A fine first half performance against rock bottom Wednesday goes unrewarded, then a feeble second half cedes three points to our Sheffield foes.

Standing proudly amidst the borders of Italy and France is The White Lady, Mont Blanc. Resplendent amongst such mere mortals as Marmolada, Cima Donici, and the inelegantly named Cima Tosa, which I guess translates to "Hull City midfielder thinking the job is done and standing around watching former Nigerian star who will do the work for me" err,.... roughly.

As Okocha viewed from his lofty perch of The Lady, at the disarray below as time after time our players slid from their not so high perches, he grew increasingly frustrated as the match wore on, to the point where running sideways after beating the second of Wednesday's closing down midfield, stopped, foot on ball and threw up both arms in despair.

As did I.

Frozen at base camp were:

Myhill
Delaney, Brown, Turner, Ricketts
Marney, Ashbee, Garcia, Okocha, Hughes
Bridges.

A subdued 4,000 city strong backing, the vast majority of which were silent throughout the game, watched the game begin with City attacking the away following housed in the upper tier of the Leppings Lane end.  Given that so many have taken the trouble and outlay to travel to Hillsborough, and other grounds, why do they remain so quiet, a sad reflection on todays, "right I'm here so entertain me" game.

City started brightly, as a nervous Wednesday looked on with neat exchanges between Hughes and Okocha resulting in a corner.

Hughes header over from the cross from the right after short exchanges, and looked promising to begin with.

On 10 a sprightly move from the back, with Ashbee as lively as we have seen him, saw another skewed shot just wide from Okocha which didn't give us any insight of the lack of fire power we were to display later. Okocha fed Marney this time, but once again Marney, as he does best, flattered do deceive with a week effort straight into the midriff of the awaiting keeper.

The Wednesday fans were largely silent as well they may be with old pissy pants in charge fearful of a 7th defeat in a row. They needn’t have worried.

It was at this point I noticed that one of Wednesday's centre backs had a shirt with no number on. I didn’t spot a shirt exchange during the first half, so it must have meant he started the game with no number. Aren't referees and linesmen supposed to spot this kind of thing? Not great in the scheme of things I admit, but if they can’t be relied upon to spot small indiscretions like that, what chance do they have with offsides, handballs etc.

I Like Hillsborough, it's a big, atmospheric traditional style football ground. Not like soulless 'stadia' the likes of Southampton & Coventry were 'Socca' comes to town to entertain you.

The nearest I have seen in new grounds being the Stadium of Light, magnificently capturing the best of the new, with the old.

15 minutes in and Weds begin to get a grip of the game, but their efforts were largely well off target Esajas being the biggest culprit with a well skewed effort.

Okocha began to dominate midfield and had a shot deflected for a corner from which Hughes saw his header cleared off the line.

A free kick needlessly given away, then saw a fizzing effort just wide for Laws’s men as they clawed their way back into the game.

The City faithful sat back & began to knit one & pearl one.

Okocha fired one well over, after a neat breakaway, involving Ricketts and the tame Garcia. I must admit to being a bit perplexed by Garcia, he doesn’t seem like a winger to me; does anyone else get that feeling?

For the next move, which resulted in a corner after some good play, I have in my notes just written two words. “Okocha loaps”. And he does so exceedingly well. Whether or not those around him learn sufficiently enough to understand what to do around him time will tell. I fear they are not intelligent enough, and some January shopping is in order. Marney for me, being that present you got 2 years ago from your dotty Aunt Guinevere, which you can palm off onto some unsuspecting country cousin, providing you can get some thick enough wrapping paper to disguise it.

And then the one moment or real quality in the game, saw us go one behind.

Ricketts and Ashby dallied near the corner allowing the ball to break to one of theirs, Jeffers received it and had one thing on his mind as he cut inside and curled a beautiful curling shot beyond the flaying fingertips of Myhill into the top corner.

After the ref booked a flurry of Wednesday players, City won a corner on the left, JJ found the head of Hughes again, but he wasted it once again by nodding it over.

Rued chances, we would live to regret saw us enter the half time break one down.

The 2nd half began with the introduction for them, of Richard Hinds, to generous applause from our lot.

The influential Kavanagh had the 1st shot of the half as his effort whipped just over.

Another low drive by Okocha was comfortably saved by Grant.

With Okocha looking increasingly frustrated at the lack of movement around him, and the lack of incision in front of him, he fed the newly introduced McPhee, who had replaced the perpetually disappointing Marney, only to see his nippy shot turned round the post by Grant.

Prior to this saw the introduction of Pederson for the ineffectual Bridges.

A word of warning for those baying for the inclusion of Bridges every week as if he were the Messiah, DON’T.

One swallow of a curling goal, 12 months ago in Leicester, a marksman doth not make.

Since that night, I have yet to see him do anything worthy of making Brown pen him in as a must, but only to disappoint whenever he does get his opportunity.

Another one bound for the bargain rack.

The amassed Tiger gathering fumbled with their IPods, trying fruitlessly to re-arranged their collection of Mantovani.

With 6 mins to go, the last of City’s subs saw the introduction Of Livermore for Hughes, as we saw the remaining 6+2 mins fade away, with the only opportunity falling to Sheffield who hit the post in the dying minutes.

The build up play that City had was much better than the previous 2 seasons but the severe lack of firepower up front may yet come back to haunt us.

The North faced Gully of Cima Tosa holds one of the most adventurous Ice climbs in Europe, lets hope for our sake it doesn’t hold a slippery slope of blank firing impotence our team currently displays.

On a separate note, I note from the boards displayed on the outside of the KC, there are various items banned from entry.

Included within the numerous banned items are flags & poles.

How will this fit in with Duffen's gimmick of giving 7 thousand of the buggers away on Wednesday?

HULL CITY (4-4-1-1): Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Brown, Delaney; Garcia, Ashbee, Marney, Hughes; Okocha; Bridges.  Subs: Pedersen (for Bridges, 59), McPhee (for Marney, 67), Livermore (for Hughes, 85), Dawson, Woodhead.

Goals: None

Booked: Marney, Ricketts

Sent Off: None

SHEFFIELD WEDNESDAY: Grant, Wood, Watson, Johnson, Spurr, Simek, Kavanagh, Esajas, Whelan, Jeffers, Burton.  Subs: Hinds (for Spurr, 46), Tudgay (for Jeffers, 62), Small (for Watson, 78), Burch, Sodje.

Goals: Jeffers 40

Booked: Burton, Kavanagh, Spurr, Tudgay

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:  P Dowd

ATTENDANCE: 21,518