West Bromwich Albion 4 Hull City 2 - Frustrated Grant McCann unable to make case for Tigers’ poor defence

At the Hawthorns on Sunday, relegation-threatened Hull City defied their lowly league position and matched title-chasing West Bromwich Albion for long periods of what was an action-packed contest.

Yet, for all their energy and endeavour, their good work in the middle third and the chances they created, the Tigers left the Black Country with nothing to show for their efforts.

Ultimately, they were found wanting defensively and lacked enough quality in front of goal to earn a share of the spoils.

Grant McCann’s side are not good enough where it matters, and that is why they are where they are, 21st in the Championship in grave danger of being relegated to League One.

Hull’s defensive record is the second-worst in the division, and their shortcomings at that end of the field are of greatest concern – they were certainly most significant in yesterday’s defeat to the Baggies.

Not even McCann could offer any excuses.

“Some of the goals are unacceptable,” City’s head coach lamented. “The first one, we try and bring a ball down in the box when he should have just headed it. The second, we’ve lost a man from a set-play. 

“The third one, we knew about Kamil Grosicki’s runs and we’d spoken about it to the full-backs about how he makes these runs in behind and we just switched off for a second. 

“Obviously the fourth one, we were chasing the game and it’s a bit of a sucker punch.”

Unfortunately for McCann, the way his players defended against West Brom was fairly typical of how they’ve been operating as a defensive unit during the second half of 2019/20.

They are without a clean-sheet in 17 outings and, prior to lockdown, they lost 4-0 to Leeds and 5-1 to Brentford either side of a 4-4 draw against Swansea.

The four they conceded against the Baggies mean that City have now shipped 12 goals in their last three away fixtures.

They are far too easy to get at, cannot defend their box properly as a collective, and are guilty of making too many individual mistakes – with the inability to stay with men or track runners probably their greatest failing in recent weeks.

“The biggest disappointment for me and the coaching staff and the players is that we’ve scored five goals away from home in the last two games and we’ve come away with one point,” McCann added. “On the whole, I couldn’t have asked any more of the players [at West Brom]. They ran, they worked, they showed real quality at times. 

“I think the second is the killer goal. That one’s the one that has disappointed me the most. We’ve worked so, so hard on defensive set-plays since we’ve come back from lockdown.

“We’ve looked really sound defensively and for us to switch off and lose [Ahmed] Hegazi is unacceptable. We’re so frustrated.”

So open were City in the latter stages of the first half, they could have been dead and buried by the interval, though they still went on to forge sufficient opportunities to ensure that they left withall three points.

Yet, although the Tigers did find the back of the net twice, they still weren’t anywhere near ruthless enough, spurning a trio of clear second-half openings.

“We should have been 3-3,” McCann reflected.

“Tremendous run from Mallik [Wilks], unlucky with his effort, could have scored, probably should have scored.

“Then, Jon Toral, five or so minutes afterwards. Another day, Jon would score that. We’ve come to one of the best teams in the league and we’ve created probably just as many chances as them.”

Just as was the case against Middlesbrough, the Tigers found themselves behind on four minutes at the Hawthorns, Charlie Austin finishing off Matheus Pereira’s low cross.

Kevin Stewart rammed home a deflected strike from George Honeyman’s corner to level matters, though the hosts were back ahead on 37 minutes when Hegazi escaped De Wijs to nod in Pereira’s corner. Three big chances then came and went for the hosts before Hull equalised two minutes into the second period as Wilks headed home a Leo Da Silva Lopes cross.

Parity was to last less than 60 seconds, however, former Tiger Grosicki finding himself in acres of space to make it 3-2 before Wilks, Toral and De Wijs all failed to finish off good openings at the other end.

Eventually, Grady Diangana would make City pay for their profligacy, slotting West Brom’s fourth past George Long, and that was the end of the contest.

WBA: Johnstone; O’Shea, Hegazi, Bartley (c), Gibbs (Townsend 36); Sawyers (Livermore 62), Harper (Diangana 72); Pereira, Krovinovic (Brunt 72), Grosicki; Austin (Robson-Kanu 62). Unused substitutes: Bond, Furlong, Ajayi, Robinson.

Hull: Long; Pennington, De Wijs (c), Burke, Da Silva Lopes; Samuelsen (Lewis-Potter 46), Stewart (Batty 72); Wilks, Honeyman, Toral (Scott 90); Magennis (Eaves 66). Unused substitutes: Ingram, Tafazolli, MacDonald, McLoughlin, Jones.

Referee: O Langford (West Midlands).

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