Peter Taylor's return to Hull sees his Palace team take the lead with their only decent shot of the game, only for the Tigers to snatch a point deep in injury time through Michael Turner.

Thank you, Peter Taylor, thank you. Thank you for helping to bring success back to Hull City with two glorious promotion seasons, for giving us back a sense of pride and even joy at being Hull City fans. Thank you for the memories of three highly entertaining seasons, the victories at Yeovil, Tranmere and Bournemouth. For using Mr Pearson’s money shrewdly in many ways in bringing Damien Delaney, Leon Cort, Boaz Myhill and Jon Parkin to the club (let’s not talk about the Stockdales, Josephs and Ellisons). You will always be remembered as a great manager of this club.

But thank you also for being so utterly and wonderfully predictable.

This game had 1-1 written all over it even before kick off. Even as I set off from afar in the morning, the low-hanging clouds across London spelled out the message loud and clear: “Palace may be a more talented team, but lo it shall come to pass that they shall earn the right to play during the first 45, score during the second period and then sit back behind rigid banks of four, until henceforth there shall come an equaliser whence none might otherwise have been forthcoming had you pressed home your previously hard-fought advantage.”

And so it was.

As the paragliders drifted down the Humber beneath balmy cobalt skies of 21 degrees in late September, and in front of a crowd of 18,099, City huddled circularly (as did Palace) before spreading out as follows:

Myhill
Thelwell Mills Turner Dawson
Fagan Marney Ashbee Yeates
Parkin Bridges

And of course we began with a Palace kick off with three of theirs charging down the left while SHOCK! HORROR! the ball was swung out to the right, and off Dawson for the game’s first throw. Throw-in fans will note that this is the first of two throw-in related incidents that will be mentioned in this report.

Following some formless (largely) early exchanges, on 7 minutes the first incident of note took place, down the City right. Dawson knocked a free kick from the half way line over to the right hand edge of the box, whereupon a header into the penalty area was met with a Palace hand. “Handball!” we cried, for so it was. We’ve seen enough harsh penalty decisions already this season to know that this was as much of a cast-iron, nailed-on penalty as you’re likely to see, and we settled back to watch the Beast slot away another goal towards his rather KC-biased tally this season.

But, of course, it wasn’t given.

Now I’m not one to spend too much time moaning about this kind of thing, because if I did I'd be divorced, and as my wife keeps telling me, I simply can't afford that. These things even themselves out over the course of a season we’re told, and we’ll no doubt get a decision or two go our way at some point, but quite frankly this is getting ridiculous. The one given against Dawson against Derby was incredibly harsh, and the one against Mills in the win over Sheff Weds was just plain wrong, but it’s really starting to rile me that we seem destined to be on the end of most of the crappier decisions of officialdom this season. Add this to Welsh being hauled to the ground at West Brom when in a goalscoring position and these decisions are the difference between respectable lower-mid-table obscurity and the foot of the table. Fans of grumpy, long-winded paragraphs about dubious penalty decisions will note that this is the first of two such incidents that will be mentioned in this report.

A minute later and Yeates was involved, thrusting deep into the heart of the Palace defence. “Did he ever have it under control?” asked one chap sitting somewhere behind me, and the answer is an unequivocal “no.” This was the way with Yeates. An interesting and potentially dangerous player, perhaps not at his sharpest yet after a while out with injury, and at times exciting as he jinked and turned in an effort perhaps to control the ball, perhaps to bamboozle the opposition defence. He worked hard on the left, occasionally on the right as he swapped with Fagan for a time, and on this performance looked like he will cause a threat, something the rest of our midfield are sadly lacking at present. Fans of Marney-related incidents will note that there is little Marney-related drama in this report, as our star creative midfielder again had little impact. On this occasion Yeates reached the edge of the box without actually touching the ball, as far as I could make out, and when he finally did, his effort was blocked.

The game moved into another of those formless patches for a while. We had a couple of crosses provided by Thelwell from the right, which was encouraging, but nobody was really flying in to attack them in the way that Elliott once did.

And then excitement on 19 as Mills headed the ball skywards and a large plume of spray erupted into the sunlight from his bald pate, like it does in slow motion in the fight scenes in Rocky films when someone takes a crunching blow. Purchasers of the DVD of this game will presumably be able to zoom in and watch this in slo-mo to appreciate this effect in all its glory.

