A big thanks to the 14 who turned up yesterday morning to a blustery (to say the least) SUCC. The 17 we initially had never materialised for one reason or another, but our numbers were boosted back up to 15 by the young son (must have been about 15) of the ref, who turned out to be bloody good.

It was a good game of football in terrible conditions, played competitively but in the correct manner. Hull started off the livelier of the sides which was to be expected as half of us didn't know each others names due to the four debutants, but we managed to feel our way into the game and just started to cause them a few problems when their midfielder (and captain I think) struck a free kick from distance which flew into the top corner. The rest of the half was a fairly even affair, we had a fair bit of possession but Hull looked dangerous on the break. Just as we seemed to be settling for a 1-0 scoreline at half time Hull struck a shot from outside the box which Ash saw late (although I think he was seeing about 3 balls with his beer goggles on and picked the wrong one) and it bobbled past him.

Two nil down at half time was disappointing as I thought we hadn't played too badly but the lack of having a second forward available showed and despite getting into some decent positions we didn't have the presence up front to finish them off. After a chat and change of formation back to the more traditional 4-4-2 at half time we managed to pull off a great passing move and score within 30 seconds of the restart through young winger Chris Beckett to give us hope of getting back into the game. And indeed we did start to ask a few more questions of the Hull defence, but typically just as we were possibly starting to look like getting on top Hull scored from close range to increase the gap back out to two goals. Again we piled on the pressure whilst Hull attacked us on the break, but we couldn't get the goal to get us back into the game despite a succession of corners. Then just before the end Hull scored from close range after we couldn't quite clear the ball and 4-1 remained the final scoreline.

I think Hull just about deserved the win as they made the most of their chances and looked more dangerous coming forward, but 4-1 wasn't a fair reflection of what was a good Yorkshire derby, and their manager agreed with this too. Despite the scoreline it was a decent performance against a Hull side that regularly are in the mix towards the end of the season if they get their full quota of games in. With 15 missing that we would consider mainly regulars and four debutants it was a very good effort and we played some nice stuff, especially in the second half. Rob, please thank Tinker and Scott, Chris, please thank Dale.