Adversity snatched from the jaws of survival - City perform feebly and are well beaten by a moderate Norwich side.

For those of you worrying about the Phil Brown regime at Hull City, there was reassuring evidence in the match day progie that the man knows what he’s about. Having praised Dean for his hat trick against Sarfend, the manager then pointed out “There is no ‘I’ in ‘team’.” I did a bit of research on this, and, do you know, he’s absolutely right! There were a few other things that weren’t in Saturday’s team that the manager might take note of too. There was no composure in the team when they defended. There was no control in the team in midfield. There was no bite in the team in attack. There wasn’t always even a lot of teamwork in the team. I suppose you could say there was no ‘we’ in ‘team,’ never mind ‘I’ but then that’s always the case if we’re going to be accurate. No, I’m not a fan of desk-top calendar wisdom regurgitated by middle managers and it certainly looks worse when it’s not even producing the desired result. We lost, we deserved to; though we scored and kept rattling the wood work we were never anything like as predatory as we were against the Shrimpers. It was disappointing and we need to improve.

Causing us to eye the league table with just a little more anxiety this morning were:

Myhill
Ricketts Turner Delaney Dawson
Ashbee Parlour Peltier
Windass Forster Elliott

We set off towards the North Stand where there were two blocks full of enthusiastic Canaryists; more than seemed likely given how dispirited their fans seemed when we visited them last year. And we started promisingly enough, a fine ball from Dean should have picked out Forster, but mystifyingly the striker let it fly over him without essaying a leap of any kind. It was rather to define the second Nicky’s day, as he turned in a PB performance, as in Pre-Brown.

And that was about it for us for the first half hour, as Norwich eased into control. Huckerby won a corner and then whipped it over exactly the way Marney doesn’t for it to be deflected wide. Huckerby then outpaced Turner and got in the cross, before then winning a free kick which he hit wide. Experienced Huckerby watchers knew we were seeing that problematic though fairly rare thing, a day when he was interested enough to keep having a go. He didn’t produce anything as scintillating as the night 18 months ago in Norfolk when we chose to put Scott Wiseman and Ryan France on him and he chose put them both on their arses consistently in one of the best displays of wing play I’ve seen in years. Nevertheless he was a constant threat, just after the half hour wriggling through our defence to hit well but straight at Myhill, a minute later making a run that was officially graded as ‘mazy’ before pulling back for Lappin who showed considerable technique in lifting the ball over the bar from 4 yards when a lesser player would have tapped it into the goal. It wasn’t so surprising when Norwich took the lead and the scorer was Huckerby, but the manner of it was odd. A corner was curved in with plenty of heft on it and Huckerby nudged it in past Myhill, perhaps pushing or holding or blocking, perhaps not. Bo was sufficiently incensed to charge out to halfway to confront the ref who was sufficiently impressed by the vehemence of the protest to card him immediately. Silly lad. 0-1 and it almost got worse a minute later, as Dion Dublin, the warhorse’s warhorse, flicked on for Huckerby to get 1-on -1 with Bo and slip the ball past him. Happily Bo may have got a touch to slow it down, however it happened, Delaney scrambled back and did well to hook clear.

I don’t want you to think it was entirely the Canary Darren show. A Peltier challenge had won the ball for Ashbee and he unveiled one of his ‘one every three season’ specials, curving it onto the inside of the post from whence it improbably and unfortunately spun away. Later Dean had got on the end of a flicked on ball and, with more time than he chose to use, screwed it well wide. But at half time we were a goal down and we were a tad lucky that was all.

The second half started after a display of cheerleading from what seemed to be several hundred women, many of them no more than three years old, and appropriately showing all the disciplined choreography of lunchbreak at a primary school with much random waving of arms and vague bending of knees. But at least it wasn’t the Royal Marines, and for that I for one was thankful. Mind you, I’d pay to see the Marines dressed as cheerleaders feyly brandishing pom poms, though that is perhaps just me. Anyway, the football. More of the same, as the Norfolkers resumed control again with Huckerby to the fore. To be honest I like Huckerby; salamander quick, two-footed, dribbles, scores goals, makes goals, not a lot he can’t do. I like him playing for Norwich as well; he has the sort of pleasingly gormless face that in less politically correct days caused nurses in East Anglia, when faced with the typical interbred large-foreheaded, slack-jawed look popular in children of that area, to write the code “NFN” in the nursing record – normal for Norfolk.

I didn’t enjoy him too much yesterday. He flicked on, collected it and his shot was cleared. Dublin headed down to him, he shot, Bo saved well. He wasn’t finished and he pretty much killed us off on 55 minutes, when, having done most of his work on the left, he hared over to the right, kept the ball in play, skipped round Dawson and popped over a perfect ball onto the head of Etuhu who had no option but to head it in, which he duly did. 2-0 and that seemed to be that.

Rather oddly, we chose then to get going. Barmby had come on which was good, but for Elliott, which was not. Parlour had had another quiet game and was lucky to stay on, Elliott had been in and out but always a potential threat. Sadly, Nicky had a most unNicky like day, clanging the ball off him to all parts, though he did get into a pleasing feud with their keeper, who got carded for stopping Nicky grab the leather out of the net after we scored, Nicky later retaliating by leaving his studs on him in a late, late show of a challenge. You have to love a man who picks a fight with someone twice his size and I do so love Nicky. Vaz Te was on too, and a typically effective run was ended by a typically tame shot, but at least we were starting to go forward, and from a corner Ashbee volleyed firmly and Windass flicked it on to the inside of post and again out.. The game’s natural order reasserted itself as Huckerby went on the prowl again, put through one on one the ball bobbled and he hit it amusingly high and wide. Minutes later one of theirs had a shot well saved and Youknowwhoerby potted the rebound but had apparently strayed offside. Eventually they took him off, not before time in my view.

The last few minutes saw us, improbably, almost nick something from the game. We got a freekick 20 yards out, Dawson stepped up and wellied it against the post, third woodwork hit of the game, three not seeming in these circumstances to be a particularly lucky number. A few minutes later he lined up another, a bit out of his range as I pointed out to my companions and so, predictably, curled a lovely effort in to make it 2-1. Injury time saw Dawson standing over yet another free kick, I kept quiet this time and it smeared off the wall for a corner. From this a frantic shot hit one of theirs, we screamed for a penalty, I honestly had no idea, it wasn’t given and the game was over.

It was a poor day for us, really. The defence got run around, the midfield got bypassed and it was no coincidence that, despite much woodwork rattling, all of the strikes started from outside the area as the forwards seldom threatened. Chastening, and there’s still plenty of work yet to be done, starting on Monday at Wolverhampton.

HULL CITY (4-3-3): Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Delaney, Dawson; Parlour, Ashbee, Peltier; Forster, Windass, Elliott.  Subs: Barmby (for Elliott, 52), Vaz Te (for Forster, 60), Marney (for Peltier, 70), Coles, Duke.

Goals: Dawson 88

Booked: Myhill

Sent Off: None

NORWICH CITY: Warner, Lappin, Shackell, Doherty, Drury, Croft, Safri, Hughes, Huckerby, Etuhu, Dublin.  Subs: Fotheringham (for Croft, 71), Martin (for Huckerby, 90), Renton, Eagle, Gallacher. 

Goals: Huckerby 39, Etuhu 55

Booked: Hughes, Warner

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:  M Thorpe

ATTENDANCE: 19,053