Shameful refereeing decisions gift Burnley their opener and deny City an equaliser, but such incompetence can't mask the continued paucity of City's performance - Geovanni aside - as the Tigers crash 0-2 at Turf Moor.

Report by Mark Gretton.

Another Saturday – or Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday – another ghastly Hull City occasion in the premier league. Another defeat away from home, of course. And another winnable fixture turns out not to be. Burnley are basically a souped-up division 2 team – nothing wrong with that of course, it’s what we were a year ago and like us, it’s propelled them to an unlikely berth in the top half of the table – and they are there to be beaten by any reasonably well-constructed and well-organised side – or Wigan Athletic. So they were never likely to be threatened by a team “constructed” and “organised” by Phil Brown. That said, though the dour men of east Lancashire deserved to win as they played most of the pitifully small amount of football that was on display, they might well not have done had they not been the principle beneficiaries of an appalling refereeing display from Mike Jones, who proved there is more to his general lack of competence than not knowing what to do when a beachball deflects the football into the goal. As well as not knowing the laws of the game, he demonstrated that he’s a poor judge of events, a terrible interpreter of situations and that he lacks the courage of his convictions. A complete all rounder, then. So when you’re a poor side playing poorly and you encounter a dreadful referee there’s only one outcome, and we duly watched it unfold in front of us.

Dutifully lining up to give of their million percent were

Duke
McShane Zayatte Gardner Dawson
Geovanni
Olofinjana Marney Vennegoor of Hesselink Ghilas Hunt

That only says a very small part of the hotch-potch lined up to attack – and I use the term completely inaccurately - the goal furthest away from us. Basically a back 4, with Geovanni – Geovanni! – as the enforcer in front of them in his hitherto undiscovered role as Ian Ashbee, with the rest of them bunched together in fear a bit further forward. Presumably Vennegoor of Hesselink’s extra names were there as a further buttress across the middle. On the occasions we had the ball, VofH and Ghilas did venture forwards, the rest of the time they rushed back towards the huddle. You didn’t have to be a keen student of the game to see that this would nullify Geovanni as an attacking threat and, given that none of the forward – and again I misuse a word – players seemed interested in playing wide on the right, it would leave McShane, currently just shading Dawson as worst defender at the club, hopelessly exposed; and throughout the afternoon he was duly exposed and hopeless. Nor did you need to be a highly-paid pundit to see that this was not a set up to sweep away a newly-promoted outfit. You just needed to be a spectator not called Phil Brown.

Marney immediately demonstrated his million percent commitment to The Boss, as he’s known until Monday, by immediately giving the ball away. You’d have thought this early return to normality might have steadied us, but no, and the Lancastrians advanced, clearly delighted that our fullbacks were as poor as they’d been told and that McShane was not being protected by anyone and that Dawson was not being protected by Hunt. Ah, Hunt. Do you remember what a breath of fresh air he was at the start of the season, a player of undoubted premiership ability playing wide on the left and doing what such players do, swinging over accurate corners and dangerous crosses and tracking back tigerishly? All that seems to have vanished and we are left with a little bloke bereft of confidence. His collapse of form alone should be enough to get the manager the sack, so quickly and so far has Hunt gone backwards.

Which made the first goal nothing if not ironic as Hunt failed to go back quick or far enough and found himself the wrong side of Tyrone Mears in our area. His arm went up on to the back of Mears who then essayed an air-shot and fell over with Hunt landing on top of him. Penalty! I have to confess I thought this was right at the time as I thought Hunt had pulled him back, although most of the faithful had no doubts that an injustice had been done. This was poor defending by Hunt and, frankly, poor watching by me. But the official had a good view and that made it dreadful refereeing. Spot-kick expert Graham Alexander blasted it past Duke who went the right way once the ball was beyond him. 1-0 and the stadium bounced to the tune of Tom Hark - embarrassing for them, miserable for us.

