Hull City vs Luton Town. Sky Bet Championship.
MKM StadiumAttendance15,730.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Hull City and Luton Town at the MKM Stadium as an own goal from Alfie Jones and a stunner from Henri Lansbury saw Nathan Jones' Hatters to victory - hours after Hull sacked manager Shota Arveladze
Saturday 1 October 2022 07:19, UK
Hull began life after Shota Arveladze in a familiar manner as they were beaten 2-0 by Luton at the MKM Stadium - their fifth Championship defeat in succession.
The Georgian - who was appointed in January - was dismissed by chairman Acun Ilicali just eight hours before kick-off in East Yorkshire. "It became clear our views weren't aligned," a statement on the club's official website read.
Both of the Hatters' goals came in the first half; Alfie Jones' unfortunate own goal provided the dream start for the visitors, with Henri Lansbury ending a near four-and-a-half-year goal drought with a stunner from distance to, ultimately, seal the victory.
Luton move up to fifth ahead of the remainder of the weekend's matches as a result, with Hull - who have now conceded the second-most goals of any team in the top four divisions of English football (23) - still in 20th with 11 points from 11 games.
Few could have expected Hull to produce a confident victory immediately after the departure of Arveladze, but there will certainly have been an expectation for the Tigers to show some early fight. Yet only six minutes had elapsed when there was a familiar feeling of despair at the MKM.
Lansbury would have expected more from his own corner delivery, but it mattered little when it found the unmarked Elijah Adebayo, whose fierce shot struck the crossbar and bounced onto the feet of Jones; the unfortunate defender had no time to hook the ball away and prevent it from crossing the line.
In fairness, the response was inspired as Hull took overwhelming control of possession and forced Luton back into their own half. Ryan Longman sent a shot whistling inches over, before Regan Slater's shot from deep took a deflection and rattled the underside of the bar and bounced to safety.
Tigers goalkeeper Nathan Baxter then pushed a Carlton Morris header round the post, before pushing away a shot from Jordan Clark. But mere seconds after the latter, he was beaten for a second time when Lansbury sweetly struck a bouncing ball into the bottom right corner - his first goal since April 21 2018.
With just over an hour gone, Luton appealed for a penalty when Morris went to ground after Jacob Greaves had grabbed a fistful of his opponent's shirt, but referee James Linington was not interested.
In the end, though, it had no bearing on the result. Hull cranked up the pressure as the second half wore on, but other than half-chances for Ozan Tufan and Cyrus Christie - and with just 16 touches for top scorer Oscar Estupinan - the clean sheet was seldom in doubt.
Hull caretaker Andy Dawson: "Little things are going against us, but I'm a big believer in the harder you work, the luckier you get. Before the game, we said we wanted a real work ethic in the group and that's one thing we saw today. We gave a really disappointing goal away in the first six minutes from a set-play. That's something we can do something about; we can get first contact, we can get second contact.
"After that, I thought they were brave and tried to get on it. Yes, we lacked a little bit of cutting edge, I thought, but they kept going. When confidence is low at times - and it is when you don't win football games - you want people to stand up and receive the ball and that's what they did. We'll get games throughout the course of the season when things go our way as well.
"This is a football club that I have been part of for many, many years and I've said to the boys, when they pull the shirt on, when they wear this badge, they have to give everything for the club and for the fans. And they'll appreciate that."
Luton's Nathan Jones: "This was a trickier game than we probably made it look. A change of manager can go one of two ways; it can rally them and they can have a real uplift, but we didn't give them a chance. First 15 minutes, they had a little bit of play, but we had all the chances and scored early. Then I thought we got to grips with it, smothered them, had all the best chances and were two up at half-time, though it should have been more.
"In the second half, I thought our game management was outstanding. We probably should have had a penalty, but we're not going to bleat about that now because I thought the referee was good tonight anyway. Really pleasing; an away win against a tricky opponent."
Luton are back in action at 7.45pm on Tuesday October 5, when they welcome Huddersfield to Kenilworth Road, with Hull hosting Wigan at the MKM Stadium at 7.45pm the following evening. Both matches are available to watch on Sky Sports Football Red Button.
