Source: Daily_Mail
Hull 0 Portsmouth 0: Dozy Jozy leaves Tigers all of a twitter as strugglers draw
The question is — did Jozy Altidore know something the rest of us did not? And the answer is probably not — it would have taken great expectations bordering on eternal optimism to believe this would be a showpiece.
Football may be unpredictable ... but surely not to that extent. This had goalless draw written all over it and so it came to pass after a game of 94 minutes that will be remembered only because for the most part it was devoid of thrills and genuine quality.
Sure enough there was commitment and character but that is the least anybody paying the hefty admission Premier League clubs charge these days can expect. Clean sheets do not just ease the laundry bills, they could turn out to be life-saving.
Hassan Yebda
Sliding in: Portsmouth's Hassan Yebda goes close
Maybe Altidore might have been able to conjure up a goal but he turned up too late and did not even make the Hull bench. The American striker, on loan from Villarreal, used his twitter account to apologise to the supporters for his non-appearance but he is in for a hefty fine.
‘All he said was, 'I’m sorry I’m late',’ said Phil Brown, the Hull manager. ‘He was on the bench until 2.10pm, when I decided to change it. It is unacceptable behaviour.
You prepare all week for a match day, mentally and physically, and it’s not too much to ask a player to arrive an hour before a game.’
Jimmy Bullard was also conspicuous by his absence. The match magazine proclaimed that the midfielder, out since damaging his knee last January, was due to make his full home debut.
Andy Dawson
Nod today: Andy Dawson clears the ball away from Portsmouth's Kevin-Prince Boateng (left)
But he injured an ankle in a midweek reserve match, suffering the curse of the front page programme picture.
Paul Hart expressed his satisfaction at gaining a point, especially as two of his players at the KC Stadium, Jamie O’Hara and Kevin-Prince Boateng, were nursing injuries.
‘It’s the worse we’ve played for a month but I thought we might have won it in the second half,’ said Hart.
‘But the spirit is good and I’m confident we can get out of trouble.’
The overriding issues, the likelihood that if there is to be a corresponding fixture next season it will have a Championship label, made this probably the key Premier League fixture of the day.
If it hardly provided the best possible commercial for the, supposedly, best league in the world, the stakes nevertheless created a tension clearly reflected in the animated behaviour of the respective managers.
Entertaining defeats lead only to the dole queue. Brown and Hart appreciated the consequences of defeat even with just under three-quarters of the season still ahead.
Hart claimed he is still in charge of team matters in spite of the spectre of Avram Grant poised over the Pompey boss like the Sword of Damocles; for Brown, it is whether the fickleness of those Hull fans not old enough to remember the club’s unspectacular history influences boardroom voices.
Younes Kaboul
Eyes wide shut: Younes Kaboul (left) and Hull City's Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink tussle for the ball
Paint has certainly dried with more gripping attention and spectacle than in a first half which saw neither goalkeeper have to save a shot on goal.
But inactivity turned out to be a passing luxury after the break, particularly for Boaz Myhill, who made two magnificent saves in as many minutes.
David James got away with a risky but courageous penalty-area challenge on Geovanni in the 55th minute, as Hull threatened more at the start of the second half than they had before in the match.
But then they were forced to defend grimly when the visitors hit a rare purple patch. On the hour, Myhill stuck out an instinctive hand to stop a close-range shot from Aruna Dindane and, two minutes later, was again at full stretch to save Hassan Yebda’s effort.
Myhill was booked four minutes from the end when he raced out of the box and brought down Boateng on the edge of the D, but O’Hara put the free-kick over the bar.
‘It’s testimony to how far this club has come when the supporters go away disappointed with a point,’ said Brown.
Point made — point hopefully taken.