It looked for a few minutes as though we might sink completely, but Zayatte, who had already broken up one attack at the expense of a turned ankle bravely blocked a free kick after the increasingly desperate McShane had again been forced to foul to save himself. Just after the half hour they might have put the game beyond us. A rare foray from us had again left Dawson exposed and dithering, Eagles caught up with the hoofed long ball, slipped it past Dawson and watched bemused as 2 of his colleagues fell over themselves with only Duke in the way. Then a corner was missed by everyone until it reached Bikey who made nothing of an easy headed chance and we frantically cleared. This resulted in a corner that Duke saved at the expense of another corner that we again shunted away. Not for long though, as Dawson erred again allowing the increasingly dominant Eagles to swoop and shoot wide when again they might have scored, as they might have done 2 minutes later when a shot by Eagles landed safely in Duke’s hands – a good save.

If you think I’m not saying much about our attacking play, you’re right. If you’re suspecting it’s because there was nothing to report, well, you’re right again. In total, a Ghilas cross was plucked off Jan VoH’s head and a Hunt cross was blocked and fell to Geovanni, too deep, but hitting a shot that was easily blocked. But (and I confess I’ve been saving this as a treat) we DID have a shot on target! Just like a real football team! Ghilas and Marney combined early on and Olofinjana kicked it from 25 yards but comedy toppling keeper Jensen intercepted it with ease. Still it was an attempt on target, which is not something that tiger-chat reporters generally get to write about these days and tame though it was it was easily Olofinjana’s best moment in an otherwise pathetic performance. Half-time and I feel bound to report that some of the players seemed to be giving the manager no more than 500,000 per cent.

The reason, I suppose, that we keep watching football, apart from habit and the desire to escape the responsibilities of real life that encumber real people, is that even the direst game can contain a moment a real beauty that lights up the surroundings and keep us glowing for weeks afterwards as we recall it and we got one right at the start of the second half. As our players ran out, ears no doubt ringing with the exhortation of the Boss that he needed 2 million percent from them now, the strains of ‘This Charming Man’ by The Smiths rang out over the tannoy and the homely wooden-seated stand hummed with 2 minutes 40 seconds of jangle pop perfection as the masters of insouciance demonstrated their seemingly fragile but eternal art. Wonderful it was and inspiring too and a welcome reminder that at some point we would get to go home and listen to ‘Hatful of Hollow’ in its entirety. But it wasn’t just the faithful who were inspired, the team seemed to realise that thus far they HADN’T got a stitch to wear and started to weave something serviceable. VenofHes received the ball and turned with it at a speed not seen since he beached on our east coast shores and then passed incisively to Olofinjana who was presented with the first clear chance we’ve had since the Wigan game. Predictably he panicked and instead of shooting unaccountably squared it to the much less well positioned Ghilas. Ghilas, not expecting it, shot weakly straight at their netman. A chance gone, but though we didn’t complain, Olofinjana was hit hard after he released the ball, but the referee had presumably done his penalty quotient for the game. But suddenly we were starting to move it about, Marney was looking less useless than he had done and a shot from him was blocked.

Emboldened by this, we made a change, bringing on Mendy on for the terrible McShane and Altidore for the ineffective Hefferlump. This had the immediate effect of McShane throwing a proper hissy fit, complete with water bottles kicked with his usual poor technique and storming about that showed a characteristic lack of positioning just long enough to give someone chance to restrain him. I really, really hope that McShane wasn’t playing to the gallery here; pundits can criticise the manager as that is their job, we can criticise him because we’re entitled to, McShane has not remotely earned the right. He’s repaid the manager’s faith in him since his return with a series of dreadful performances. The tannoy didn’t immediately play The Smiths ‘You just haven’t earned it yet, baby’ but it could have done. Frankly,(Mr Shankly?) he gave no more than 200,000 percent throughout and the manager has a right to feel let down by that

But we were starting to motor now. Mendy advanced and shot exactly in the way that McShane doesn’t. Then Hunt started a dribbling run which ended with him falling over his feet on the edge of the penalty area and then leaping and rolling into the box in the manner of the great Francis Lee. But the ref wasn’t fooled, O no, he didn’t give a penalty, he gave a freekick. Now this was quite incorrect as Hunt hadn’t been fouled but nowhere near as incorrect as the next decision. Dawson has had his moments from this range before but Geo wasn’t to be denied and struck it exquisitely with power over the wall and into the top right hand corner. As he dashed towards the manager in triumph he was stopped in his tracks as it was pointed out that the goal had been disallowed. For pushing. In the wall. Astonishing. This was not just a poor decision, or poor eyesight. This was a desire to referee the game in a way the players could not be expected to anticipate. If we see a similar ruling this season I’ll be amazed. It was terrible refereeing and predictably it was like a hyphen to a letting agent as the City players mobbed the incompetent with the whistle. Geo not surprisingly liked it least and seethed most and got a yellow card.

