Hull City were up 2-0 by the 13th minute, but the visitors had pulled even before the half-hour mark. In the end it was an own goal from Hull that gave Manchester United all three points.
The first half sent up a thrill a minute — or it sure seemed that way for the first half-hour. Before five minutes were up, Hull City capitalized on the visitors’ defensive weaknesses. Alex Bruce climbed above Patrice Evra to nod on Tom Huddlestone‘s inswinging corner. James Chester got his foot on the end of Bruce’s header to volley in the opening goal.
Upon review, however, it was clear the corner never should have been given. A tangle between Tom Cleverly and Ahmed Elmohamady prompted the referee to award the kick to Hull, but replays showed it was Elmohamady that knocked the ball out of play.
Unfortunately for United, goal-line technology could do nothing to help in this instance, and the visitors were left chasing the game. They made it worse for themselves in the 13th minute when failing to clear a rather weak shot from David Meyler. With the ball pinging around the area, Jonny Evans got a foot to it…only to knock it past David De Gea.
An injury to Rafael gave David Moyes the opportunity to change his squad’s approach to the game. Rather than make a like-for-like switch, the United manager brought on Adnan Januzaj to introduce a more attacking element into the match. The change worked.
Moments later, the youngster had won a free kick, leading to United’s first goal. Chris Smalling climbed over his marker, nodding in the free kick from Wayne Rooney to pull his side within a goal of Hull.
And, by the 26th minute, Rooney himself had put his side level. It was a lovely goal from the United man, who took advantage of a failed clearance by Curtis Davies. Rooney hit the ball on the half-volley, sending in a swerving strike that smashed under the crossbar and fell behind Alan McGregor.
The second half brought plenty of action as well, although not nearly as many goals. In fact, there was just one: the one that gave all three points to Manchester United.
In the 63rd minute, Bruce very nearly put his side back in front, but his header smacked off the post. United quickly took the ball to the other end, flustering the Hull defense.
Maynor Figueroa completely mistimed a challenge on Ashley Young, allowing the winger to put a lovely ball into the area. Chester, scorer of the first goal for the Tigers, rose up in an attempt to keep Rooney from scoring a second. Instead his header bounced past substitute keeper Steve Harper and into the back of the net. The Hull City defender was very nearly in tears after his mistake.
Hull did their best to grab their share of the spoils in stoppage time. Antonio Valencia got himself sent off in the 90th minute, receiving a second yellow for petulantly kicking away the ball. The hosts took advantage and Chester was nearly able to atone for his mistake, but De Gea was there to make the save.
After the match Manchester United goalscorer Wayne Rooney on Sky Sports said: “There were a lot of long balls to deal with in the last five minutes but we dug deep and it was a massive result for us. We started poorly today, it was poor defending. The first goal was my fault, I lost my man and we had to come back and score an early goal. “That was one of my best goals. I’ve not seen it back but it was a big goal for us. We had some bad results at the start of the season but we are showing our quality now, we are fighting hard and hopefully we can surprise some people now.”
United winger Ashley Young told BBC Sport: “When you go two down, heads could go down and you could be disappointed but at Manchester United our heads stay up and we thought we could get back into it.
“We showed the team spirit, character and strength we have in the squad to come back from two down and it was a great performance to go on and win the game.
“When you’re winning games there’s always a lot of confidence. It was a hard game and we’ve got another one coming up. The momentum’s building and we just have to keep this going.”
Manchester United manager David Moyes speaking to BBC Sport said: “To be two down and come back to win is a great result. I thought it would be a long road back but these players have done this in the past and we did well to get back in the game.
“For us to get in at half-time 2-2 was great but when we were 3-2 Hull gave us a few scary moments. However, I’d take that after being 2-0 down after 10 minutes.
“We’re going to try to get the gap as narrow as we can. There’s a long way to go in the league and we have to keep picking up points. There’s a lot to do but we’ll keep at it I believe we can be in the mix and challenge whoever is near the top.”
By Steve Milne – Have you say below, What did you think of this result? 🙂
