Hull City 1 - 1 SunderlandHull City: Dame N'Doye 15
Sunderland: Jack Rodwell 77
Gus Poyet was forced to witness Sunderland’s fight back from the stand after he was dismissed from the dugout by the referee Mike Dean in a controversial encounter at the KC Stadium.
Dame N’Doye’s third goal in as many Premier League starts appeared to have sealed another Hull home win only for Poyet’s Sunderland, a place below their hosts at kick-off, to level late on through Jack Rodwell’s scruffy back-post bundle.
It had proved a chastening few hours for Sunderland in the build-up with Adam Johnson, the midfielder who opened the scoring in the reverse fixture, suspended by the club. On Monday he was released on bail after being arrested on suspicion of sexual activity with a girl under 16.
The absence of Johnson, the 27-year-old winger capped a dozen times by England, was one of five changes for a Sunderland team who have won just once in 10 league matches since Christmas, a run that began with Hull’s 3-1 win at the Stadium of Light. His replacement, Danny Graham, is yet to score for the Wearsiders more than two years after joining in a £5m switch from Swansea and he didn’t fare much better on a long-term loan spell in East Yorkshire, scoring just once in 20 appearances).
It was Graham’s lack of productivity that had persuaded the Hull manager, Steve Bruce to recruit Nikica Jelavic 14 months ago and his goals have proved crucial in constructing top-flight victories. The Croatian, who missed the weekend defeat to Stoke due to the aggravation of knee soreness, returned having scored in each of their past five Premier League successes, but he missed out here and so did his team.
Their latest striking addition is even more adept when it comes to earning points and N’Doye, the £2.2m signing from Lokomotiv Moscow, kept up his record of finding the net in every one of his starts in English football, having contributed to defeats of Aston Villa and QPR last month, when he applied an instinctive finish on the quarter hour.
The opportunity arose when Wes Brown’s lunge felled Ahmed Elmohamady on the edge of the area. Tom Huddlestone fired the free-kick low into a crowded penalty area and N’Doye’s quick-thinking saw him improvise with a flick of his heel to divert the ball past Costel Pantilimon from eight yards.
The early goal was evidence of Hull’s superiority in a fixture with a history of petulance. Last season, Sunderland had two players dismissed in a single-goal defeat but this year’s incendiary moment took place on the touchline in the aftermath of Rodwell being booked for diving, after latching on to Jermain Defoe’s 36th-minute flick on.
Poyet booted his team’s bucket of water bottles over in frustration, leading to the referee ordering him to the stands. However, he opted not to take the direct route, walking instead across the technical areas and offering his opposite number, Bruce, a handshake. Bruce refused and words were exchanged, some of them clearly incensing the Hull manager, who had to be held back by his staff as Poyet departed clapping his hands in sarcastic manner.
The fractious end to an opening half – lit up in a footballing sense by a Gareth Bale-esque gallop down the left by the Scotland international Andrew Robertson that floored the hapless covering defender Santiago Vergini – included Paul McShane entering the book for a late tackle on Defoe.
The theme continued upon the resumption with Liam Bridcutt somewhat fortunate to see yellow rather than red for going over the top of the ball in a challenge on Jelavic, and Lee Cattermole’s cynical tripping of David Meyler in the centre circle, which sparked a mass confrontation.
In between Hull might have doubled their advantage as an incisive move down the left started by Huddlestone’s early ball resulted in Meyler picking out N’Doye beyond the far post. Although he shimmied away from Brown comfortably, his error was in attempting to square for Jelavic rather than shoot.
Then, just shy of the hour, N’Doye’s usual composure in front of goal deserted him after Meyler and Jake Livermore combined in a stunning length-of-the-field counter-attack following the breakdown of a Sunderland corner – an ugly shank from an unmarked position inside the area ballooning the ball high and wide.
But with only the single-goal advantage, Hull were susceptible to their opponents’ probings and John O’Shea’s glancing header a yard wide served as a warning before Rodwell forced Allan McGregor into a first save of the evening with a 63rd-minute drive that clipped the top of McShane’s head on its way through.
And the slender nature of the lead was exposed when the substitute Patrick van Aanholt skipped to the by-line to wedge over McGregor for Rodwell to convert at the back post via a combination of forehead and arm.
Despite the Hull defenders’ protests the goal stood and Sunderland claimed a vital point in their relegation fight.
By Richard Gibson, Guardian
