By William Young, To Hull and Back Podcast
Hull City left it late to secure a point against the Sky Blues, as Aaron Connolly scored a header to send the Tigers up to fifth in the Championship.
After a pre-match of blinding lights and flames suggesting we would be seeing “The Greatest Show”, City seemed to take that energy to heart by getting at the visitors from the off, with Jaden Philogene impressing and delighting the fans on his debut with his trickery, not giving the Coventry right back an inch.
A series of corners, both short and long, saw City try to break through, but to no avail at this stage, with Connolly having the best chance, sending it wide from a tight angle.
This chance seemed to wake up the visitors, as soon after a shot from Jay Dasilva fired narrowly past the post. And from a corner, they took the lead – Joshua Eccles’ delivery was met by a free Joel Latibeaudiere in the box, who smashed a header into the bottom-right corner.
Suddenly, with the sold-out away end now in full voice (and fair play to the thousands in it who travelled up on a Friday night), the visitors were all over the Tigers as Haji Wright hit it well over from close range, but City were still creating the chances, and soon had the best one of the game.
After a nice bit of work from Liam Delap saw the Tigers win a corner, Scott Twine’s delivery was met by Jacob Greaves, whose flick-on fell tantalisingly for Connolly inside the six-yard box, but he somehow dragged the ball wide when it seemed a guarantee he would send the net rippling.
With one change at half-time seeing Cyrus Christie come on for Ruben Vinagre, City again came out of the blocks brightly as a low shot from Twine was parried away by Coventry keeper Ben Wilson.
The visitors were still challenging Ingram in goal, though, as soon after Eccles sent a long-range smasher just wide of the post, Matty Godden’s strike was well blocked by Alfie Jones, before Liam Kelly gave Ingram another long-range effort to save.
Soon after, City again took control of the narrative with Twine having a couple of chances, first hitting it over the bar before the still delightful Philogene played him in, but his shot was straight at Wilson in goal.
The Tigers’ pressure was building now, as Tyler Morton came on for his debut for Jean Michael Seri on the hour mark.
It didn’t take long for Morton to get stuck in, as he sent a low drive wide of the post. Lewie Coyle sent Philogene through, who danced past his marker and sent a dangerous ball across goal, but nobody was able to get the vital touch.
More and more chances came – Twine fired over from a free kick before hitting it low from close range, only to be denied by Wilson again.
Kyle McFadzean finally got the first booking of the game (after a long period of fouls by the visitors getting a talking-to at best) after sending Delap sprawling while running through on goal. Twine took the resulting free kick, but the effort looked more like a try conversion.
Thankfully, City’s constant pressure would finally pay off, and Connolly would make up for his miss earlier, as with three minutes left, Morton lofted a lovely ball into the area, and Connolly flicked his head at it, sending it looping past the despairing Wilson in goal. It was a goal fully deserved for that second half performance.
But at this point, things kicked off, as yellow cards were suddenly flying all over the place, with seven shown in about 10 minutes, including one for Liam Rosenior after Delap was seemingly rugby tackled off- the-ball and held down by Binks for several seconds.
Full-time soon followed, the points shared. A fair result, and another performance showing the progress being made under Rosenior. It really feels like something good is building here at the MKM Stadium.
