sábado, 7 de enero de 2012

FA Cup Hull City 3 - 1 Ipswich Town

Tom Cairney scored his first goal of the season to help Hull City into the fourth round of the FA Cup at the expense of fellow Championship side Ipswich Town.

City dominated the first half and went in at half-time with a deserved 2-0 lead courtesy of Aaron Mclean's opener and Cairney's memorable strike from 25 yards out.

The Ipswich substitute Jason Scotland took advantage of the keeper Vito Mannone's error to pull one back for Town, but Cameron Stewart sealed the win in injury time with a clinical finish.

Mannone was starting his second spell at Hull, on loan from Arsenal, but there was no return to the KC Stadium for the Town midfielder Jimmy Bullard, who was missing because of illness.

Hull were first to settle, Robbie Brady and Stewart linking well before one overhit pass relieved the danger. Ipswich hit back and almost took the lead in the fifth minute, but Daryl Murphy just failed to get on the end of Aaron Cresswell's cross.

The Tigers raised the pressure soon afterwards, Brady, with a dangerous free-kick, and Stewart, with a drilled near-post effort, going close. Mclean was next to cause some alarm for Ipswich, after 15 minutes, when his deep cross drifted goalwards and needed to be tipped over by Arran Lee-Barrett.

Richard Garcia almost broke the deadlock after 25 minutes. Stewart cut into the box from the left before sending a low cross along the six-yard line. With his back to goal, Garcia cleverly flicked the ball towards the back post with his instep, only to see it squirm wide.

Moments later, Hull had the lead, Brady surging into the final third before laying the ball off for McLean, who outmuscled Ibrahima Sonko and poked his shot past Lee-Barrett.

Cairney added a superb second after 32 minutes, collecting Stewart's pass, shifting the ball to his left foot and expertly catching the goalkeeper off his line from 25 yards out.

Most of Jewell's starting XI had forgettable first halves but it was the striker Nathan Ellington who paid the price at half-time, with Scotland coming off the bench. The Trinidad & Tobago international took 12 minutes to get his side back into the game with a simple finish. Jay Emmanuel-Thomas tried his luck with a hopeful long-range effort that Mannone dealt with poorly, pushing the ball tamely to Scotland, who tucked it away first time.

Hull had been coasting after the restart, but were now forced to up the tempo. Ipswich were also looking a little brighter and would have been level after 68 minutes had Emmanuel-Thomas produced a better finish when the nervy Mannone failed to come for a ball over the top.

Seyi Olofinjana came on to hold the Hull midfield for the last 20 minutes, while the visitors summoned Michael Chopra from the bench. He had an early chance to strike at goal, but blazed high and wide from 12 yards out.

City were hanging on by now and Josh Carson drew a diving save from Mannone with a well-struck effort from 25 yards out. Grant Leadbitter then almost grabbed the equaliser in added time, but Mannone clung on and Hull rubbed it in with a breakaway third, well finished by the impressive Stewart.

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