Hull City vs Wolverhampton Wanderers. Sky Bet Championship.
MKM StadiumAttendance15,504.
Saturday 16 April 2016 07:43, UK
Robert Snodgrass scored a last-gasp free-kick to help Hull beat Wolves 2-1 on Friday night and keep their faint automatic promotion hopes alive.
The Tigers lie eight points behind Brighton in the second automatic promotion place in the Sky Bet Championship with five games remaining.
Hull took an early lead through Adama Diomande's opportunist goal, but Dave Edwards' close-range header brought the teams level before the hosts won it in injury time.
Hull had come into the game with only one win in their previous eight Championship games and manager Steve Bruce made five changes from the side that drew 2-2 at Huddersfield.
With Wolves placed in mid-table, manager Kenny Jackett also shuffled his pack with four changes from a side which drew 0-0 at home to Blackburn.
The game was only five minutes old when Hull took the lead through Diomande.
A long kick from Allan McGregor was headed on by Ahmed Elmohamady and when Dominic Iorfa mis-kicked his clearance, Carl Ikeme failed to gather the ball under pressure from Abel Hernandez and Diomande.
The latter was presented with an open goal and had the simple task of steering the ball home from 12 yards.
Diomande had scored as a substitute against Huddersfield and repaid the faith showed in him by being handed a start with the opening goal.
Hull went close again as Sam Clucas fired just wide with his right foot after Jake Livermore and Elmohamady had blocked attempted clearances.
The visitors nearly hit back when Jack Price headed narrowly over from a Jeremy Helan cross and as they came more into the game they were rewarded with an equaliser.
Wolves were level with 19 minutes gone as they made the most of being given the ball by Alex Bruce.
Bjorn Sigurdarson found Helan in space on the left and his cross was headed in from six yards by unmarked Wolves captain Edwards.
Hull had faded after a good start and tried to reclaim the advantage with 10 minutes to go before half-time but Hernandez saw his shot blocked before Clucas fired wide from the rebound.
Both sides tried to take control of the second half but the closest of the early chances saw Moses Odubajo volley over from outside the area from a Clucas corner.
As the home side became increasingly nervous and passes missed their targets, it was Wolves who looked the more likely side to grab a winner.
With 15 minutes to go, Hernandez curled a low shot from the edge of the area and despite the effort taking a deflection Ikeme got down to his left to turn the ball away.
Wolves caught Hull on the break and the home side nearly paid the price as Sigurdarson's shot forced McGregor to tip over.
Jake Livermore, Hernandez and Sone Aluko all wasted late chances before substitute Snodgrass' free-kick in extra time.
Time seemed to be running out for Hull when Snodgrass struck a free-kick which clattered the bar before hitting Ikeme and crossing the line.
