Stoke City were booed off at half-time and full-time after woeful defending saw Hull cruise to an emphatic win without breaking sweat. A turgid affair matched by miserable weather meant Stoke failed to get three points against Hull City, coupled with the fact that Stoke are now four games without a win as pressure builds around the team and the manager to put results together.
Stoke fans are becoming increasingly restless after failing to see progress from last season in the first 8 games of the 23/24 campaign.
The Potters had the majority of the possession in the opening stages, however they couldn’t produce any clear goal scoring chances. Alex Neil was forced to make an early substitution in the eighth minute as forward Tyrese Campbell went down holding his hamstring after he pulled up whilst trying to control the ball, Andre Vidigal was the man to replace him.
Shortly after the stoppage in play, the bet365 Stadium commenced a minutes applause in the fourteenth minute for young supporter Rafe who sadly passed away.
Stoke’s first real chance of the game came in the twenty eighth minute as the ball was played through to Sead Haksabanovic who tried to pull the ball back for a team mate to tap the ball in, unfortunately, his pass was misplaced with nobody to finish it. Not long after, Hull threatened the Stoke goal, The Tigers made it 0-1, as a ball was chipped over the Stoke defence looking for Philogene-Bidace who wriggled himself into some space then cut the ball back to an unmarked Aaron Connolly for an easy tap in.
A minute later, the visitors doubled their lead as Adama Traore got off the mark for the season with a classy finish into the bottom right corner, sending the away end into delirium. Stoke fans were becoming restless with misplaced passes and lapses in concentration when defending. This restlessness was shown at the half time whistle as the home side were booed off by their supporters.
The second half followed a similar pattern for Stoke as they could not play past the constant pressure from the Hull team. First half substitute Wesley proved to be a bright spark for Stoke in the second half as he had two big chances to put The Potters back into the game, however Ryan Allsopp pulled off two great saves to deny the Brazilian. Matters nearly went from bad to worse for Stoke as Ex-Potter Liam Delap ran through the Stoke team at pace but his shot was blocked by Michael Rose.
Not long after, matters did go from bad to worse as Hull City extended their lead to three, courtesy of Regan Slater. Slater saw his shot from outside the box catch a wicked deflection which looped the ball over Travers and into the top right corner. Boos rung around the Bet365 stadium and home fans began to leave the stadium as they were highly disappointed with their team’s poor performance.
Stoke were given a glimpse of hope from Andre Vidigal as he struck a shot into the bottom left corner past Hull keeper Ryan Allsopp. Stoke desperately tried to get something out of the game in the closing stages, however their minimal efforts weren’t enough.
Manager Comments:
Q: Alex, are you worried about your side's current form?
AN: Of course it's fixable, everything’s always fixable. You look at a lot of teams and they'll go through maybe a difficult patch and then they'll go and win a game, maybe 1-0 with something bouncing off someone’s backside and not play particularly well, but that sets off a sequence of good performances and good results.
We need that one win that's just going to lift some of the lads and then hopefully we can try to put a decent run together.
Q: Do you understand the reaction from the fans?
AN: I’ll never have any qualms about supporters, if they want to boo to voice their frustration, I get it. They’re here to support their team, they want to see their team win and when you don't win, I think particularly in modern day football, it's either one extreme or the other, isn't it? You win a game, you're going up, you lose a game, you’re getting relegated and you’re crap. That's just the nature of football now.
So my opinion on how they voice their opinion, I don't have any views on it whatsoever. I just want to try to get the team performing well and trying to win.
Where do Stoke go from here? How do they rescue their form?
Full Time: 1-3
Attendance: 21,142
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