Half Time - Kevin a Friend of Hull City!

Was it a penalty? It looked bloody soft to me, but Hull City's best Friend, the referee, saw a push from O'Brien in the back of Brady and, following a fantastic swallow dive by the Hull player, the pen was awarded. If O'Brien did push him, he should be shot because Tomkins had the situation under control and was heading the ball clear. So, crass stupidity either on the part of the defender or the official, or a combination of the two. Give a penalty for that, and you have to give a penalty or a free kick every time players jostle, lean, nudge and shove at a corner!

Apart from that, the game has been pretty unremarkable and alarmingly predictable. I warned we would be behind inside the first quarter of an hour, and Hull scored after 11 minutes. Mind you, something staggering happened after 19 minutes and 27 seconds, Maiga had his first shot on target in the Prem this season! How many minutes in total has that taken exactly? Of course, the shot presented no problems, Maiga lacking the pace or guile to outstrip the ageing Faye after a lovely through ball by Jarvis.

Those on Maiga watch will have noted how often the ball has bounced away from him. This resulted in one missed chance inside the box, with Maiga receiving the ball in space in the box, only for a heavy touch to present the defender with an easy clearance. Faye must be thinking that playing in the Prem is a doddle!

Mind you, Maiga's ability to deflect the ball wide of the goal came into its own with a goal line clearance to prevent Hull going two up. Quite how he got the ball up and over the bar from his position of one foot in front of the goal line, only Maiga will know, but watching him in the opposite box, it is clearly a skill he has been working on in training!

We have enjoyed two other chances, one fluffed appallingly by Diame after a superb cut back cross from Rat, and another which saw a Tomkins header stopped on the line in a fashion that presented the referee with an opportunity to even up the dodgy penalty awards, but being a good Friend of Hull, Kevin decided against that!