Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship clash between Hull City and Blackburn Rovers at the MKM Stadium as Sammie Szmodics scored the only goal of the game in their victory on Saturday.
Saturday 29 October 2022 18:33, UK
Blackburn returned to the top two of the Sky Bet Championship with a hard-earned 1-0 victory at managerless Hull.
Rovers have now won four games on the bounce and left East Yorkshire with three more deserved points after Sammie Szmodics coolly scored after 15 minutes.
The hosts, who are reportedly set to announce Liam Rosenior as their new manager, had enjoyed a mini resurgence under interim head coach Andy Dawson.
But they never looked capable of consolidating upon their two-game winning run and lacked the imagination and strength of mind to land a glove on their well-organised opponents.
Blackburn manager Jon Dahl Tomasson must have been especially happy by the manner in which his players quickly subdued an enthusiastic crowd at the MKM Stadium.
Rovers' core gameplan - to stifle into submission Hull's central three midfielders - was obvious from the outset.
And it nearly yielded handsome dividends when Ben Brereton Diaz chested the excellent Scott Wharton's reaching cross towards an onrushing Szmodics.
The former Colchester playmaker struck cleanly, but goalkeeper Nathan Baxter parried - with Brereton Diaz denied on the follow-up by Jean Michael Seri.
Two minutes later, Szmodics enjoyed better fortune following Wharton's deft pass into the right channel - an area that Blackburn had clearly identified as a significant Hull weakness.
This time the 27-year-old elected to hit across the face of goal and neatly found the bottom-right corner.
Hull responded, and at least had more possession of the ball - fleetingly in the first half; far more so in the second - than their belligerent opponents had hitherto allowed.
But, aside from a flash-across-goal attempt from Jacob Greaves on the left, their final ball was continually not good enough.
Hull, unsurprisingly, had greater urgency in the second half, but they looked vulnerable the more they pressed for an equaliser.
No better was that evidenced than when they lost possession in a poor area after 53 minutes. Brereton Diaz played in Sam Gallagher, but Baxter did well to smother.
Baxter's intervention inspired the hosts, who had a fine spell that peaked when Dimitrios Pelkas headed Regan Slater's right-wing delivery over the crossbar.
Expertly marshalled by Tyler Morton at the back, Blackburn had neither the inclination nor the need to kick on for a second.
Even in spite of the introduction from the substitutes' bench of leading scorer Oscar Estupinan, Hull were essentially defeated long before the final whistle as Blackburn marched on.
Interim Hull head coach Andy Dawson: "As normal, unless I know or someone tells me something different, it's repetition. I'll speak to Tan (Kesler, Hull vice chairman). There's a lot going on and we'll see what happens on Sunday. Are we in a good place going forward? I think the answer is yes. It's not about the team, it's about the group. First half, you have to give them credit. They started well and dominated in possession. We were probably a little bit passive.
"That's credit to them and that's why we changed things in the second half. We were more on the front foot and we played better. We probably had one or two good chances that we didn't take. But they're the small margins. That's the difference between the teams that finish at the top end and the bottom end. We just lacked that little detail in the final third. We have come up against a good team and we've fought right until the end."
Blackburn's Jon Dahl Tomasson: "Each game is important. We go on to the pitch to win every game we play. We will lose some games but, at the end of the day, it's about doing the right things. We need to give credit to the lads and the way they are creating this great team spirit. It's a young squad and they are enjoying themselves. We all know how difficult it is. This is a great league but it was a well-deserved win.
"First half defensively, we controlled the game and then scored a great goal. We should probably have scored more goals in the first half. That was the only thing I was disappointed about - we should have killed the game in the first half. They didn't have one shot on target. It was a great win and a good performance and it's good to see that we can give something back to our fans. Big credit to the players and also the players who came on from the bench. Everyone needs to work hard for the club and they did that. It was a brilliant finish, but we should have been leading before that - that was the only thing I could complain about. We controlled the game."
