Hull City 1 Cardiff City 1: Tigers standing by Graham but ‘Achilles heel’ remains for Bruce

Just two goals this calendar year and without a strike in open play since New Year’s Day, 2013 is in serious danger of becoming an annus horriblis for the 28-year-old.

Graham’s barren streak without hitting the target extended to 21 games on a tough afternoon against Cardiff – and how Tigers fans will be hoping he comes of age in the goalscoring stakes soon.

Playing for his third club of 2013, Graham – whose haul of 12 Premier League goals for Swansea in 2011-12 was the third highest total by an English striker in the division – has gone 1,240 minutes, not far short of 21 hours, without finding the net in the top-flight.

Commendably – and typically – Tigers manager Steve Bruce showed his class in not singling out the forward after he missed a glaring chance to open his account for his new club early in the piece on Saturday, while also spurning a late opportunity to win the points.

Instead, Bruce concentrated on the lack of collective goalscoring punch from his side, mindful of their travails in that department last season, regardless of promotion – relegated Peterborough United scored more goals than the Tigers in 2012-13.

But how Graham, a more hard-working and honest striker you would probably struggle to find, could do with a goal, although his team-mates remain convinced he will turn the corner soon.

The forward would have probably wanted to crawl into a cavernous hole after firing over with the goal gaping after Joe Lewis parried Sone Aluko’s effort invitingly into his path on seven minutes and after a late point-blank header which flew straight into the arms of the Cardiff goalkeeper probably not improving his mood either.

But it will come for the north-easterner, in the view of Tigers’ wide man Robbie Brady.

He said: “He (Graham) worked very hard and I thought he had a good game.

“The goals will come and once he gets one, I think they will all flood in.

“He is just due a bit of luck. He’s been brilliant in training since he’s been here and it’s just about putting one in the back of the net now and then others will come.”

Offering his take on proceedings, which saw Curtis Davies’s 40th-minute opener cancelled out by Peter Whittingham’s close-range strike just before the hour-mark, a typically candid Bruce added: “Defensively, I can’t ask for anything more. And I can’t ask for anything more from the team, the way they’re playing, but our Achilles heel is still there.

“We’ve gone to Man City and created really good chances. We’ve created really good chances against Cardiff. And we’ve got to take them...

“I’ve never known anything like it for 14 or 15 months. How many times have I stood here and said: ‘We should have won by four?’ It’s just such a frustration, because some of our football at times was good. But I can’t keep saying the same thing. We have to take our chances.”

It was left to a centre-half in Davies to show the predatory instinct lacking in his team-mates to open his and the Tigers’ account with a nifty header five minutes before the interval, stealing in while the Cardiff backline dithered following Tom Huddlestone’s right-wing cross.

It was the Tigers’ first goal in open play in the Premier League this term and you had to go back to Mark Cullen’s effort in the 2-2 draw at Wigan on May 3, 2010 – on a night when the East Yorkshiremen’s relegation was confirmed – for the previous one.

That ensured some tangible reward from a first-half which had been hitherto noteworthy for Graham’s miss and the amount of ‘stick’ meted out towards Cardiff striker and former Tigers loan signing Fraizer Campbell, with the Huddersfield-born player heckled mercilessly in song, while collecting a booking for his pains for clattering James Chester from behind.

But Campbell was still on the pitch when the Welshmen engineered an equaliser in the 59th minute with a neat passage of play resulting in Don Cowie’s pinpoint cross being dispatched clinically from close range by Whittingham, who had ghosted into the area unchecked.

That is how it stayed, with an effort from the impressive Aluko close to the goalline following substitute Stephen Quinn’s cross ruled out for offside, a late shot from Graham deflected for a corner by Stephen Caulker and a header straight at Lewis following Ahmed Elmohamady’s cross, the closest City came to manufacturing a winner.

Providing his take, Aluko said: “We feel a little bit aggrieved it’s only a point. We created good chances and towards the end we dominated. Other than a little period, I don’t think they troubled us too much.

“We were solid and organised, but we gave away a sloppy goal which is unlike us.”

On the travails of strike partner Graham, he added: “You’d worry more if the strikers weren’t getting chances. He’s not making bad runs, he’s getting in there and getting chances. He’ll start taking them soon. You’ve got to keep believing in yourself and working hard.”

“I think it’s a fair point for both teams,” said Cardiff manager Malky Mackay, whose preparations were hindered by the loss of international pair Craig Bellamy and David Marshall to injury.

“We both had time on the ball, both tried to win and had chances other than the goals.

“Hull have a manager I know well, an excellent manager and I knew it would be tough and it proved that way. We deserved a point.”