Hull City 2 Fulham 1: Aluko nets late goal to snatch winner for Tigers

THE season may be less than a fortnight old and there is still a good chance that a couple of Hull City’s key players could yet be lured away by the lucre of the Premier League.
Hull City's Curtis Davies (right) battles for the ball with Fulham's Matt Smith. (Picture: Richard Sellers/PA Wire).Hull City's Curtis Davies (right) battles for the ball with Fulham's Matt Smith. (Picture: Richard Sellers/PA Wire).
Hull City's Curtis Davies (right) battles for the ball with Fulham's Matt Smith. (Picture: Richard Sellers/PA Wire).

But, after a summer that Steve Bruce has continually described as his “toughest in football”, there are finally reasons to be cheerful again at the KC Stadium.

Hull sit second in the fledgling Championship table after Sone Aluko’s dramatic late strike settled a contest that had been dominated by the hosts until half-time.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Then, though, the Tigers’ familiar old failing of making hard work for themselves returned as two errors in quick succession presented Tom Cairney with an opening that he took with not only panache but also a sense of glee against his former club.

That could have been that but for an assured finish from Aluko, that left the home fans in a crowd of 16,579 happily chanting ‘We are Hull City, we’re top of the league’ at the final whistle.

Technically, Bruce’s men are second on the fact Ipswich Town have scored one more goal but that was not going to dampen spirits as City celebrated a fourth straight win against Fulham at the KC Stadium.

The most recent of those before last night had been in December, 2013, when the Cottagers succumbed to a 6-0 mauling.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Much had changed at Craven Cottage since that sorry showing with only Alexander Kacaniklic of those involved last night featuring 20 months earlier.

Despite that, there was a familiar look at how Hull tore into the Londoners during a one-sided first half.

So dominant were the hosts that the biggest surprise at the interval was the Tigers only having one goal to show for their efforts.

It came via the head of Ahmed Elmohamady, one of four survivors in the starting XI from City’s record top-flight victory at the expense of the Cottagers.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The Egyptian’s back-post header was textbook but the 34th-minute opener owed just as much to a wonderful left-wing cross from Andrew Robertson.

City were full value for their lead with Elmohamady having gone close a little over 10 minutes earlier at the end of a flowing move that had been started by wonderful vision on the part of David Meyler.

Fulham’s Nikolay Bodurov denied Elmohamady with a block but, from the resulting corner, Curtis Davies went even closer with a shot that clipped the top of the crossbar.

Chuba Akpom was the next to threaten as the visitors wilted with a shot that Shaun Hutchinson did well to block before Abel Hernandez was penalised for a push just as his header crashed against the bar.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

City would have had a second just before the interval but for Elmohamady’s header from another Robertson delivery being deflected just wide.

As the players left the field to a rapturous reception, life was pretty good for the Tigers.

However, as with Sunday’s draw at Wolverhampton, there was always a nagging fear that City were vulnerable.

So it proved, with Fulham’s equaliser on 69 minutes coming via two poor errors.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

First, Aluko was caught in possession and then, once the ball had been lofted into the City penalty area, Allan McGregor failed to collect the ball despite racing 10 yards from his line.

McGregor did make slight amends when he blocked McCormack’s follow-up but Cairney was in no mood to be merciful as the former City midfielder fired in from 20 yards as the home side again failed to clear.

It was an equaliser that had been coming, Robertson having had to come to the Tigers’ rescue eight minutes earlier to cut out a cross from Jazz Richards that had just been begging for McCormack to tap into the net.

Cairney’s leveller set up a frantic finale that saw Aluko have a shot charged down and McGregor claw to safety a McCormack free-kick. Sam Clucas then headed wide for Hull before the decisive moment arrived four minutes from time. Neat footwork on the edge of the box by Isaan Hayden created the initial problem for Fulham who could only watch in horror as the ball reached Elmohamady and he sent over an incisive cross.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Nikica Jelavic won the aerial duel to cushion a header into the path of Aluko who made up for his earlier culpability in Fulham’s equaliser to fire past Andy Lonergan. It ensured a happy end to the night for the locals, who took great delight in asking Cairney the final score following the former City man’s exuberant celebrations for his equaliser.

Hull City: McGregor; Odubajo, Davies, Dawson, Robertson; Elmohamady, Huddlestone (Hayden 79), Meyler, Aluko; Hernandez (Clucas 66), Akpom (Jelavic 73). Unused substitutes: Jakupovic, Taylor, Maguire, Luer.

Fulham: Bettinelli (Lonergan 45); Richards, Hutchinson, Bodurov, Voser; Christensen, O’Hara, Cairney, Pringle (Kacaniklic 87); Smith (Dembele 45), McCormack. Unused substitutes: Woodrow, Tunnicliffe, Kavanagh, Burn.

Referee: G Salisbury (Lancashire).