Pantomime villain Danny Mills did his very very best to rile the City players and get sent off, a wish that eventually came true.  Meanwhile City dominated the ex-Prem stars and were unlucky to not return north with more than a solitary point.

Report by Ian Thomson.

Shortly after making my way back after the game to the pub where a goodly gathering of City supporters had enjoyed an agreeable lunchtime, and having a welcome pint placed in front of me, a fellow Tigerfan received a text informing him that we had just gone eleventh.  The general reaction to this announcement among the gaggle of Hull folk within earshot was one of mixed emotion: most of us would, back in August, have snapped off the hand of anyone offering us a 1-1 draw at the Valley in the last game before Christmas to go top half, and yet the fact that this still prompted musings over what might have been cannot fairly be dismissed as trade mark Hullensian whingeing.

It has indeed (so far, at any rate) been a genuine season of ups and downs, with some quite splendid performances and a generally higher standard of organisation and resilience constantly being offset with the sort of showings that make you literally dance with exasperation and, whilst it was decidedly a day to be disappointed for, as opposed to with, the men in amber and black, anyone of a Tigerish persuasion watching yesterday's game could be forgiven for reflecting on how the general dénouement and final outcome yesterday pretty much represented a microcosm of the chequered season that we have experienced to date.

For make no mistake, this was a game that we could and should have won. The horrors of the previous two away games were thoroughly banished by a pleasingly solid, hard-working, no-nonsense performance that could fairly be described as the mark of a credible Championship outfit, unfortunately delivered, yet again when facing the men from south east London, in the face at times of the sort of provocative behaviour and general contempt for sportsmanship that characterised Charlton's play in the encounter at the Circle back in October (although this petered out somewhat once they realised that on this occasion they were not dealing with a hapless sap as referee) . More particularly, we took the game to the Charlsters for long spells, and created genuine opportunities - loads of 'em, in fact - but therein lies the rub, sadly, as a combination of bad luck and desperate defending, salted with flashes of flaky finishing, led to us only troubling the index finger of the scoreboard operator on a single occasion, whereas the home side got lucky when presented with the only bit of defensive indecision we were guilty of all afternoon, and we had to let off the home side with a point which surely only the most partisan of their followers would deny was unquestionably deserved.

Ah well. But no matter: this was overall a performance which augurs well for the future - if it can become the norm - and it was a top day out for the noisy Tiger contingent of I'd guess 7-800, a fine turnout for the one weekend of the season when it's most difficult to escape domestic responsibilities.

Team-wise, the only real eyebrow-raisers were the return of Barmby to Tiger duty and the omission of Deano Mark II, not only from the team but the bench too, whilst the Mark I version was absent due to suspension, and it was pleasing to see Mike Turner not only take to the field again but to turn in a formidably fine stint. So we lined up thus:-

Myhill
Ricketts Turner Brown Dawson
Garcia Ashbee Livermore Hughes
Campbell Folan

This was my first visit to the Valley since the first game of the 1971/2 season, a game of which I remember nothing except that we lost 1-0 and my dad threw the ball back to Mally Lord, and it was interesting to see that they still run out to "Red Red Robin", which begs the question for me of the origins of the nickname "the Addicks", a sobriquet whose appearance I suspect (unless, of course, you know differently) coincided only with the appearance of Charlton, as a Premiership club, on Sky in the 1990s and is nothing more than the creation of some marketing shit-kicker very much in the manner of "the Black Cats" (Sunderland are the Black Cats: Oceania has always been at war with Eastasia). Weren't Charlton also known as the Valiants, though? The Valley itself has changed massively since those days, the towering East Terrace which gave the ground a capacity of over 70 000 now bulldozed away and the ground now comprising four identikit red-seated stands - well-appointed but soulless.

The game starts with City kicking away from the Tiger Nation, and we force a corner on 2 only for Hughes to make a tit of himself in front of his erstwhile home crowd and play the ball straight behind. The Scouser soon make up for it though with an astute ball through to Folan, whose shot is blocked.