Two minutes later and we had a shot. Parkin controlled a ball in to his feet (another novelty), held off his man, turned and shot wide with his left. At the other end, Cort and Parkin were battling it out at each set piece, a battle that would ultimately be won by our former centre back. Yeates then had a shot deflected for a corner, which Dawson threw cunningly into the air before taking, informing his team mates (pursuant to the secret code that they have clearly worked out) “I’m going to swing this one into the keeper’s hands.” This of course differs from the usual two-short-bounce code, which means “I’m not going to clear the first man.” I like Dawson, he’s a battler and he’s surprised me by being able to cope pretty well with the step up two divisions since we acquired him, but one of his strengths was always his set piece delivery, and this has tailed off alarmingly.

For a while, Palace dominated possession and our defence looked panicky when put under pressure. Thelwell in particular looked like a player who has not played a first team game for a long time, as indeed he hasn't, and early on he was hesitant. On balance though, he played well, and with Ricketts out for a while he may finally get a run in the first team. He wasn’t the only one looking shaky, and perhaps a more ambitious opposition manager might have encouraged a bit more of an attacking mentality against the bottom of the table side, and tried to use City’s lack of confidence to achieve a win. Thank you, Peter Taylor.

On 29 Marney attempted a 30-yarder and this was deflected for a corner (which came to nothing). At this stage 30 yard efforts were as close as we were getting, with neither Beast nor Bridges winning much against Cort or Ward, who both looked fairly solid. Beast played his usual game, but in the first half the balls to him were mostly the type to be flicked on, and this wasn’t working. Minutes later, and Bridges got involved, cutting in from the left to the edge of the box and firing a curling shot towards the top right hand corner, which was well saved (and held) by Kiraly.

After that, the game descended into little of note (I may have fallen asleep), until half time approached. On 45 Fagan fouled Morrison on the right touchline, right in front of the East Stand. Morrison reacted, raising his arms towards Fagan’s face, and at this point it all kicked off. Parkin charged in and began to deliver a Beasting to Morrison, while Ashbee piled in to have a few words of his own. He’s got to go, we thought: Morrison had raised his arms in retaliation and would see red; Fagan yellow for the initial challenge. Morrison was not calming down and it took a while before he would stand in front of referee Thorpe to receive his marching orders. And of course the ref did absolutely nothing. What a cowardly, inept response. Now, I would have hated to see them reduced to 10 as this might have ruined the spectacle of the game (which of course is a lie, as I was baying for red with the rest of the East Stand). But I would have thought a decent referee would have done something more than give them both a talking to. As it was, Mills wasted little time in doing what he’s best at. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a very good player and it’s great that we have him, but what he’s really, really good at is winding up the opposition. Mills used his mouth to immediate effect, possibly suggesting that he might want to impregnate Morrison’s sister or something of that ilk, and predictably Morrison reacted with hostility and was carded.

In stoppage time, and with the crowd suddenly alive, we started to play a bit, and the half ended with the Tigers firmly on top and giving the Palacians a bit of a seeing-to, as Mills might have pointed out to Morrison as they trotted off for their half time oranges.

Morrison failed to return for the second half, possibly still on the phone questioning his sister’s carnal knowledge of ex-England right backs, and was replaced by Green, who received a friendly reception. Green moved into the right midfield position and Scowcroft moved up front. Greenie is still trying to find his level, I think. We always thought this in the fourth division. Then the third. Latterly, the second. Perhaps his level is the Premiership in fact, and who knows, he may well get there with Palace. Much of this will depend on the patience of Simon Jordan, one would think.

The early exchanges in the second half favoured Palace, with McAnuff shooting over and Scowcroft beating Turner to a ball that our occasionally shaky centre back should have coped with easily, but his cross bounced on the top of the bar. On 54 Kiraly failed to read the clear signal from Dawson that this would be an in-swinger straight into his hands, and the ball bounced through to Turner, who was as surprised as anyone to find himself receiving a ball from a corner and could only direct his header into the air. A minute later and we had another corner, this time on the left. Dawson took it short to Yeates and with Palace having inadequate cover (despite all men being back for the corner) Yeates knocked it past the defender to Dawson, who advanced unchallenged into the box and steadied to pick out his man before … tamely chipping it over the crossbar. Very frustrating, as I believe were Ashbee’s words to Dawson as the Tigers regrouped.

On 57 we fell behind. A free kick from not a particularly dangerous position was hoisted into the box, and we seemed to head it half clear. At this point time stood still, in fact everything and everyone stood still. It was like the Yorkshire Post Spot the Ball competition, as if someone had airbrushed the ball out of the picture and asked the players to guess where it is. We could see it, and suggested politely to our players that they might want to do something about it rather than allow it to bounce around on the edge of our box. But winner of this week’s competition (and a Collins pocket dictionary is now on its way to south London) was Leon Cort, who hit it hard and low past Myhill’s right hand and into the bottom corner from 20 yards. It was a sweet strike, especially from a central defender who is more comfortable using his head, but he should never have had the time to get anywhere near it, let alone line up a shot and execute it. We trail 0-1.