And that was pretty much the game, although it got grislier still. A clearly hacked off Geo went back to his defensive duties and went through the back of one of theirs, not maliciously so much as clumsily, almost as if it’s not really his game, that sort of thing, and he got the second yellow that became red. The stupidity of all this is still making me seethe 24 hours later.

And so the game reverted back to first half type. Barmby came on for the woebegone Hunt, but the Seer of Kirkella’s days of influencing games at this level seem to have passed. My hasty electronic notes recorded on my phone inform me ‘Dawson was ducked again’ but as there was no water on the pitch it’s possible I hit a wrong key somewhere in there. The subsequent corner was scrambled away but the respite was short-lived as we were stretched wide by their extra man and, as we lost our shape the advancing Alexander shot cleanly and beat Duke low at his near post. Poor keeping, I think and that really was it. Altidore should have been sent off as, with a yellow card already in his possession, he body-checked a Turf-ite flat. The referee chose to add cravenness to the previously committed sins of incompetence and arrogance and gave only the free-kick. We had 4 minutes added time sponsored by GM Furniture and you wished they’d kept their money in their pockets so we could have gone home a bit earlier but at least, as the Burnley fans sang that Brown was going to be sacked in the morning we saw Dawson hit a shot true and low shaving the outside of the post, just like he used to do when he was good.

Grisly stuff. Pitiful refereeing aside, we played reasonably for about 20 minutes in the second half. As a team we were nowhere near good enough. Some performances – notably those of McShane, Dawson, Olofinjana, Vennegoor of Hesslelump and Hunt – were so wretched that they made others who had mediocre games – Ghilas, Duke and Marney – look almost sparkling in comparison. Gardner can look back on his efforts with satisfaction, Zayatte on his with pride. Geovanni was our best player despite a formation that could only hinder him from what he does best. That he was still our best player despite this is a tribute to his ability and his commitment. Look for Brown to try again by sticking him in goal for the Stoke game.

I don’t actually think that will happen, as I don’t think Brown will be in charge by then. His protector’s gone and, though we were terribly unlucky yesterday, we were terribly terrible as well. As we have been, pretty much, since we imploded against Sunderland at the Circle last December. It’s time for a change as we are sinking, not waving but drowning. Petunia may not have recognised what was happening in similar situation but I think Adam Pearson knows only too well what Stevie Smith meant. Someone new might do no better but we have got to the stage that we are so poor that it doesn’t really matter and I think Pearson’s arrival signifies that we are now moving on to the next stage and I think Brown - ashen–faced on MOTD in that he was merely mahogany-hued as opposed to his trademark orange - knows this too.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Duke; McShane, Zayatte, Gardner, Dawson; Marney, Olofinjana, Geovanni, Hunt; Ghilas, Vennegoor of Hesselink.  Subs: Altidore (for McShane, 59), Mendy (for Vennegoor of Hesselink, 59), Barmby (for Hunt, 70), Kilbane, Garcia, Mouyokolo, Warner.

Goals: None

Booked: Altidore, Geovanni, Mendy

Sent Off: Geovanni

BURNLEY: Jensen, Mears, Jordan, Carlisle, Bikey, Alexander, Caldwell, Elliott, Eagles, Blake, Fletcher.  Subs: McDonald (for Blake, 72), Nugent (for Fletcher, 79), Guerrero (for Eagles, 85), Thompson, Duff, Penny, Gudjonsson.

Goals: Alexander 20 (pen), 77

Booked: Elliott

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:    M Jones

ATTENDANCE: 20,219