Monyhull 1 Pye Green Towers 2

For the second time in a couple of weeks the hull were facing the chip shop boys.

After a six goal turn around in the score compared to the early season match, courtesy of Langston snr’s return to central defence two weeks ago, could the improvement be maintained with man mountain Webber at the heart of the defence in place of the injured manager of the day?

Langston decided to throw out a strong lineup with new keeper Joel hanging on to the shirt ahead of the returning Hales. I say hanging on, but if the shirt were a cross both of them would drop it.

Adam Pritchard and Mad Dog Pickett were at full back alongside Webber and Jankowski. With Rainbow on the left, Burke and Buckley in the centre and Reeson on the other flank the midfield had pace, bite, skill, attitude but not much height.

Up front Clarke and Tom Hales presented a threat to the Pye Green defence.

Subs were Ekutshu, Gary Hales and a disgruntled trio of Langston jnr, White and Conlon.

After pleas form Assistant Manager Langston to put in some challenges so as not to have to shout all through half time the team responded with an excellent start, and were on top for the first twenty minutes as Pye Green began to get frustrated with the ref and each other. The start was topped off by a goal from Rainbow, free on the back post after a goalmouth scramble.

As the half went on Pye Green came back into the match, but defensively the hull were solid, the midfield were passing well, and Toms pace was always a threat if the right ball could be found and the goal were twice the normal size.

The hull were still one up at half time, and scenting a victory Langston stuck with the same line up for the second half.

But as so often with the hull this season, the sweet taste of a victory turned to marmite in our mouths. The equaliser came early in the half. Then Pritchard suffered a re-occurrence of the ankle injury he sustained last week. Langston jnr came on in his favoured wide midfield role as Rainbow dropped in to full back.

Hales was sent through, but as the defence scrambled the ball away the ref thought he heard him swearing and brought out a red card. Clarke made way for Ekutshu as the hull went for pace to keep alive the hope of a winner, and the Ballotelli look alike came close with a powerful header that just cleared the bar.

Even down to ten the hull were good value for at least one point, but with pressure building in the last five minutes Jankowski called and cleared, but as the ball came back there was a Pye Green player in space and no hull defender throwing themselves at the ball to get a block and that was that, a sickening late winner.

Man of the match could have gone to any number of players, with Webber and Jankowski in particular running Burke very close.

A performance like that next week will surely bring some reward and finish the season on a high for the hull.

Will Millist stick with a very effective midfield? Who will replace the red carded Hales and injured Pritchard? With a new centre half already signed and persisting degenerative achilles and back problems, will assistant manager Langston get a run out in what could be his final game? Or is he just trying to get a sympathy appearance up front.