[themaclad]

Off to the once capital of culture calling in at Hull on the way, last visit last season won 2-1 last minute from the Republic's new superstar Robinson, also had the advantage of arriving there when the place was covered in mist and left when it was dark. Decent stadium th KCom however one odd thing about it is the stadium seems mainly decked out in the colours Hull rugvy League club.
Still have losts of issues with their owners which still seem a long way from being resolvd and for the first time in weeks we actually play a side below us.
Big questions is will they have actually painted penalty spots for his game like they forgeot to do last season. On the road with about a 1000 others which is mainly due to the home clubs fantastic pricing system. WELL DONE cITY.

Here's the wiki bit

Hull City Association Football Club is a professional football club in Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. Founded in 1904, the club plays in the Championship, the second tier of English football.

In 2007–08, they achieved promotion to the top flight of English football for the first time in their history by winning the Championship play-off Final at Wembley Stadium. Their highest league finish was in 2013–14, when they finished 16th in the table, a season in which they also reached the final of the FA Cup.[2]

Hull City play home games at the KCOM Stadium, having moved there in 2002 after 56 seasons at Boothferry Park.[3] Hull traditionally play in black and amber, often with a striped shirt design, hence their nickname, The Tigers.



Manager Alex Neil will be without midfielder Ben Pearson, after he accumulated five yellow cards for the season in the last game against Wigan Athletic a fortnight ago.

However, the manager does welcome back both Ryan Ledson – who could be a direct replacement for Pearson – and Paul Huntington, who both missed the clash with the Latics with minor ankle and groin issues.

Sean Maguire, Alan Browne and Callum Robinson all returned from international duty with Ireland unscathed and are available for selection, with the Maguire getting 30 more minutes after his long-awaited comeback from injury.
Josh Harrop underwent his operation on his ruptured anterior cruciate ligament on Wednesday and now begins his road back to fitness, which will rule him out for the remainder of the season, whilst fellow cruciate injury sufferer Billy Bodin is now two and a half months into his rehabilitation, but is still not expected to return until the end of the current campaign.

Meanwhile, over at the KCOM Stadium, Nigel Adkins is hopeful of being able to bolster his attack by recalling Evandro when the Tigers return to action.

Missing since picking up a hamstring problem in training prior to last month’s trip to Reading, Evandro has been forced to watch the Tigers' last four Championship games from the sidelines.

The Tigers are anticipating a return to action for the midfielder after stepping back into full training and they will also check on Jordy de Wijs, who limped out of the Middlesbrough draw with an ankle injury.

Ref Watch: Hull City

The match official for Saturday’s trip to the KCOM Stadium to face Hull City is experienced referee Gavin Ward.

Gavin, from Surrey, is in his 12th season on the EFL lists, although he has never refereed at Deepdale. In those 12 seasons he has also taken charge of North End on six previous occasions, including our early season trip to Carrow Road to face Norwich City.

Prior to our trip to Norfolk, the last game he officiated was at Elland Road against Leeds United in December 2015, when Jordan Pickford was sent off, only to have the card rescinded on appeal – Mathew Hudson that day making his debut for the Lilywhites.
His other games in charge of PNE were at Brentford and in 2010 at Leicester City, and his first two in the space of a few months back in early 2010, at Bristol City and a 1-1 draw with Coventry City at the Ricoh Arena.
He has refereed the Tigers on three previous occasions, all away from home, so this is his first game in charge at the home of City, his other three games have been at Brentford, Leyton Orient and Nottingham Forest.

This will be his 13th game of the season, having so far issued 33 yellow cards and no red cards in his 12 previous games, the last of which being Portsmouth’s 1-0 win at Crawley Town in the Checkatrade Trophy last Tuesday night.

On Saturday afternoon Billy Smallwood and Michael George will be the match official’s assistants, whilst the fourth official will be Ollie Yates.

[themaclad]

Hull City Bowen pen Preston North End 1 Moult

Hull City line-up: Marshall ©, Lichaj, De Wijs, Burke, Grosicki (Dicko, 90), Irvine, Kane, Batty (Stewart, 90), Bowen, Martin (Campbell, 87), Elphick. Subs not used: Long, Keane, McKenzie, Sheaf.

PNE line-up: Maxwell, Fisher, Hughes, Ledson (Robinson, 59), Storey, Davies, Barker, Johnson, Nmecha (Moult, 71), Browne ©, Maguire (Gallagher, 64). Subs not used: Rudd, Earl, Burke, Huntington.

Attendance: TBC (TBC PNE fans)

Referee: Mr G Ward

A barely deserved point but I'll take it, unbeaten in three and out of the drop zone, apparently Neil had to make three changes this morning to the side he selected due to illness, so they can have the benefit of doubt on this one.
A decent start by the visitors looked to have lots of joy down both flanks as Barker and Maguire both having joy against City's 343 system, A Storey header from a corner was easily saved and Maguire had two attempts in the space of seconds having been played in by a fine ball from Storey, after that we started to fall apart and to say we had a bit of luck is an understatement however it was all our own making that City were getting on top. Balls given away to home forwards in dangerous positions was the norm and from one of these Burke buried one against the post from 20 yards he was unlucky, Martin hit the bar when he really should have scored however the miss of the half wa Lichaj who managed to blaze over from about four yards.



We started well in the second actually got forward and Barker was wide with his effort and then it was time to give the ball away again, Bowen denied by Maxwell twice, the second the North End keeper tipped it on to the post, we scrambled a couple away and were hanging on for grim death.
Fisher by now had become Public enemy number 1 with the home fans and also fell out with his skipper Alan Browne
We had a coup;le of chances bothg from subs Robinson and Moult before City took the lead looked soft from 80 yards away, with Martin using his experience to fool Storey.

https://youtu.be/xm5i3-uviIs

Bowen scored and zero points looked likely until Fisher from the right fired the ball towards white shirts, Moult controlled it found some space fired home. Could have won it late on which really would have rubbed it in Barker down the right Robinson in acres of space couldn't get the ball across and the point is was.

Hull manager Nigel Adkins:

"We played well and created a lot of chances. It was a good performance.

"We put ourselves in a position to win it and it was just a case of seeing the game out.

"It's just fine margins - we've hit the woodwork three times and their goalkeeper has made a lot of good saves.

"The players are working hard. We've got a point and we've got to keep going."

Preston manager Alex Neil:

"We started the game quite brightly but, from 15 minutes onwards, Hull were better. We didn't keep the ball in the top end of the pitch well enough.

We rode our luck a little bit. We made a few changes and we were on top when they scored.

"It was quite a strange game. They had the most of the territory and the best of the clear-cut opportunities, but we also had chances.

"I still wasn't that pleased with how we've played, but, based on the game, we'll take a point and move on to the next one."