Hull City 2 v Birmingham City 1 - PU21DL2

Monday 15th February 2016
Professional U21 Development League 2
at the EON Visual Media Stadium, Grange Lane, North Ferriby
Home of North Ferriby United FC
Hull City (0) 2
Ben Hinchliffe 79 Jarrod Bowen 86
Birmingham City (0) 1
Wes Harding 67

Hull City:
Erik Bukran, Dan Batty, Josh Tymon, Robbie McKenzie, Harvey Rodgers, Ben Clappison, Will Annan, Max Clark, Johan Ter Horst (Ben Hinchliffe 46), Greg Olley, Jarrod Bowen.
Unused subs - Rory Watson, Luke Lofts, Stephen Akbas, Lewis Ritson.
Birmingham City:
Connal Trueman, Noe Baba, Mitch Hancox, Charlee Adams, Emmanuel Mbende, Wes Harding, Viv Soloman Otabor, Reece Brown (Liam Truslove 60), David Popa (Kyle McFarlane 79), Koby Arthur, George O’Neill (Perry Cotton 60).
Unused subs - Jake Weaver, Steve Seddon.

An eleventh hour window of opportunity presented itself to me at around 5.40pm and I managed to make it across to Grange Lane from the People's Republic of East Retford, in just over a hour, which meant I arrived in time to sniff out a team sheet, grab myself a hot drink and retire to the back of the stand that backs onto the railway line, in three or four layers of clothing and pretend to myself that I wasn't really freezing bloody cold (I failed), with a few minutes to spare before the 7pm kick off.
I made a schoolboy error of charging my camera battery, but forgot to put in in my trusty Canon Power Shot before dashing out of the house, so there are no pictures to break up my monotonous text tonight, I apologise profusely.
The weather forecasting prophets of doom had estimated that there could be sub zero temperature of between -5 and -7 tonight, but taking the wind chill into account, I feel entitled to say: "Get stuffed! It was much colder than that"

The first half was a fairly even affair, with both sides creating several decent chances.

The referee made a few curious decisions along the way, but I'm not going to knock his efforts, he's qualified to run about in shorts in the middle of the pitch on an icy cold night... and I'm not.
Tonight I reckon I got the better end of that trade off.

Hull fought back from being a goal behind, scored after 67 minutes, when the Tigers had made hard work of clearing a corner and Wes Harding was on hand to knock the ball past Erik Bukran from close range.

Koby Arthur had a great chance to double Blues lead a few minutes later, but he put the ball over the crossbar, repeating his near miss inside the opening fifteen minutes.

The home side equalised when the linesman judged that Ben Hinchcliffe's effort, that he'd crashed against the underside of the bar, had crossed the line when it bounced on the ground.

The Tigers winning goal was far more clear cut, with Jarrod Brown making a surging run into the visitors area a placing the ball calmly past Connal Trueman and Hull claimed their first win in six games late in the day.

FT: Hull City 2 v Birmingham City 1