Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Hull City and West Brom at the MKM Stadium
Friday 3 March 2023 22:51, UK
Benjamin Tetteh scored his first goal for Hull as they beat West Brom 2-0 on Friday, with the Baggies losing ground in their Sky Bet Championship play-off push.
Carlos Corberan's side have now lost their last five away games in all competitions and overran their opponents in the first 25 minutes.
But an injury stoppage allowed Liam Rosenior to reorganise his team, and the pay-off was almost immediate as Tetteh rifled home on the angle to see Hull ahead against the run of play in the 33rd minute. It was the Tigers' only shot on target in the first half.
Discussing his mid-half changes, Rosenior told Sky Sports: "I changed the personnel a bit. We went with a 4-3-3 press. We got too deep, we didn't get our triggers right and we just went back to our normal press which the players know.
"That's on me. We worked on it for a day and it didn't quite work out, but at the end of the day, it's up to the players to take on that information and they did it fantastically well."
West Brom's evening went from bad to worse in the second half as Dara O'Shea was credited with an own goal in the 57th minute. Sean McLoughlin's header from a corner hit the Baggies captain on the way through.
Hull also had their goalkeeper Karl Darlow to thank for their victory. He made a string of vital saves, making quite the impression on his home debut after signing on loan from Newcastle in the January transfer window.
West Brom remain in 11th place on 48 points, six from the play-off places ahead of the remaining games this weekend. Hull move up three places into 13th, now just three points behind the Baggies.
It was a first half of two halves. West Brom started incredible strongly and Hull were kept in the game by three superb Darlow saves. Inside 10 minutes, Jed Wallace sent in a cross from the right, which ricocheted off Alfie Jones. It landed to Marc Albrighton, who chipped goalwards, but Darlow made a leaping save with Daryl Dike incoming at the back post.
Soon after, the goalkeeper made two saves in quick succession. Conor Townsend's pass into space was collected by Wallace, but Darlow was down to stop. Then, Albrighton picked out Dike with a superb deep pass, but the striker's header went straight at the goalkeeper. His follow-up shot went wide too.
But it was an injury stoppage in the 22nd minute for Hull's Regan Slater that allowed the hosts to regroup. Rosenior called his whole squad over and, paper in hand, reorganised his team - and it worked perfectly.
Eleven minutes later and Hull took the lead. Tetteh nodded the ball down for the run of Slater, who got ahead of Okay Yokuslu, before playing the ball back to his team-mate. Tetteh then swept the ball home past Josh Griffiths into the far corner.
Hull continued to dominate for the remainder of the half, but it was West Brom who forced another save from Darlow minutes after the restart. Albrighton's pass found Jayson Molumby inside the area. His cutback found Dike, but the striker's effort was pushed away again by Darlow.
After Tetteh had forced a superb stop from Griffiths, Hull added their second from the corner. It was a great delivery, which McLoughlin nodded goalwards. The ball took a nick off O'Shea on the way through before beating his own goalkeeper to double the hosts' lead.
West Brom's luck was perhaps best epitomised in the 64th minute as they won a free-kick. John Swift went direct with his delivery, but could only ping it of the upright before a follow-up shot went well wide.
The Baggies continued their attempts for a goal, but were guilty of sloppy play and poor finishing as Hull cruised to victory at the MKM Stadium.
Sky Sports' Andy Hinchcliffe on co-commentary: "It was a team effort in terms of Hull winning the game, but Karl Darlow has made save after save. That's been the story of the game from a West Brom perspective - they've created chances but every time, it was either poor finishing or Karl Darlow's positioning and reacting.
"He's had a huge part to play in Hull winning this game."
Darlow told Sky Sports after the game: "It couldn't have gone any better. As a team, we performed exceptionally well in such a tough game. They're a good side, it was a back to the walls job probably for most of it, but we stood firm and get our two goals with a bit of quality.
"I've been itching to play - that's why I cam here. I wanted to get back in a rhythm again towards the end of the season. I came in a month ago and the lads have been exceptional. The attitude to work and the way they go about their day-to-day lives is fantastic. We deserved that today."
Hull manager Liam Rosenior to Sky Sports: "It feels good after probably the longest 20 minutes of my managerial career.
"In that time, West Brom showed what a good team they are and we had to be really well organised and disciplined. Benji scores a great goal and Karl Darlow makes great saves, which is why we bought him to the club, he's a top goalkeeper.
"In the second half, we were much more compact, organised and solid. We get a great goal from a set-play, which always helps.
"I couldn't be prouder of them, it's the effort I asked for and they couldn't have done better.
"Benji's had an emotional few weeks. The earthquake in Turkey really affected him, his best friend was Christian Atsu. He was in my office and really down about that so I'm sure he will dedicate that goal to him.
"It's a wonderful finish and I'm sure he'll get a few more… He's been out for a long time but he'll get fitter and stronger."
Robert Earnshaw on Sky Sports: "The biggest difference was that little moment where Liam Rosenior went and changed what was happening tactically. He saw something different.
"But also the work rate and Darlow in goal was excellent. He made the saves he needed to do and an excellent performance from Hull."
Hal Robson-Kanu on Sky Sports: "You need to come away to games like this and take three points home. West Brom simply weren't able to do that.
"It's been the story for West Brom of late, not capitalising when they're playing well.
"But credit to Hull, they showed incredible resilience. Liam Rosenior showed real tactical nous and it's a fantastic result for Hull."
West Brom manager Carlos Corberan to Sky Sports: "I don't think the result shows what really happened on the full picture of the game. The level of accuracy against us was high from them and our level of accuracy was low.
"If I could tell you the picture of the game, they found one level of accuracy that we couldn't find in the 90 minutes of the game.
"Every time you don't add three points, you lose possibilities to add in the table. We want to be there and achieve the highest possible place we can in the table. Today, we couldn't achieve the result we wanted to achieve.
"The only thing we can do is take this feeling now and move onto the next one and use the next game to achieve the points we couldn't achieve tonight."
West Brom are back in action on Tuesday, live on the Sky Sports Football red button, as they take on Wigan. The Baggies then face Corberan's former side Huddersfield on Saturday March 11. Hull play again next Saturday as they travel to Coventry in the Championship.
