Hull City 0 - West Bromwich Albion 0

Mark Koppel:

A very frustrating afternoon again as this was 2 points lost not one gained. As the cliché goes, Hull were there for the taking today and we threw the chance away. Their 2014 record is appalling, they were without key players, and we still failed to win or score.

It also mean AFI survives a little longer and will be Head Coach against the Villa. A potentially very painful Saturday awaits us!

Key decisions again from Irvine were in error. This week they were:

1. Playing without Berahino. He has converted a very high percentage of his chances this season and has scored as many goals as the total Hull Team put together.
2. Not playing with a penalty taker. Then giving the crucial penalty kick to someone low on confidence and who has not scored a penalty in the Premier League.
3. Still playing Wisdom, and out of position, ahead of a World Cup Full Back.

Player ratings:

• Foster 6 - Was allegedly seen once again in a pub heavy drinking with Brunt and Berahino. Good job he wasn't tested too much today then.
• Norman Wisdom 2 - Once again did not block any crosses today and was massively bailed out by midfielders tracking back on his side of the pitch. When he did venture forward his crossing was awful. This Gamboa must be bad to be kept out the Team by this donkey.
• McAuley 8 - Immense performance. Dawson has not been bad this season but McAuley was so strong in everything he did against Hull today that not even Irvine will drop him against the Villa, or will he?
• Lescott 7 - Superb today, back to his early season form. Led by example in a very Non-Brunt way.
• Poco 7 - Really solid and much more disciplined defensive performance. Still not going forward though like early season.
• Mulumbu 6 - Would have got a higher mark but ran out of steam towards the end. If he continues to progress he could get back to the previous driving force he was.
• Morrison 6 - Great first half running forward with the ball like the old days. Faded in the second half, or was he told by Irvine not to go over the half way line?
• Sess 3 - Flapped about a bit but caused no threat to Hull. This is how he has been for the last 3/4 games. Correct to take him off but should have been replaced by Saido much earlier.
• Gardner 5 - Another quiet game but to be fair the Team did lose its shape when he went off.
• Dorans 5 - Tidy but cannot remember him doing anything creative or positive. No confidence with the penalty kick/back pass.
• 'Sick' Vic 5 - I am gradually going off 'Sick Note'. Feigned injury 3 times in this match before eventually limping off. Then moaned about being sub'ed. For a big bloke he is one hell of a wuss.

Subs -

• Berahino 5 - Cannot remember how long he was on for but it wasn't long enough. Should have started all day long.
• Varela 6 - Looks cool on the ball. Needs to start next week against the Villa.
• £10 Million Flop 1 - Touched the ball twice. Once he was offside, the other time he lost possession. Irvine said he is too similar to Berahino for them to play together. So really think Irvine only puts him on now because of fan pressure. When we bought him we obviously got him mixed up with someone else but didn't check his passport details properly!

oshawabaggie:

A golden opportunity missed. We won't come up against a poorer team than Hull and we blew it. This was about as strong a starting eleven as we could field and we looked the better side in the first half, but the promising build up yielded no penetration (not a reference to my sex life). I say that, but big Vic did cause them trouble for a while and created the penalty. I just wish his body language was better.

Poor Irvine, he was right to bench Billy big knob, but if he been on the pitch he would have probably scored the penalty. He gets crap for his delayed substitutions, but today all three subs were useless when they came on, so what does he do? At least Varela had a shot, but Billy and The Expensive One practically reduced us to 9 men. It looked inevitable that we would give up a goal, so perhaps we should just be happy with the point and move on.

Some pluses: Mac looked solid alongside Lescott. Mulumbu is slowly improving. Poco is strong if he can stay fit. Foster is safe as long as he doesn't kick the ball. Mozza, Gardner and Dozza work hard. That's about it. There will be more calls to axe Irvine, but I am not convinced that will do us any good. Could a Jose Mourinho turn The Expensive One into another Costa or Grogba? If we can get a bag of marbles and a Kitkat for him in the transfer window I say we take it.

Brendan Clegg:

Surely he's on the brink now if he wasn't already?

Another massive opportunity for points that we've missed out on. And although Irvine cannot be blamed for the penalty, he can be for what happened in the aftermath. Because despite the first 20 minutes being the best we've played since Burnley, the following 70 were clueless, stale, boring, negative and that counts for both sides.

In fairness I was relieved GMac was back in the team and was happy enough with the back 4 - and they proved decent. Hopefully we keep the same for the next 10 games now, albeit possibly swapping Gamboa for Wisdom dependent upon who's playing on the right wing.

