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Hull always knew that, sooner or later, they would lose a Premier League game but no one can say that Sergej Jakirovic’s team did not do everything in their power to try to delay that inaugural top-tier defeat.
After conceding two goals in the opening seven minutes Hull could easily have folded but Jakirovic’s promoted players are made of sterner stuff than that. Tellingly, they also sensed the inherent fragility of a gifted but injury-hit and extremely youthful Newcastle.
Once Matthias Jaissle was forced into a reluctant late switch to an unloved three at the back system and Mohamed-Ali Cho narrowed the scoreline, the visitors assumed control and it almost seemed a minor miracle that Newcastle clung on for an ultimately morale-boosting victory.
“I’m very proud of how we played this game, especially the second half,” said Jakirovic. “We made mistakes in the first 10 minutes and Newcastle were clinical on the counterattack but after that, I think we showed our mentality and our character. I think, over 90 minutes, we deserved a point. My team showed they will not be beaten easily.”
Jaissle had harsh words for his players after Monday’s 4-1 defeat at Leeds and it seemed they had the desired effect.
Sure enough, Joe Willock swiftly lashed the ball beyond Konstantinos Tzolakis. Three minutes were on the clock and it was only the third goal Hull’s £20m Greece goalkeeper had conceded since arriving from Olympiakos.
It arrived after John Egan blocked Willock’s initial shot but Hull’s subsequent failure to clear permitted Harvey Barnes to pick out a midfielder retrieved from the St James’ Park deep freeze by Jaissle.
Four minutes later Barnes was once again the creator as he exchanged passes with the excellent Lewis Hall before the left-back, newly recalled to the England squad, swept the crispest of shots low into the bottom corner. Significantly, it had all begun with Hall dispossessing Oli McBurnie deep in Newcastle’s half.
Tino Livramento, too, was included in Thomas Tuchel’s latest squad on Friday but the right-back’s chances of joining up with England receded when an injury collected in training ruled him out here. Livramento was one of nine senior home absentees but, undeterred, Jaissle’s youthful starting XI initially delighted in a spot of tiger taming.
Yet as much as Jakirovic’s side struggled to second guess the dynamic Willock and the extremely impressive 18-year-old Sean Steur in the home midfield, they were not subdued entirely. Indeed, Hull came close to reducing the deficit when Sorba Thomas very nearly turned in a Matt Crooks cross at the near post.
When, deep in first-half stoppage time, Thomas slipped before pulling the advancing Jacob Murphy back by an ankle, a penalty was awarded. Yoane Wissa stepped up but saw his rather under-powered kick saved, smartly, by Tzolakis.
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Jaissle’s substitutes featured five academy players including, in the winger Kyran Thompson, a first year scholar who left school only this summer but when, midway through the second half, Newcastle’s manager finally turned to that bench he introduced the 34-year-old Fabian Schär in place of a tiring Steur.
This change prompted a switch to a back three, featuring Schär at its heart. That configuration is, as Jaissle has made abundantly clear, far from his favourite formation and that feeling probably crystallised when, almost immediately, Hull scored.
Cho’s goal was created when Lewis Miley – newly relocated from right-back to midfield – was caught in possession, enabling Mohamed Belloumi to play in the summer signing from Nice. Cho, a former England youth international turned France Under-21 forward, duly revelled in whipping a close-range left-foot shot past Lukas Hornicek.
From then on Hull blitzed Hornicek’s box with a barrage of crosses, corners and shots from all angles. Newcastle were under siege and, among assorted other saves, their goalkeeper did particularly well to extend a foot and somehow divert substitute Robinio Vaz’s half-volley.
“It was an intense game,” said Jaissle, whose backroom staff exchanged cross words with their Hull counterparts. “We started at a really high level, it was the right reaction to Leeds. But the missed penalty changed momentum. We tired and we needed to suffer but the commitment to win this game was really exceptional. It made me proud. It was something special.”
