Hull City 1 West Brom 0: We deserved to win, insists Adkins

Hull's Fraizer Campbell celebrates his winning goal.

As had been the case the previous week at Bolton Wanderers, Fraizer Campbell netted the only goal of the game in the first half.

Victory was not enough to lift City out of the relegation zone. But, there could be little doubt that Nigel Adkins’ men were full value for the three points against promotion chasing West Bromwich Albion.

With Tommy Elphick and Reece Burke epitomising the hosts’ thou-shalt-not-pass attitude, the Championship’s top scorers rarely looked like adding to their tally of 33 goals.

In contrast, City could have had more than just Campbell’s 39th minute strike with Jarrod Bowen hitting the crossbar and Kamil Grosicki wasting a couple of gilt-edged opportunities.

The only goal of an entertaining contest came via Campbell reacting quickest after Jackson Irvine’s header had crashed against the bar to fire in the rebound.

It was the second time the hosts had hit the crossbar, Jarrod Bowen being denied right at the start of the first half.

Kamil Grosicki also had a couple of excellent opportunities in an entertaining 45 minutes that saw West Brom denied by a goal-line clearance from Eric Lichaj to deny Ahmed Hegazi.

The second half was a cagier affair but Campbell did come close to converting Grosicki’s drilled cross, while at the other end Burke’s anticipation denied Jay Rodriguez and Conor Townsend in quick succession.

Hull head coach Nigel Adkins said: “It was a good victory, I thought it was one we deserved.

“It’s good to get back-to-back victories and two clean sheets.”

Striker Campbell settled the issue with a composed finish near the end of the first half after a header from Jackson Irvine came back off the crossbar.

Adkins praised Campbell, saying: “The ball has fallen to Fraizer who was in the right place to put it in the back of the net.

“I enjoyed the first half, the work-rate and the effort of the players to get around the park was excellent.

“We’ve been in all the games, but they’ve been fine margins. We’ve been in all the games and today we got the win we deserved. We’ve been consistently playing well.”