And i could see the logic in the midfield - plenty of people calling for Varela to start but he is obviously some way off being ready to give more than 25 minutes. I blame Irvine for not introducing him in earlier for this.

Perhaps we could have sacrificed Morrison, Dorrans or Gardner (nothing between any of them) for Berahino - with SB playing on the right as he did at the start of the season. At least when we had the ball he'd have been able to support Sess and Anichibe. And despite the moans about our penalty taker being on the bench, Berahino hasn't done anything in the last 4 games to defend his being dropped.

Up front big Vic had earned his start from last week.

It looked like AI had got it right to begin with, we were dominant and could have had 3 pens in the opening 20 although whether we'd have scored them is another thing. The one we did get was clear but Dozza didn't ever look confident - I dont think he even looked at the goal from the moment he put the ball on the spot.

And once we missed the penalty it looked like the confidence was sapped out of us - we again resorted to giving the ball away cheaply or going back to Foster who would hoof it aimlessly. This pretty much continued for the rest of the match.

The reasons in my opinion?

Firstly Anichibe summarised his career in a match - almost unplayable for 20 minutes, winning everything and rolling people for fun and then thinking he'd done enough, stopped working, slowed the play down awfully when he did get the ball and didn't move into the box after laying it off, feigning injury every time he was tackled, stopping play the moment he was touched appealing for fouls even when he still had the ball. I'd have hooked him at half time the way he went because experience tells you once he starts doing that it's all you get all game from him and, frankly, he's had enough chances.

Secondly we just stopped working hard enough off the ball - nobody on the ball had an easy option most of the time; Dorrans and Sess switched wings because in the first 10 minutes Poc had been left 2 on 1 twice. Neither of them gave their full back an easy ball, Vic wasn't moving and the full backs barely came over the halfway line.

However the game was still there for the taking - the biggest mistake was taking Sess off for Varela. We needed them both on because Hull had already shown they were able to smother 1 danger man. On Tuesday night it was only when we had them both on the game opened up.

By the time Berahino and Ideye entered the fray, like Varela they were rarely given the ball to feet and instead had to chase nothing hoofs or passes that were so long in coming they were under extreme pressure. As it was none of them improved us and we looked like we might lose it in the final 10.

Mathematically we probably only needed to win one match a month from November to stay up but we don't look capable of that under Irvine.

Hull are going to be right down there come the end of the season unless they throw money at it in January, so they're not only a rival but one of the few sides we are probably marginally capable of being better than. They're on the classic Steve Bruce curve - build decent side, get results/promoted, decent 2nd season but end it on the slide and that continues until they get relegated the next year or he gets sacked.

If Irvine is still in a job by the Villa game surely only winning the next 2 games can save him, nothing less. And please don't put Brunt straight back into the team - we were at least better without him for those first 20 minutes.

• Fozzy - 6 A couple of smart saves but nothing to do otherwise. Kicking getting worse, it seems like a matter of time before we concede from one.
• Poc - 6 Glad to have him back, solid but no longer attacking.
• Lescott - 8 Streets ahead of anything else in either team.
• McAuley - 7 A welcome return, won everything in the air, gives me more confidence than Dawson and will get better with games. A clean sheet! Please keep him in the team.
• Wisdom - 6 Not awful and showed great feet at times but has to go back to Foster too often. If we have a decent winger in front of him I'd probably still pick him over Gamboa if it means clean sheets.
• Sess - 6 Started left and went right, was at the heart of our better moments but Hull played like us with numbers behind the ball and as usual, little support. Shouldn't have been taken off.
• Gardner - 5 Same as last week really. Good honest shift, one good free kick. Doesn't really score or create goals, wins some tackles but not a ball-winner who keeps it after winning it.
• Morrison - 6 Same as Gardner but slightly better on the ball. Didn't get forward to support enough, under orders?
• Mulumbu - 6 Not at his best and was often 'guilty' of trying to keep the ball in too tight-a-situation which nearly caused us grief but I'd rather that than the aimless hoofs of others.
• Dorrans - 5 As usual worked his socks off and actually held the ball quite well in some difficult situations but it was a poor penalty and it probably would have been enough to win it for us.
• Anichibe - 4 See above rant. Lets himself down with alarming regularity for a player of his age and size. There is a really effective player in there that we only see in short bursts, but I think that's the way it'll always be.
• Varela - 5 Not as big an impact as Tuesday owing to how poor the service and support was but managed our only shot on target in open play all game (I think?).
• Berahino - 6 Did OK in holding it up but service to him was shocking.
• Ideye - 5 No service and played like a stranger. The one time he made a really positive run he wasn't played in.