We responded by trying several shots from the half way line, none of which were remotely successful. For a while we looked pretty clueless. Palace, on the other hand, relaxed, began to look very comfortable on the ball, and should have gone on and given us the spit-roasting we were encouraging at that point. But no. Thank you, Peter Taylor, thank you. Instead of pressing home the advantage, they were content to set up banks of four behind the ball and defend resolutely.

Game on.

Bridges and Thelwell were replaced by Forster and France on 71. Fagan was booked and then ridiculously the ginger Watson (complete with Gary Lineker wrist strapping circa 1986) was not, for one of the latest tackles seen at the KC. Had it been any later he might have missed altogether, in fact he might have been booked next time we play at the KC. This is getting frustrating. What is the problem with referees at this level? Mr Thorpe and his linesmen were terribly fussy, penalising minor infractions but not punishing bad challenges and ducking out of big decisions. They also failed to penalise blatant foul play, such as the farcical time in the first half when Palace took a throw down the left, which the receiving player caught on the field of play, walked off with and threw back in. That’s deliberate handball.

Taylor replaced Kuqi with Freedman. We were starting to play a bit. Parkin was standing up and taking the ball down on his chest, which is what he does best, rather than trying to flick it on. On 81 he outmuscled Cort and played it to Fagan, whose run and shot was well saved by Kiraly, low down to his left. A minute later Yeates got in a cross from the left that Marney turned back across the face of goal but no Tiger leg could quite apply the final touch as the ball fizzed across the six yard box and out wide again. In it went to Parkin at the near post, who played it back to Dawson, whose shot was saved but not cleanly, rebounding to Mills whose reflex reaction could do no more than knock it over. I used more ink in recording this incident than I had in the previous 80 minutes.

On 87 our best chance to equalise came … and went. Dawson took a free kick from out wide right, which was headed out but immediately sent back in by France. Parkin was totally free on the left, well inside the box, and had time to allow the ball to bounce through to him, finish reading the newspaper, measure the distance to goal, laugh at Kiraly’s outrageous costume, pick a spot to either side of his flapping tracksuit and earn us a point. Ready, aim, fire! Parkin blasted it wide. It was such a glorious chance, and so much easier than the volley he put away against the Wendies. We looked at each other with nervous embarrassment, like when your 98 year old Aunt announces at the dinner table that she thought the Nazis probably had the right idea and at least Mussolini made the trains run on time.

And so, a great opportunity for a point thrown away, and another defeat at home pinning us to the bottom of the table.

But wait! One more chance. Lawrence concedes a corner on the left, needlessly, and I glance at the clock. 49 seconds to go. Yeates steps up and whips in a cross with pace that Kiraly doesn’t fancy coming for. Two Tigers go up for it at the back post and it’s Turner who gets his head to it, knocking it down and back across the flapping keeper and up into the far roof of the net.

1-1 and Total Tiger Mayhem.

There’s still time for us to win it in the four minutes added on, as we’re now firmly on top. A Palace clearance falls invitingly for Dawson 40 yards out. It’s one of those that either pings into the top corner or balloons over the roof of the stand, and Daws capped a bit of a howler by knocking it out of the stand and onto the train tracks, narrowly missing the 16.54 to Goole (full of folk who’d left early and missed our goal).

And then the final insult from Mr Thorpe. Yeates, growing into his role and becoming more and more of a threat, dances around on the left before thumping a shot goalwards. Handball! Penalty! Denied once again. Fair enough, it would have been a bit harsh, but the guy got both hands to the ball and it was on its way goalwards, and when exactly are these decisions going to start evening themselves out?

But a point, and we deserved one. And we’re not bottom of the league any more. In a game we’d contrived to try and lose, we were rescued by some determined play in the last 15 minutes and, perhaps, by a little too much caution. Thank you, Peter Taylor, thank you.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Thelwell, Turner, Mills, Dawson; Fagan, Marney, Ashbee, Yeates; Parkin, Bridges.  Subs: France (for Thelwell, 71), Forster (for Bridges, 71), Coles, Welsh, Duke.

Goals: Turner 90

Booked: Fagan

Sent Off: None

CRYSTAL PALACE: Kiraly, Lawrence, Ward, Cort, Borrowdale, Scowcroft, Watson, Kennedy, McAnuff, Morrison, Kuqi.  Subs: Green (for Morrison, 45), Freedman (for Kuqi, 77), Speroni, Hudson, Hughes.

Goals: Cort 57

Booked: Morrison

Sent Off: None

REFEREE: M Thorpe

ATTENDANCE: 18,099