The moment that ruined Hull City's season
After 20 Premier League games, Hull City sat comfortably in mid-table with relagation seeming totally out of the equation. After 34 games, Hull now find themselves in serious danger of going straight back down to the Championship. Phil Brown's men are now lying 17th, just three points above the drop and with Manchester United and Aston Villa still to come, you would have to fancy them to go down.
So when and where did it all go wrong for the Tigers?
Well the simple answer to that would be the 26th of December 2008 at the City of Manchester stadium. After Hull conceded four first half goals against Mark Hughes' Manchester City, Phil Brown decided to humiliate his players by keeping them out on the pitch for the half-time team talk. Hull went on to lose the game 5-1 and since then, they have won just one Premier League game.
At the time Brown said this : "It was the right thing to do, there is no doubt about it. I have got no regrets about it whatsoever. I am fully sure Brown regrets the decision now. It may have seemed like the right thing to do at the time, however his decision has no doubt had a negative affect on the squad.
As much as I would love to say that Hull will avoid the drop, I just can't. With sides like Newcastle and Middlesbrough still below them, I feel it's inevitable that one of those side's will get ahead of Hull. During the opening half of the season, I must admit I really liked Phil Brown's attitude. I thought he was a massive breath of fresh air for the top flight of English football, however as time has gone on his attitude seems to have got worse as his side have slipped down the table.
What do you think? Was this the moment that ruined Hull City's season? Can Hull manage to avoid the drop? Comments below please.
4 comments:
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Rubbish. It might have effected team morale briefly but anyone who has actually seen any team that Brown puts out in a Hull City shirt recentley will know that the players are 100% behind the manager.
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That was a poor and misjudged attempt to sum up Hull City's poor run since December. Far more events have occured at the club since including long term injuries and the departure of Marlon King let alone many poor decisions by officials. To say that their downfall was down to that single incident is completely ignorant and overviewing of any of the events that have preceded it at the club.
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No, that wasn't the moment, though I can understand why someone not watching at close hand may think so.
It wasn't the wisest decision Phil Brown's ever made, but it didn't mark the point the results stopped coming - it's just looks good to point to that, because it seems to add up.
One problem - it doesn't.
The rot set in the game before, in a 4-1 defeat at home to Sunderland.
Since the Manchester City half-time "humiliation", which finished in a 5-1 defeat, the Tigers have not suffered more than a two-goal defeat.
Witness the scenes of the players at the end of the 1-0 win at Fulham, or after holding Chelsea to a 0-0 draw at Stamford Bridge, to see the spirit hasn't been killed as a result of that move.
Rather, the second half of Hull City's season has reflected the kind of form the "experts" predicted of the team from the outset.
To that end, the fact Hull City are still in with a reasonable chance of avoiding relegation with only four games to play represents a success story.
Claims Phil Brown's actions are the reason for the downturn in form are as ludicrous as those from the "experts" who now use that as a way of deflecting attention from their own pre-season opinion that the club would achieve fewer points than the 11 Derby County managed the season before.
Look at it that way, and even the season's second-half form surpasses that which was originally expected of the club.
A shame those "experts" choose to ignore that fact now.
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The team are not a bunch of overpaid primadonna premiership fairies and the took their medicine like the men they are. The problems weren't created by the discipline, the disciplining was caused by the problem.
The manager felt that they had given less than he thought the fans deserved and he told them, publically.
I have yet to read or hear of a negative comment from any player involved and challenge you to provide any evidence to back up your journalistic cheap shot at my team.
Just because the premiership hasn't seen public dressing down of underperperformance before doesn't mean they won't see it again and if it's needed then it may well become less unsettling to the media circus.
We caught a few teams at a good time and punched above our weight for a dizzy few months.
If our results had arrived in a different order the headlines would have given a completely different spin to the same stats. Your superficial analysis of the reason for our current situation shows lazy journalism and a poor grasp of man management.
We've had at most 5 poor performances this season which is a lot better average than the professional officials we trust to oversee our work. Look elsewhere for your cheap headline, "the boy Brownie done good."