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Another away day blues on New Years Day the start of 2005 with Hull City taking all 3 points and now on the same points as leaders Luton Town with a 2-1 in the Yorkshire derby against Town on Saturday. But Hull fans will be gutted to hear that their leading scorer Stuart Elliot will be out for up to six weeks with a fractured cheekbone.

Most of the Town fans making there way to Hull had probably been out the night before celebrating the new year, I myself just managed to recover in time to get onto the coach and on the way to Hull. Hull City were on a good run of a 7 game winning streak along the way hammering promotion contenders Tranmere Rovers 6-1 (although Tranmere?s keepers both got injured during the game a striker had to go in goal and managed to let in 5) and recently beating Doncaster Rovers 2-1 at the KC stadium. Town weren?t at their best, having only won 2 games out of their last 9 games which makes in 6 points out of a possible 27. Having recently beaten Port Vale 2-1 at home on boxing day and drew 2-2 with Bournemouth 2 days later there were high hopes of getting at least a point away at Hull but that went down like a led balloon.

Peter Taylor continued to rotate his squad over the festive period, Jon Walters and Ex-Huddersfield striker Delroy Facey, who was greeted with boos by the Town fans when his name was red out, was replacing Danny Allsopp and the suspended Nick Barmby. Stev Angus came in for his first appearance, replacing injury victim Marc Joseph, as City were all out to set their winning streak to 8 games.

Town boss Peter Jackson kept the faith with the side that drew down at Bournemouth and sticking with 4-4-2 knowing that we had a good record against the Tigers in the last 3 outings winning two and drawing one.

It didn?t take long for Hull to carve open the Town defence, after just 3 minutes Stuart Green sent Facey flying down the left wing, but when the cross came in Nathan Clarke was on hand to block Walters shot from 10 yards.
Town responded with a header from Efe Sodje that was nodded wide, before Tony Carss? corner caused panic in the Hull defence until Elliot cleared the danger.

As the Terriers kept the pressure on, Jon McAliskey forced a solid save from Hull keeper Boaz Myhill to keep the scoresheet blank as Jacko?s men forced the pace.
Delroy Facey should have been booked for diving early on, He raced into the penalty area and clearly dived as Clarke came across to tackle him, Town fans did not take that to kindly and Facey got some flack from the Town fans throughout the match.

Hull missed an absolute glorious chance just after the half hour mark, a sort of chance a striker would dream of, Elliot mugged Holdsworth for the ball before delivering a quality cross that Walters somehow headed wide from around five yards out.
However Town were in front five minutes before the interval, Hull?s defence failed to clear the ball from a long throw by Clarke down the left. And when McAliskey turned the ball inside, Brandon was all alone in the Hull penalty area, He calmly sidestepped Myhill before crashing the ball into the empty net. Sat at the other side on the stadium it felt like ages before Brandon put the ball into the back of the net.

The lead was very short lived and brought back all the Town fans hangovers, Hull hit back just two minutes later when Facey played a neat ball inside the Town defence to Elliot, He wasted no time and managed from a tight angle to put the ball through Rachubka?s legs and into the back of the net from close range.

The half time entertainment at the KC stadium was a good laugh as a singer apparently known at ?Hull?s answer to Neil Diamond? came on to sing at half time with two lasses dressed in naffy gold skirts the whole thing looked like it was written by comedian Peter Kay which Town fans decided to make themselves heard.

Within two minutes of the restart Hull nearly made it 2-1 and caught Town napping, Anthony Lloyd dallied too long in clearing the ball, allowing Green to run on before picking out Facey, free in the six yard box with no Town defender in site and he still managed to steer the header wide, Horror for the Hull fans, delight for the travelling blue and white army.

But Hull made no mistake in their next attack when once again the Town defence decided to nodd off as usual and made another bloody awful defensive collapse, Angus crossed from the right hand side, Wilbraham who replaced Walters at half time, reacted the quickest to thump and downward header off his fat head past helpless Rachubka for his first goal for the club since joining them from Stockport County in the close season.

Town battled after but didn?t have enough venom to get an equalizer, Town brought on Junior Mendes for Schofield with about 20 minutes left but once again Mendes doesn?t pull his weight and didn?t really contribute to the game. To me he is lazy, he is not the answer I would like fellow Town fans view on Mendes.

Elliot went down after defending a corner kick and was substituted only to be told he will be out for around 6 weeks with a fractured cheekbone

Hull keeper Myhill kept the scores level with a diving save to keep out Clarke?s 25-yard snapshot which threatened to sneak inside the far post. And shortly after McAliskey tested him again with a header from a Carrs? free kick.

Teams

Hull: Myhill, Angus, Cort, Delaney, Dawson, Green (Price 86), Ashbee, Keane, Elliot (Lewis 89), Walters (Wilbraham 45), Facey
Subs not used: Duke, Allsopp

Town: Rachubka, Holdsworth, Clarke, E.Sodje, Lloyd, Brandon, Schofield (Mendes 77), Worthington (Fowler 81), Carss, Abbott, McAliskey
Subs not used: Senior, A.Sodje, Brown

Ref: P Danson (Leicestershire)