time for Amos to fumble once more, this time spilling an Emnes strike into Haroun’s path and only just managing to hook the ball clear.
Amos was left standing five minutes after the restart as Friend crashed a header on to the crossbar, Miller overcooking the rebound and nodding into the crowd. Proschwitz soon returned the favour by fluffing a free header.
One side was certain to be punished for their profligacy and that unwelcome honour fell to Hull in the 59th minute.
Haroun was the man on point following a swift Boro break, Friend supplying the killer pass, and it was all too easy for the Belgian to slot past a marooned Amos.
Boro doubled their lead just six minutes later. There were gasps as Friend burst into the box to force another sloppy spill from Amos, substitute Scott McDonald’s snapshot bouncing free, but Miller was there to gleefully steer the ball into the net.
The Tigers offered precious little in terms of a meaningful response and Mclean was guilty of shanking Corry Evans’ cross wide with the goal gaping as the game entered the final 10 minutes.
Home substitute Emmanuel Ledesma might have done better when he arrived at Amos’ near post in the final throes, but Mowbray’s charges had already secured a third straight Championship victory.
TIGERS: Amos; Rosenior (Simpson, 76), Chester, McShane, Dawson; Elmohamady, McKenna (Evans, 76), Olofinjana, Quinn; Proschwitz (Aluko, 60), Mclean.
Comments
by Daveinleeds
Wednesday, October 24 2012, 10:54AM
“hdm employ rick he seems to understand football better than your chaps
good MR Rick thanks”
by tiger_rick
Wednesday, October 24 2012, 10:33AM
“Alternative match report:
http://tinyurl.com/8kaz75h”
by DeeGee13
Wednesday, October 24 2012, 7:19AM
“Disappointing result but we will not win every game.
My biggest concern about a serious promotion challenge is a lack of consistency.
I think a team needs to lose no more than every 5 games, with 3 wins and a draw in the other 4, if good enough to go up, and at the moment we aint achieving that.”
by piddsta
Wednesday, October 24 2012, 6:50AM
“We were beaten by a superior 11 last night. There seem to be some players in our squad who still think we're playing tippy tap, Brucie's gotta worm that out. Almost the whole game we were slow to exploit opportunities, picking the safe pass instead, never playing with heads up.
McKenna, Evans, and McLean have all looked out of their depth for some time, and none of them belong in anything but a struggling side at this level. Last night this was blindingly obvious for me. I still don't know what McKenna and Evans are supposed to be good at, and McLean has just been a complete flop.
Proschwitz for me did little to earn a start for the next game, far too weak in the challenge, but to be fair a strikers got no chance when we play that sort of lateral passing game, well marked up by the time a ball comes in. Bit more bench time for him, Simpson has earned the shirt for me and frankly looks a miles better player.
We have a top 6 first 11, but a lower mid table squad, I hope we can bring in some loan players to shore things up a bit.”
by Ambertigerfan
Wednesday, October 24 2012, 2:09AM
“Ajay_Hull: thanks for that clarification, you confirmed my suspicions about the HDM reporter. He/she sure doesn't like Amos!
Stats also support your account!”
by BigBillyBilly
Wednesday, October 24 2012, 2:01AM
“Ajay,thanks for your report,whoever HDM's reporter was he certainly wasn't bland! Strident,more-like.Shock-horror,maybe it was,yes...yes....a WOMAN! Really disappointed at such an inept-sounding performance,I think Steve Bruce must be alarmed at our weaknesses that seem to be all through the team,right now,this has to be resolved with player additions.We can't hope to compete in the Premier League if we lose games so feebly as it sounds like we did tonight.”
by Ajay_Hull
Wednesday, October 24 2012, 1:28AM
“...and the stats show that they had 16 shots on target compared to our 1.
I don't think the blame lies with the man between the sticks, do you??”
by Ajay_Hull
Wednesday, October 24 2012, 1:16AM
“@Ambertiger - I was at the game and the terminology used in this report to describe Amos almost certainly indicates the reporter has it in for him. The so called fluffing, fumbling and feebly punching away were actually all decent saves. This reporter fails to mention a superb point blank save right in front of the traveling faithful in the first half which kept the score level going into the break and City in with a chance coming put for the second half!
What was evident is Proschwitz lack of strength in a tackle too easily getting muscled off the ball too many times. I don't know if it's the curse of the Riverside but we didn't look at it tonight, we lacked the fluidity we have shown in many games this season and although McLean didn't have a bad game I think Simpson or Aluko would have been a better fit alongside big Nick.
Middlesbrough look a decent side on a bit of a run which showed, they closed us down well and stopped us playing for long periods and forced us into making errors.
All in all we didn't play that bad but we also didn't play that well. To pile the blame on Amos is frankly ridiculous and extremely far from the truth!”
by Ambertigerfan
Wednesday, October 24 2012, 12:30AM
“Was Amos this bad? Or,does the reporter have it in for Amos? He's criticized in virtually every section of the report!!!
Surely Amos can't be to blame for all City's mistakes!”
by Wakey_Tiger
Tuesday, October 23 2012, 11:28PM
“".. Mclean was guilty of shanking Corry Evans' cross wide with the goal gaping as the game entered the final 10 minutes." - er, was that the "cross" which was actually a rebound to Mclean off the post?? Come on, were you at the game? I wasn't - but I still picked up on this.
Bad (but true to form) day for City at The Riverside, a harsh lesson - but not the end of the world, or the season for that matter.”