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| The Humber Bridge |
Hull itself is a terrible place to visit - a typical Northern town desperately trying to reinvent itself as a tourist attraction, but only managing to reinforce a sense of sadness & despair. As the old saying goes - you can't polish a turd, but you can roll it in glitter.
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| It's often better to face away from the pitch when Brighton are playing. |
We stopped off at a reasonable pub (the Three John Scotts - a bog-standard Wetherspoons, not really worthy of a place in the Good Beer Guide), and then made our way to the ground. The KC stadium was one of the original 'new breed' of out-of-town football stadiums, and is starting to look particularly shabby in places. Once inside, it could have been any stadium in any city in the world - there was nothing to make it stand out.
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| New signing Tomas Kusczack |
The football itself was a strange one. Brighton played well enough - new signings Bruno and Bridge were excellent in the full-back positions, whilst Crofts and Bridcutt bossed the midfield throughout. However, there was no penetration at all, and the forward pairing of Mackail-Smith & Barnes looked starved of possession. Hull showed no style, and were content to chase possession for much of the game. Things changed when Kazenga Lua-Lua was introduced, and his pace & tricks started to worry the Hull defence. However, despite this, Hull capitalised on a loose ball, and Jay Simpson scored a late winner.
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| Horrible foul on Craig Noone - not even a yellow card. |
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| Kusczack watches the play |
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| Luke Campbell - Hull's gold medal winning boxer |
On the balance of play, Brighton deserved the win, but I think we'll play a lot worse than that this season and still get results. Priority has to be a new target man though - you can't play two small strikers when we've got such good quality crossers of the ball.
Still, a good day overall.
Hull City 1 (Simpson 85mins) vs Brighton 0