Charlton start to come into the game, though, and it isn't too long before the niggling, diving, cheating Iwelumo is up to his old tricks, not least his propensity to foul his opponent yet still manage to win the free-kick. We win one of our own though when the hard-working Folan is clattered on 18, but the resultant free is cleared.

We most certainly have the upper hand, now, and two minutes later an Ash cross is helped forward, Campbell goes up with home custodian Weaver, but the leather loops up and just wide. This is good Tiger pressure, though, and shortly after a Lloyd Sam dive in the City box gets short shrift from referee Bates Garcia finds Folan, whose square cross from the right is just cut out by the home defence before is reaches the marauding Campbell, who would have had a clear sight of the target. But the Charl back line is well and truly flying by the seat of its collective pants now and only succeed in diverting another Garcia ball into the path of Livermore, whose low drive is pouched by the diving Weaver.

The Tiger contingent is roaring in anticipation now as we press forward again on 25 minutes. This time, after Hughes puts Campbell away and the ball is cleared for a corner, the home defence thrashes around yet again, eventually managing to scramble the ball out. Turner's thunderous drive looks goalbound but is blocked, Doug dives into the fray to retrieve it and goes down in the box. Hard to tell from our end but Mr Bates is not impressed.

Finally relief comes for the home side, after a foul by Iwelumo is again given the wrong way. Ash makes a bit of a pig's ear of heading the resultant free kick clear, and suddenly Charlton are in the clear, but Boaz, brought into the action for once, makes an easy save from the shot which comes in.

Another black mark for Ash on 31 when he gets involved in a promising move, dithers like a rabbit caught in the headlights and ends up having to roll the ball back to Turner as the previously-exposed Charlton cover regroups.

It seems that we have lost the initiative slightly at this point, but then on 38 we are in front. Ash finds Folan in a scoring position in the inside-left channel, the ex-Spirite's effort is blocked by another last-ditch challenge and the ball runs to the right. The Charlton defence all seem to stand still, allowing Fraizer to get on the end of it in the right-hand side of the box. The angle is narrow-looking from our distant viewpoint, but our on-loan starlet drills the leather hard and low past the diving Weaver and into the bottom corner. A splendid finish.

The dirty stuff really starts now, led by Sam and Thomas and we seem to be getting a raw deal from Mr Bates at this point, especially when Campbell is scythed down with no free kick coming our way. It gets even more tasty as the half draws to an end when the cynical, sullen Mills, roundly booed by the City support all afternoon, is gloriously floored by Folan (who is booked) and goes down as if poleaxed, albeit making an instantaneous recovery. Then as we move into injury time (of which four and a half minutes was played, despite only two being signalled) the still-aggrieved Mills steps on Hughes' foot, the City number 11 reacts with justifiable anger and it all kicks off big-style just as it did at the Circle.

After a half-time break allowing a read in the progie (along with a lot of stuff - that you can well imagine is repeated about four times a season - about Charlton's famous 7-6 win over Huddersfield in 1957) of the entertaining feature and double-page photo on a Charlton v City game at the Valley in 1976 (incidentally, did you know that City earned their first goal and point on MOTD at the Valley in the 68/9 season, courtesy of Waggy almost needless to say?), and a chuckle at reports reaching us of Deano referring to MIlls on the radio as "the tool", we start the second half in fine shape and an increase to our slender lead looks inevitable.

First off, Folan is put into a good position on 48 but overruns the ball, then the second of a couple of dangerous-looking crosses meets the head of Ash but the City skipper can't make clean contact. After Iwelumo is finally penalised for constantly impeding Boaz when trying to punt the ball out, a slip by Powell gives us a corner on the right. It's only half cleared and Hughes' effort is blocked. The ball falls to Brown who lashes in a vicious one which looks on target, but again a red-shirted torso gets in the way.

But then suddenly it's all square. A free kick is lofted in from the left. Boaz doesn't come for it (not to say necessarily that he should have done; hard to tell from where we were) and for once we are slow to react as the leather flops into the box. Turner and Daws (the latter was also excellent yesterday, but he won't maintain it, sadly) make valiant attempts to clear but are beaten to it by Bougherra who hits it high into the pokey.

