Perhaps last Saturday’s triumph was not a one-off. Hull backed up a shock victory against Manchester United by maintaining their 100% start to the Premier League by condemning Coventry to successive defeats. “We’re gonna win the league,” was the glorious chant raining down from the Hull support after Liam Millar’s 82nd-minute strike.
The goal was a sucker punch for Coventry, who were pushing for a winner and looked set to claim at least their first point of the season. Frank Lampard, arms folded, was unmoved as the away end rejoiced.
He and Coventry may wonder where their first point – and, indeed, their first goal – will come from. Next up is a daunting trip to Manchester City, before hosting Brighton, who began the season with a 4-0 trouncing of Aston Villa. Hull, as they did last season, are exceeding all expectations.
Was losing to another promoted team, one who finished 22 points behind them last season, a mental blow? “It depends how much you want it to be,” Lampard said. “There are 36 games left; we’re two games in. It depends how you react to a defeat.”
For Coventry, as their owner and chair, Doug King, said beforehand, a first Premier League for more than 25 years was a historic day for the city. “I know how much it means to all of us,” he said, this also their first top-flight game in this stadium.
The buzz before kick-off was palpable, none more so than when King – wearing an elephant brooch on his suit, the animal that adorns Coventry’s badge and the city’s coat of arms – joined Coventry supporters in singing along to The Enemy’s We’ll Live and Die in These Towns, the club’s adopted prematch anthem. The pyrotechnics left a haze drifting across the pitch as things got under way.
At full-time, it was down to Millar and Sergej Jakirovic, albeit after a little persuading, to conduct the Hull celebrations. “It gives us big confidence as a team, individuals, for me as well, because I don’t have experience at this level,” said Hull’s head coach. “We have a lot of work to do, we need to keep our feet on the ground and stay humble. We know our target: 38, 41 points? We will see.”
Both teams lacked quality, but Coventry were undeniably the more threatening side. Taiwo Awoniyi, on his full league debut for the club, sent a weak header at Konstantinos Tzolakis and later forced the Hull goalkeeper into a smart right-hand save after Loum Tchaouna’s cross skidded off the head of Nobel Mendy. Lampard cycled through substitutions, the arrival of Gustavo Hamer, something of a hero in these parts, lifting the home crowd, but they struggled to work Tzolakis.
Millar, who arrived on the hour, had wasted Hull’s best opening with 74 minutes on the clock, Jakirovic wearing a look of disgust after the Canada winger ignored an unmarked Mohamed Belloumi to his right and sent his shot bobbling wide after a clever first-time pass by Oli McBurnie released Millar behind Bobby Thomas. Until then, their only shot on target was Mendy’s speculative shot from 30 yards.
But Millar made amends, coolly slotting past Carl Rushworth to cap a devastating counterattack. Victor Torp’s attempted cross from the left boomeranged off Lucas Gourna-Douath and into midfield, where Belloumi overpowered Tatsuhiro Sakamoto and sent Millar streaming into the opposition half with a sumptuous outside-of-the-boot pass.
“I think Millar was a bit disappointed with the first chance but then showed massive bollocks to score the second,” McBurnie said. “As a striker, it’s not the one you want when you’ve just missed a chance: you’ve got to run 40 yards and then think about your shot. You’ve got too much time to think.”
Twelve months ago, Hull were reeling from back-to-back defeats against Blackburn and Bristol City and adapting to life under a transfer embargo. They made up for lost time this summer with Mohamed Ali-Cho, who made his debut late on here, and another forward, Ilyas Ansah, a £20m buy from Union Berlin, their 12th and 13th arrivals of the window respectively.
“We knew this was going to be a really tough game, in some ways even tougher than last week,” McBurnie said. “Considering we’re ‘the worst team in Premier League history’, it’s not a bad start from the boys.”
