Hull City 1-1 Stoke City
- Published
A scruffy late goal from Ryan Shawcross earned Stoke City a 1-1 Premier League draw away at 10-man Hull City.
Tigers' centre-back James Chester was sent off after 14 minutes, but it was the hosts who took the lead through Nikica Jelavic just before the break.
Steve Bruce's side held firm until the 83rd minute when Shawcross bundled in after Phil Bardsley had hit the post.
The centre-back's late strike earned Mark Hughes' side their first point of the season, while Hull remain unbeaten.
Last season Hughes guided the Potters to their highest ever Premier League finish of ninth, but they began this term with a surprise home defeat by Aston Villa.
Their big summer signing was Spain forward Bojan Krkic, who made his debut for Barca as a 16-year-old and played more than 120 league games for the Catalan giants before being sent out on loan at Roma, AC Milan and most recently Dutch powers Ajax.
But he was dropped for Sunday's game at the KC Stadium while Steve Sidwell, signed from Fulham in June, was handed his first start for the Potters.
Despite the visitors' changes Hull were the better side early on, but once Chester - the last man in defence - was dismissed for a foul on goal-bound midfielder Glenn Whelan, Stoke inevitably took control.
However, despite plenty of possession, the Potters lacked a cutting edge and after 41 minutes Hughes brought on Bojan for Whelan to add some attacking verve to a ponderous attack.
Stoke's away record |
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Stoke won three away league games last season - only relegated Cardiff and Norwich ended with fewer - and claimed just 14 points in total on the road. |
But it was actually Hull who took the lead a minute later when Jelavic tapped home from four yards after Stoke goalkeeper Asmir Begovic had palmed Tom Huddlestone's low shot into his path at the far post.
Steve Bruce's side, who had travelled to Belgium in midweek for a Europa League play-off match, worked hard to defend the lead after the break but visibly tired with 20 minutes to go.
Hughes - whose side only managed three shots on target in the entire match - threw on striker Peter Crouch and attacking midfielder Charlie Adam for Marko Arnautovic and Steve Sidwell and the pressure started to mount on the hosts.
With Hull looking set for two Premier League wins out of two, Shawcross bundled home and after a quick debate over whether the ball had crossed the line, which it clearly had, the goal was given.
Silver lining for Hull |
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The Tigers had lost their previous two home league games without scoring a goal. |
However, the equaliser was not without controversy, as Stoke were incorrectly awarded a throw-in during the build-up.
It was the piece of luck Hughes' side needed after struggling to find their rhythm, despite playing against 10 men for the majority of the match.
New signings Mame Biram Diouf, a former Manchester United striker, and Bojan look like they still need time to bed in, while Peter Odemwinigie, who had been given time to recuperate from his exertions at the World Cup with Nigeria, went missing for large parts of the first half.
Hull manager Steve Bruce: "It [Stoke being awarded a dubious throw-in] baffles me. It is an awful one. The throw-in was ours and blatantly ours. It is not as though it is a faint touch, their boy does not even want to turn round for a throw. You would think they get that right because it has cost us.
"What can you say? We had an awful one last one week as well but it riles me a decision should be given, why can they not say in his ear 'you have got that one wrong'. It only takes 20 seconds. You have the technology."
Stoke manager Mark Hughes: "The overriding emotion is frustration because we didn't play particularly well. Frustration, but a bit of relief because we got something. We didn't show enough intelligence. We need to be better than that.
"We didn't create enough chances for the superiority in numbers we had. We are not hitting where we were last season. We wanted to hit the ground running but we haven't quite done that. We didn't deserve a great deal so we are a bit grateful."
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