Ground: MKM Stadium (25,586 capacity)
Location: Hull, England Ticket price: £30 (though I got them for £15 on reduced)
Hull City is a rough 20 minute walk east from the station. It's mostly a straight road before going down a flight of stairs near a park.
Now Hull City is one that fell kindly in my lap. You see, I had booked tickets to go watch Half Man Half Biscuit at the Welly Club last year, but thanks to the rail strikes, the boys from Birkenhead postponed their gig until the 28th April. Conveniently, Hull City were at home to Swansea City that following Saturday. Thankfully, my tickets were still valid for the April gig and the MKM Stadium is another venue of the 72 that can be ticked off so killing two birds with one stone I suppose. Ibis hotel booked, weekend sorted.
The opening act were the Whistlebowers; a safe pair of hands who played some indie rock. They were a different breed to Biteback, the lads who opened for the Biscuits at Leeds, who played energetic punk rock. Once the Whistleblowers had blown for full time, Nigel Blackwell ran onto the stage to raptuous applause. All the favourites were played alongside a solid rendition of Dead Kennedy’s Holiday In Cambodia. A comprehensive review of the gig can be found here if you are interested. Overall - an excellent gig.
Now there is one thing that a few people know about Hull City and to be fair, football clubs within the Hull area in general – they have a reputation of serving excellent scran. Upon entering the stadium, there was a chicken shop where you can buy a hearty strip meal and chips for around £7. Time to put this to the test. The strips themselves look like something you’d get from an SFC or other KFC knockoff, but I don’t mean that as a negative at all. The chips looked seasoned with light sprinkles of salt, pepper and other spices. The taste? Exquisite. It’s the kind of quality you’d expect at a decent chicken shop. It’s worth visiting the MKM Stadium for the poultry alone.
The game itself had very little riding on it. Hull City were safe and primed and preened for a mid-table finish. Their only motivation going into the game was to play the role of the party-pooper for Swansea who still had faint hopes of sneaking into the playoffs, though they had to win all their remaining games and hope that other results go in their favour. Liam Rosenior, Hull City’s manager has an exemplary record at the MKM, having only lost once in the league at home in 2023 and that was against the rampant Burnley. They came into the fixture on decent form, having only lost one game since that Burnley result (3-1 away to Middlesbrough) but Swansea will have been licking their lips at the amount of goals they have shipped, particularly against Sunderland who were similarly chasing a playoff spot. Swansea’s form was similarly good. Having lost 2-1 to Millwall on the 14th March, the Swans had won games against Cardiff, Huddersfield, Preston and West Brom, whilst earning a draw against Coventry. Russell Martin has a reputation of teaching his players to playing a vertical tiki-taka style, relying on possession of the ball to orchestrate attacks with little in the way of playing risky balls to the forward areas. The kind of football statisticians and aficionados froth over.
Nigel Blackwell the night before was preaching about the legends that donned the black an amber stripes for the East Yorkshirean club. Roger De Vries, Jeff Hemmermann and Ken Wagstaff were some such names that could core an apple with the dink of the boot but sadly no longer. I guess we’ll have to settle for Luke Coyle, Allahyah Sayyandmaresh and Adama Traore instead. Swansea City on the other hand boasted such names at Matt Grimes and Scrabble winner Joel Laitbaudiere. No mention of Ashley Williams or Joe Allen from the Birkenhead man though. Perhaps those names are too 21st century.
The gameplan for both sides was clear: Swansea were using their creativity to bring the ball forward and pass between/through the channels before attempting a lofted ball from the corner of the box into the centre. Hull City appeared wise to the plan. The Tigers were more than happy to sit back and hit the Swans on the counter, using the tenacity of Ozan Tufan and the passing range of Jean Michel Seri to break down the play and transition the play to wingers Vaughan and Sayyandmaresh, who were both rapid. Hull City’s opener was a perfect example of this actually, with Seri playing a magnificent ball over the top to Harry Vaughan, who played a teasing ball into the box which met the boot of Ozan Tufan, skidding into the net. The goal officially went down as a Ben Cabango own goal but I’m sure no one but the Turk would have minded. An excellent goal. Swansea responded well but their patterns of play were too obvious and Hull were able to stand firm and head away the lofted ball that they tried over and over again. In fact it was only Joel Piroe who attempted to try something different, attempting to thread through balls into the area for his strikers to run onto. The Dutchman linkup play was exceptional and everything was going through him. On one occasion he received the ball and played a delicious through ball to Luke Cundle who only had Karl Darlow to beat. Cundle’s stinging drive flew past the arm of the keeper on loan from Newcastle and into the net. 1-1, game on.
There was some trouble brewing in the away end, seemingly started from the Swansea crowd. Bottles were thrown over the side as the stewards rushed over to quash the threat. The Hull City fans responded by taking their shoes off and raising them in the air, their sole gesture to the onslaught of projectiles heading their way. Thankfully, we were too far away from the risk of being David Beckham’ed, though it was rather funny to see a kid in a Yoshi costume sticking his middle fingers up and performing the wanker sign. Hull City fans were not amused, however.
The second half started and to be fair it was a rather tepid affair compared to the first half. Not much happened other than two moments by Ozan Tufan. The ball made its way to the former Watford man on the edge of the box and he cracked a walloping drive that thundered off the crossbar. The second was a free kick from the edge of the area. The Turk stood over the ball, whipped the ball around the wall and GOAL! Or so me and many others thought as the net moved. Unfortunately it was inches away as Fisher stood helplessly rooted to the spot. To be fair, I feel as if Rosenior’s game management cost his side the win. He took off Seri off fairly early who I felt was their best creative outlet for Pelkas and kept Sayyandmaresh and Vaughan on for too long who both made poor decisions on the offense; the Iranian in particular who seemed frightened to play a cross into the box. The substitution of Ryan Woods was the only one that made sense to me as he came on in the dying embers to see the game out.
1-1 it finished and the drama didn’t stop there. As the players came around to thank the fans, shoes and bottles were lobbed over the heads of the stewards. Disgraceful from both sets of fans really. Apparently after the game, the fighting continued between younger sets from both fanbases. I don’t think any action was taken, but it did put a damper on an otherwise decent game.
Hull City 1-1 Swansea 29/04/23
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