Sheffield Wednesday 2-2 Hull City
For Owls fans this was a massive grudge match. The last time the Owls met the Tigers was back in the 2015/16 playoff final where Hull beat Wednesday 1-0 thanks to a stunning goal from Mo Diame, a very heartbreaking moment indeed for me and 40,000+ Wednesdayites. It even caused me to cry at the fulltime whistle, the emotion was very high. In fact the only other time I’ve succumbed to tears was back in 2010 when Crystal Palace relegated us into league one.
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| Legend Jack Charlton |
Ten minutes into the game Wednesday clustered a chance to take the lead, Palmer tackled Clark on the edge of the box, the ball trickled down the line for Adam Reach to cross the ball in first time with his weak foot but Steven Fletcher headed tamely wide.
Hull City opened the scoring through ex Manchester United Striker Frazier Campbell, who should of really be closed down and tackled by Joost van Aken. Campbell was played through by Henriksen and then calmly curled the ball into the bottom corner.
Wednesday thought they had equalised on two different occasions but both were disallowed. Firstly Reach volleyed into the back of the net from a van Aken header back across the box but was ruled out for a foul by van Aken. Then Morgan Fox was sent down the line by Adam Reach, he played Hooper through on goal and the Striker subsequently slotted past McGregor but the linesman raised his flag for offside.
Wednesday came out in full force for the second half in search of a possible equaliser and winner. Fletcher went close five minutes after the break when he volleyed Rhodes' pass into the hands of McGregor.
Nuhiu was introduced into the game on the hour mark and proved a big nuisance to the Hull City backline. He controlled van Aken’s cross forward into the path of Bannan. Bannan then played in Reach who skipped between two defenders and hit his shot against the frame of the goal, Rhodes’ rebound was blocked from going in by Max Clark.
The Owls equalised with twenty minutes to go through top scorer Gary Hooper. Bannan’s pass to Kieran Lee was tackled into the path of Hooper by Seb Larsson and the Owls number 14 rolled his marker and rifled his shot into the top corner of the goal. At first the linesman raised his flag for offside but after a chat with the referee the goal was given.
There was then a shout for handball as Nuhiu broke down the right hand side and drilled a ball into the box to Adam Reach who hit a shot first time, his shot was blocked by the arm of Michael Dawson who as described by Carlos to have ‘saved it like a goalkeeper’.
Hooper bagged his brace when Liam Palmer crossed from deep on to the head of Atdhe Nuhiu, the Kosovan international headed down into the path of Gary Hooper who superbly slotted past the keeper and put the home side ahead.
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| Hooper makes it 2-1 |
Wednesday could have confirmed all three points when scorer Hooper turned provider as he played through Nuhiu, the 6ft 5” striker hit his shot wide of the target from a tight angle.
This was costly as in the fifth minute of injury time Hull levelled when Henriksen beat Reach to the ball and scuffed a cross into the box, the ball went over the head of van Aken to Toral who couldn’t control it but took the pace off the ball, this fell comfortably to Michael Dawson at the back post who volleyed the ball with his knee past Westwood on to the post and in to break the hearts of the Wednesday fans.
A draw was probably a fair result with Hull being the better team in the first half and Wednesday enjoying the better of the chances in the second but falling short by conceding to a last minute goal. My man of the match was substitute Atdhe Nuhiu. Normally I wouldn’t give a man of the match to a sub that was only on the pitch 30 minutes (and the obvious choice may have been Gary Hooper for his double) however he had a hand in both goals and also changed the flow of the game by bullying the Tigers defence and creating chances.
The main point though is that Hull City will always be the second best Tigers out there ;)
Attendance: 25,412
Goals: Gary Hooper (70', 85'); Fraizer Campbell (21'), Michael Dawson (90+5')
SWFC: Keiren Westwood; Liam Palmer, Glenn Loovens, Joost van Aken, Morgan Fox; Marco Matias (Kieran Lee), Jacob Butterfield (Jordan Rhodes), Barry Bannan, Adam Reach; Gary Hooper, Steven Fletcher (Atdhe Nuhiu)
HULL: Allan McGregor; Fikayo Tomori, Michael Dawson, Max Clark,Ondrej Mazuch; Markus Henriksen (Kamil Grosiki), Kevin Stewart, Jackson Irvine, Seb Larsson, Jarrod Bowen (Jon Toral); Fraizer Campbell (Nouha Dicko)
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