[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."