No luck for Halloween Hull

The decision of quite a few Hull City fans to come to Turf Moor in Halloween fancy dress was perhaps always going to turn out to be an ominous one, especially when I spotted the Grim Reaper strolling down Harry Potts Way; although I'm still not sure whether he had actually taken the official supporters club travel.

The pressure on the visitor's manager Phil Brown in the week building up to the game had been mounting considerably, which lead him to illogically insist that his players were "one million percent" behind him. So if this game was to be a "six pointer" in terms of Burnley's survival hopes then using Browny's school of maths who knows how many points a win would've been worth to them?

Burnley started the brighter of the two sides without really making their possession count while the Tigers looked quite shaky and nervous. They seemed to happy to conceed needless throw-ins and corners when more confident players would've cleared the ball up-field or passed it out of defence.

As the first half was descending into a scrappy affair the breakthrough came. Wade Elliot played in Tyrone Mears whose air shot was judged to be a foul by Stephen Hunt on the Burnley full back. A sheer stroke of luck, although to be fair to the referee Mike Jones his view was severely restricted. But the ball still needed to be put away and it was with aplomb from Graham Alexander on his one hundredth appearance in Claret and Blue, earning me a more than welcome fifteen quid in the process.

From then on the remainder of the first half was largely Burnley’s; the man mountain Zayette blocked a fierce Blake drive, while Bikey, Elliot and Eagles also went close. The failure to see off the visitors was to almost prove costly though as a different Hull came out of the away dressing room after the break. They began to get a hold on the game and pushed Burnley back especially after the introduction of Mendy and Altidore.

Thankfully Brian Jensen was back to his commanding self and proved vital in taking the pressure off especially when saving well from the lively Ghilas. I must admit concern was growing, especially after the way we fell apart after taking the lead in our last two games against Blackburn and Wigan.

Thankfully lady luck was about to shine for us once more, in a rather big way. A questionable free kick was awarded to the visitors on the edge of the Burnley box which Giovanni lined up and beautifully found the top corner of the net. Sadly for Hull the man in black proved vital again, blowing up for a foul in the wall before the ball found its way beyond the outstretched Jensen. I was beginning to think that hidden under that Grim Reaper’s outfit was a referee’s uniform.

If that wasn’t enough of a blow for Hull then Giovanni’s booking for dissent being quickly followed up a second for a foul on Fletcher saw them down to ten men. Then stepped forward Alexander once more, as the Scot drove forward a pass to the overlapping Tyrone Mears looked certain until he unleashed a superb drive past Matt Duke into the bottom corner.

The strike was the perfect way to answer the critics that have called for him to be dropped or rested from the side. That has never been an issue for me, especially at a time when Chris McCann is absent, the experience, leadership and calming influence of the man they call Granddad is essential to the makeup of the team. Grezza’s situation has been compared to that of Ryan Giggs, but while Manchester United have the luxury to rest players Burnley do not and personally I wouldn’t want it any other way.

While Hull City’s fans will lament the referee’s failure to deal with the games controversial moments, over the course of the ninety minutes Owen Coyle’s men were well worth their victory. Saturday’s result is even more important to us as we are still producing far from our best form. We’ll now use this three points and clean sheet as a springboard to somehow get a result at Manchester City next weekend; but for Hull I’m pretty sure the Grim Reaper will be following them back to the KC Stadium for Saturday's visit of Stoke City.