The Tigers came from behind to score a big win at Stoke City
Hull City’s controversial penalty decision which went in their favour proved to be the turning point in their 3-1 win at Stoke City on Friday.
Mohomed Belloumi was tripped by Eric Bocat inside the box just after the hour mark, and from the spot-kick, Kasey Palmer saw his effort well-saved by Viktor Johansson only to have the ball come straight back to him and the former Coventry City ace nodded in the rebound.
City went on to score twice more to take the game away from the Potters and earn a first win under new boss Tim Walter in their sixth league game.
Stoke felt Chris Bedia and Belloumi were both offside in the build-up to the penalty, though there were no complaints from Potters boss Narcis Pelach about the actual foul on the Tigers winger, and those comments were backed up by the panel on Sky Sports which included former Tigers ace Jake Livermore.
“I don’t think it’s clear to anyone. The referee looks like he needs some assistance and the rule changes, there’s too many grey areas in this for me. He’s (Bedia) offside as he makes the connection (with the ball), and then he’s arguably offside again Belloumi. Either way, he’s (Bocat) the wrong side of him to begin with and there’s a shirt pull, it’s a calamity of errors and you could take your pick with either one,” said Livermore.
Meanwhile, former Aston Villa and England midfielder Lee Hendrie felt the foul from Bocat was a calamitous, and ultimately costly one, for his side.
“Bocat’s got to better, hasn’t he,” Hendrie added. “There were a couple of instances where there was a shirt pull. Obviously there was an offside position where he gets behind the defender but then it’s a calamity, isn’t it? There’s a shirt pull (on Bedia) which could have easily been a penalty, it’s quite clear he’s offside though it’s a real tight one. You need that little bit of assistance, particularly where the referee will be situated probably in the central are which is where you need the official on this near side to give him that guidance.
“There’s two players in offside position but then it’s just a really clumsy challenge. We’ve all done it as players, you try and rectify and make a bad situation good, but I think that’s what’s happened, it’s been a rush of blood. Credit to Belloumi, he picks up the pieces and catches the wrong side of Bocat which results in the penalty.”
Ex-Potters boss Gary Rowett felt City needed a bit of luck, something to drop in their favour, and Walter’s side got that with the penalty, and the way it bounced back to Palmer.
“I thought they were quite good in the first half, Stoke, I thought they pressed really well,” Rowett explained. “It’s a set piece they’ve taken advantage of, and we spoke about them not scoring for quite a while. It’s an inswinger as well, we questioned Hull’s zonal marking, they didn’t really move and react to the runs, but it was a good start for them (Stoke). In the first half, they put Hull under pressure, they stopped Hull from playing that possession-based game, they disrupted it and looked pretty good value for their lead at half-time.
“Johansson, he stood in that side of the goal initially and he almost says ‘you’re not going to put it here because I’m stood here’ so back to the middle, he reads him on that side and it’s one of those moments as a player where it’s absolute dreamland where it appears on your head with an open goal. There’s a little bit of fortune there and maybe Hull needed that little bit of fortune to give them that kick-start in the game.
“We watched them against Sheffield United and in that game, they just bogged down a little bit,” Rowett continued. “You could see what they were trying to do, they just got stuck in that defensive third trying to play that build-up football. What we saw (against Stoke) was they got higher up the pitch with better quality, that final pass and they got into lots of goalscoring positions. They had a few in the first half, not so many, down to Stoke’s pressing I think, but actually you saw in the second half, they started to open the game up.
“When they were ahead 3-1, all of a sudden they started moving the ball around. They didn’t seem to be quite as kamikaze with the centre-halves, they seemed a little more sensible but the quality was still there and that’s what I liked about it. They got into the final third and they really hurt the opposition.”
