Hull City prove more than a match for Championship favourites Burnley

Hull City can perhaps count themselves lucky to have taken four points in a week against teams relegated from last season’s Premier League but when you have a player of Ozan Tufan’s quality, you always have a chance.

With Burnley so greedy in the way they hog the ball, you have to make the most of what chances come your way at Turf Moor these days.

Tufan did, and also made a chance Taylor Harwood-Bellis had to clear off the line for Oscar Estupinan.

So for all that Burnley dominated possession as Norwich City had days earlier, Hull matched them in the only statistic that mattered – one goal each.

Burnley’s chants of “No one likes us, we don’t care” are a relic of the Sean Dyche days, which seem light years ago when you watch Vincent Kompany’s Clarets push the ball around with elegance. Now they are wonderful to watch but as was the case at Turf Moor for so long, most fans would swap it for Hull’s effectiveness.

All the way through Burnley played as we can expect them to every game this season, or at least try to, dominating the football.

They had 77 per cent of possession and Hull were happy to sit in at times and let them, perhaps recognising they had no choice.

Even before Tufan gave them the lead they were careful not to be in too much of a hurry to get the game restarted,

“Anti-football!” chanted the home fans, mocking the tag Arsene Wenger and co used to level against them in the Dyche days.

There is no wrong way to win – or in this case draw – and in every game they play, Hull’s fans let it be known they like how Shota Arveladze is making use of the players Acun Ilicali’s money is providing.

For all that Kompany’s side oozed quality at times, they still offer the opposition encouragement.

There were a few times early on in particular when goalkeeper Arjanet Muric looked like he was still coming to terms with the amount he was being asked to do with his feet, and some of the passing around the back flirted with danger.

It was not the surprise it might have been, then, when Hull took the lead.

At first glance Tobias Figueiredo who, along with Lewie Coyle, was harassed by the overloads Burnley were creating down Hull’s right, looked like he was just hoofing downfield under pressure in the 26th minute.

Maybe he got lucky or maybe he meant it to go perfectly to centre-forward Estupinan, who headed it on beautifully for Tufan to run through from midfield. The Turkish international cleared his head and slotted home.

It was a nice moment for Figueiredo, whose slip a quarter of an hour earlier forced Matt Ingram to come out and save from Jay Rodriguez. A minute later Samuel Bastien cruised past him and won a corner and quickly after that Benjamin Tetteh came all the way over from left wing to right-back to help out and must have wished he had not, picking up a booking for fouling Ian Maatsen.

Maatsen was no more a full-back than Bastien was a winger.

Josh Brownhill had put a snapshot on the turn wide and a dangerous Maatsen cross went through without a touch, but Burnley ought to have created more with so much of the ball. And in the spirit of fair play, they were quite prepared to cause their own problems too, Estupinan very nearly latching onto a backpass from former Leeds United defender Charlie Taylor.

Once behind, Burnley responded to Hull’s brilliant counter-attack with one of their own. Josh Cullen released Maatsen and his cross allowed Rodriguez to tap in a goal of stunning speed and simplicity.

The overplayingitis had spread to the Hull ranks at the start of the second half and whilst they got away with that, they did lose the services of Allahyar Sayyadmanesh ten minutes into it, his hamstring seemingly giving out.

In between time, though, Tufan played a gorgeous through-ball to Estupinan, whose shot needed clearing off the line.

When Tufan trudged off exhausted in the 76th minute, a lot of what little attacking threat the Tigers carried went with him, although the Regan Slater pass substitute Mallik Wilks was unable to touch in from a tight angle was worthy of his team-mate.

Connor Roberts, who later had a shot charged down, showed great feet to play in Vitinho but he shot at Ingram and some were on their feet celebrating Brownhill’s goal until they saw it drop down from the outside of the side netting.

Cullen played another magnificent ball to Rodriguez, who made space for himself but shoting at the goalkeeper.

The frustration on the terraces grew, except for the cluster in amber and black singing the name of their Georgian coach. Playing with style is great, but not much beats picking up unlikely points.

Burnley: Muric; Roberts, Harwood-Bellis, Taylor, Maatsen; Cork, Cullen; Vitinho (Benson 66); , Brownhill, Bastien (Tella 66); Rodriguez (Barnes 82). Unused substitutes: Egan-Riley, Peacock-Farrell, McNally, Costelloe.

Hull City: Ingram; Coyle, Figueiredo, Greaves, Elder; A Jones, Slater; Sayyadmanesh (Williams 55), Tufan (Cannon 76), Tetteh (Wilks 63); Estupinan (Covil 76). Unused substitutes: Baxter, McLoughlin, C Jones.

Referee: R Madley (Huddersfield).