The home fans, many of whom probably haven't realised that their team no longer play in the Premiership, suddenly make themselves heard above the din in the away end, and we are now on the back foot. The defence are in no mood to display any more seasonal largesse, though, and despite ceding the lion's share of the possession at this point we never end up in any serious danger. On 64 Campbell is booked for felling Mills, but to the delight of the City fans the ex-City loanee is cautioned too.

We now settle things down again after a slightly nervy ten minutes, and on 67 a quick Myhill clearance releases the tireless Folan, but the resulting effort from Ash is again blocked. Shortly after McPhee forces a corner, which Weaver flaps at amateurishly, only for City to be penalised.

Our chances of coming out of the game with no reward are then thankfully diminished as the home side are reduced to ten men, the guilty party being Danny Mills, a model of petulance, cheating and general malevolence throughout the match. An innocuous Folan challenge near the right hand corner of the home box results in Mills accidentally receiving the slightest contact from the City player's boot, but the Charlton right-back outrageously collapses to the turf in theatrical fashion holding his head. Folan - with not a little justification - goes absolutely apeshit, bouncing in fury, at the supine Mills while the City support thirty yards away are no less sanguine about this disgraceful act of simulation. The ref races up and sensibly sends Folan away before giving Mills a deserved bollocking. For a moment it looks as though that is that, but the shaven-headed gobshite can't resist one more remark to the Mr Bates, who to the delight of the City fans brandishes the red card in an appropriately flamboyant manner (a straight red, not a second yellow) leaving Mills to trudge down the retractable Valley tunnel with "Danny Mills, he's a wanker, he's a wanker" ringing in his ears. This was well handled by the referee: if the late Alan Hardaker, Hull-born former Football League secretary and no stander of nonsense, had been at the Valley to witness the game, he would surely have placed an avuncular arm around Mr Bates' shoulders afterwards and intoned, "Not bad young 'un".

St Nick makes a return to the Tiger fold on 75, and immediately sets up McPhee whose shot is blocked. Livermore suffers a similar fate shortly after but City have got back on top now and Ash is desperately unlucky with nine minutes left, as he meets a Livermore corner sweetly but, head in hands in disappointment, sees his powerful header flash an inch wide of the post.

Charlton are, predictably, trying every trick in the book now to hang onto their precious point, even rolling around on the grass when they have committed the foul. But, deep into the four minutes of added time, McPhee is released by Folan on the right and his shot his blocked. The ball rebounds to the City number 16, whose effort is blocked too. This time however the ball falls to the unmarked Barmby, the Tiger followers are on their feet in anticipation of a rippling net, but the ball is hooked wastefully wide from 15 yards. It's a bad miss and the match-rusty Barmby knows it.

Seconds later, that's it and the 22 040 crowd drift off into the chill London night, but not before the City players have received a prodigious and enthusiastic round of applause from an appreciative travelling support for a fine team effort in which everyone played his part.

With two tough but winnable home games to come, things look set fair, but we were saying that before the Bristol game. Let's see if we can learn from our previous mistakes, for that really would be the sign of a team on the up.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Brown, Dawson; Garcia, Ashbee, Livermore, Hughes; Folan, Campbell.  Subs: McPhee (for Garcia, 66), Barmby (for Hughes, 75), Delaney (for Campbell, 79), Doyle, Duke.

Goals: Campbell 37

Booked: Campbell, Folan, Garcia, Hughes

Sent Off: None

CHARLTON ATHLETIC: Weaver, Mills, Sodje, Bougherra, Powell, Ambrose, Holland, Sam, Thomas, Iwelumo, Zhi.  Subs: McCarthy (for Sodje, 23), McLeod (for Sam, 46), Semedo (for Powell, 75), Randolph, Dickson.

Goals: Bougherra 57

Booked: Mills

Sent Off: Mills

REFEREE:  A Bates

ATTENDANCE: 22,040