A workmanlike first half and a crushing second half performance see the Tigers ease past Torquay and maintain their promotion drive.

Some will say that City were lucky yesterday, emerging as we did with the maximum points haul courtesy of two penalties and despite having been pretty well flame-grilled, to the point of being a tad charred around the edges, throughout a first half which could only be described as traumatic for much of its duration. Others, whilst acknowledging this, will trot out the slightly hackneyed but highly pertinent observation that in order to succeed in the promotion race you need firstly that generous helping of luck (as per yesterday) and secondly the ability to grind out results in games which were never destined to be classics (such as the Hartlepool game).

Whilst an honest Tiger watcher would challenge either of these views with some reluctance, there was however also a third factor at play yesterday which ultimately reigned the most influential in determining whether the fate of the three points was to end up being locked away in Mr Pearson’s office safe or stowed into the boot of the departing Torquay team bus, namely that, even compared with last season, the Tigers have been instilled with such levels of steel, character and sheer professionalism that few if any of our opponents at this level can live with us.

The evidence of how far we have come in that regard is clear to see. Last year we couldn’t manage a win in two games against Macclesfield (indeed, victory in one of them might have sealed promotion, but we couldn’t lift ourselves), yet when the Silkmen came to the Circle this season in the Cup we hit four without reply and without getting out of second gear in the process. Then, turning to yesterday, last season we spent ninety minutes chasing shadows when the Torqs came into town, and at half-time yesterday it looked for all the world as though an exact repeat of the match and result were on the cards, but the Tiger is made of altogether sterner stuff these days and, after it had dusted itself down and received some kindly words of encouragement and sympathy from the manager at half time, came out for the second half determined to settle once and for all who was going to call the shots.

And so it proved. The predictable guff from Sally Jockstrap (sorry- in joke for readers of Private Eye) in the Fail all week about how the players would be taking the lowly Torqs every bit as seriously as Tranmere or Hartlepool looked to be so much hot air in an opening period when the attitude of many of the players (including the captain) totally stank, and we were decidedly lucky not to be behind, but we came roaring back with a vengeance in the second half, the speedy and menacing Torq attack was rendered ineffectual, the previously solid and well organised visiting rearguard was suddenly ponderous and flat-footed, and whilst the manner in which the goals arrived was fortunate we could easily have had others, and by 4.54 it’s fair to say we had edged it.

As usual, the starting line-up showed a few changes from Tuesday, and one big surprise:-

Myhill
Hinds Cort Delaney Edge
France Ashbee Lewis Elliott
Barmby Fagan

City kicked off towards the 60 or so Devonians in another healthy Circle gathering of 17 147, and, contrary to the norm at the Circle when it’s customary for City to apply early pressure, we were on the back foot pretty much from the off, only two minutes being on the clock when a slick raid ended with the quicksilver Kuffour (why does this man not ply his trade at a higher level?) rifle a long-range effort just wide. We hit back on 5 when Lewis feeds Barmby on the left, the City number 8 pulls the leather back from the by-line, and France and Fagan just fail to force the ball home as the Torq defence knock it behind for a corner. This is a rare City foray, though, and the visitors are playing the more incisive stuff as most of the City team seem content to stroll around in complacent fashion, not bothering to cover tackle, allowing Torquay to cross at will and readily squandering what possession comes our way.

Fortunately, Lady Luck is not smiling too kindly upon the Torqs’ efforts, and we have a real let-off on 19 when a Kuffour chip is knocked into the box and, with the City defence spectating, the burly Akinfenwa hits the ball over when he should have at least found the target. But Torquay are running rings round us now, in a manner which we have not witnessed at the Circle since they did the very same thing last term, and individual contests such as Kuffour v Hinds (who surely must have played his last first-team game after a pitiful showing yesterday) were becoming painful to watch. We have another let-off on 25 when the Torqs find the net after more statue impersonations in the City defence but the effort is ruled out for offside.

As sometimes happens, though, this lifts the atmosphere as the hitherto quietly-chuntering City contingent splutters into life, and as the tempo off the field picks up this improved mood begins to infect the City team, and we rally. On 27 Fagan is robbed as Elliott knocks a cross down to him, and then almost immediately afterwards Fagan is sent away down the inside-left channel and lobs the Torq netman astutely. From the East Stand it looks in all the way, but bounces agonisingly just wide of the right-hand post.

This is all too brief a respite, though, and Myhill makes a fine one-handed save from Kuffour on 31 after the City rearguard had simply backed off him. Three minutes on, and Ash (one of the worst offenders attitude-wise in the first half, although in truth only Myhill, Cort and France were totally free of blame) chooses to stand and watch a ball he could easily have cut out, allowing a cross from which Constantine forces Myhill into another save.

A brief City incursion on 40 sees Fagan slice wide after neat work from Elliott and Barmby had set up the position, but all in all the Tiger offering was meagre in the first half, the end of which came as something of a relief. I don’t know if any crockery went for an airborne trip in the City dressing-room at half-time, but it wouldn’t have been an inappropriate reaction from a clearly-exasperated Taylor.

Sombre half-time spirits were lifted considerably, though, by the parade of some of the Top 100 Tigers as voted for by the fans. Predictably, and deservedly, the top spot was claimed by Waggy (what a privilege it is to have seen that man play) with Chillo a close second. But weren’t there some strange choices among the top100? Linton Brown? Graeme Atkinson? Mark Hateley? Nice to know that some City fans can see the funny side of the rigours of the 90s. The highlight of the whole proceedings though was a circuit of the pitch by the ex-Tigers present, to the strains of "Tiger Land", which George Green, PA announcer at the Ark in the 70s, used to play as the Tigers took the field, and was actually the club song of the Richmond Tigers Aussie Rules outfit (so when singing it as a City fan you have to remember to sing "final whistle" instead of "final siren", and "amber and black" instead of "yellow and black"). And what a delight to see so many fondly-remembered Tigers: Billy Whitehust, Steve McClaren, Ken Houghton, John McSeveney (the latter two highly underrated through living in the shadow of Waggy and Chillo), and Super Kev to name but a few.

This was a marvellously-uplifting event, and I’d like to think that it had some part to play in generating the marvellously-uplifting Tiger improvement we saw in the second half (although I still think that flying teacups may have had a part to play). We force a succession of early corners but the Torq defence is resolute. Then after Taylor’s patience with the abysmal Hinds had finally run out and Pricey was brought on, we took the lead on 59. Some good work on the right ended with Barmby crossing for Lewis (who for my money had his best 45 mins ever in a City shirt in the second half). As the City no 19 tried to work his way across the box to get a shooting position, a Torq defender challenged and Junior tumbled slowly to the turf like an inebriate giraffe. Referee Wright pointed straight to the spot, but it did seem a tough harsh as their was minimal contact if any from the defender. Still, not being one to look a gift horse in the mouth, we duly capitalised as Fagan took the ball and drilled it low to the keeper’s right in textbook fashion.

It’s all City now. A Delaney header from a corner on 62 was nodded on by someone but unluckily for us the ball plopped straight into the keeper’s grateful hands. Two minutes on, and a much-improved Ash crosses deep, Pricey heads across goal and Barmby turns it in from six inches, only for the offside flag to be held aloft. But still we press on, and a mere minute later Elliott is denied by the woodwork for the second game running, his shot from a Barmby pass hitting the outside of the right-hand post.

We are rampant now, Torquay bedraggled. The ball rarely enters our half, and a second goal looks inevitable. After a slight scare on 67 when Akinfenwa gets away and the ball ends up in Myhill’s hands courtesy of a lucky bounce, the inevitable duly happens on 73, again, remarkably, by virtue of a penalty decision. A one-two with Elliott sends Barmby haring into the box, only to be scythed down as he homed in on goal. The Torqs can have no complaints about this one; it would even have been a penalty in the 1950s. This time Elliott obliged, albeit less convincingly than Fagan, as his firmly-struck effort (apparently he was reprimanded for side-footing his spot-kick on Tuesday) went straight down the middle as the keeper dived to his right.

The game was over as a contest now and settled into a quiet phase, punctuated by endless choruses of "We’re just too good for you", and who would have thought that that one would ever be done to death in inappropriate circumstances after its debut last week, eh? The ever-amnesic City support would do well to remember that, however creditable City’s second-half improvement, for the first half Torquay were just too good for us and might easily have put the game beyond our reach by half-time. Just what is this team doing fighting a relegation battle?

We nearly managed a third deep into injury time when an Elliott flick set up Ellison, whose fierce volley from a narrowish angle was blocked by the keeper, but we got the result and that’s all that matters, especially on a day when everyone else bar Hartlepool won as well. So we maintain the gap, and the chasing pack have one game less in which to close it.

Radio 5 after the game talked about City and Luton making "serene progress" at the top. I dunno about that, but we now have nine games to go. Our leanest nine League game spell so far this season yielded 13 points. If we replicate that, we’ll have 88 come the season’s end. That means Tranmere would need 24 points from ten games, or Wednesday 24 from nine, to overhaul us. If we can do the business next week (a tough call, to be sure) a point a game would then see us home in almost all conceivable circumstances. It makes my stomach leap just typing this.

The fat lady clearly isn’t singing yet, but she ought at least to be getting her corsets on by now. Hang on in there boys.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Hinds, Cort, Delaney, Edge; France, Ashbee, Lewis, Elliott; Fagan, Barmby.  Subs: Price (for Hinds, 56), Ellison (for Barmby, 78), Walters (for Fagan, 89), Hessenthaler, Duke.

Goals: Fagan 61 (pen); Elliott 73 (pen)

Booked: None

Sent Off: None

TORQUAY UNITED: Marriott, Canoville, Villis, Woods, Hill, Phillips, Hockley, Russell, Kuffour, Akinfenwa, Constantine.  Subs: Abbey (for Phillips, 68), Jarvie, Boardley, Bedeau, Skinner.

Goals: None

Booked: Canoville, Hill

Sent Off: None

REFEREE: K Wright

ATTENDANCE: 17,147