Hull City 1-0 Millwall

Hull City 1-0 Millwall

Sky Bet Championship

Saturday 3rd February 2024

The last time I watched Hull City in the Championship, there was a very different atmosphere around the KCOM Stadium (or MKM Stadium as it’s now known).

Hull played Aston Villa on the opening weekend of the Championship season; there was an apathy amongst the 10,000 or so Tigers fans who were there with plenty of ire aimed at former owner Assem Allam who wanted to rename the club ‘Hull Tigers’, the upper tier of the West Stand was closed, and Villa triumphed 3-1 with a young Jack Grealish waving goodbye to the away fans at the final whistle ahead of his proposed transfer to Tottenham, only for that to fall through and him to remain at Villa Park for three more seasons in which he got them promoted and cemented his place as one of the best players in the country.

So it’s been a while and, with that in mind, there were two other main reasons I decided to go to this game between Hull, who are having a decent season and are in the Championship Play-Off race with a very good chance of securing 6th place, and Millwall who were decent in the festive period but have gone back to their indifferent ways over the past few weeks.

The first reason is that it only cost £2 to get to Hull and back (from Doncaster) thanks to a promotional offer by Northern Rail where they were offering cheap fares. At that price, I was never going to say no!

And the second (and main reason) was to watch Matija Šarkić. A one-time team-mate of Jack Grealish way back when he was at Villa, one of the best ‘keepers I’ve seen in Category One football and whose career I’ve kept an eye on for years from his hospital visits in Hong Kong (long story), to loans at Stratford Town and Havant & Waterlooville (one appearance in a midweek game at Maidenhead, the ground which time forgot, just before the clocks went back), all the way through to the present day where he’s the established first-choice ‘keeper for Millwall and without the stranglehold of being at a club on loan which has sometimes hindered more than helped him given the recall options that are always included in loan moves.

Matija is one of the best about; an opinion backed up by the fact he’s kept 19 clean-sheets in 46 Championship appearances overall in his career up to now (imagine a striker with that kind of record at the other end of the pitch and how people would be raving about him), plus the fact he went 398 minutes without conceding a league goal a few weeks ago - a record only bettered this season by Southampton’s ‘keeper, Gavin Bazunu, who went 400 minutes without letting one in!

And, apparently (something I need to double-check), Matija’s never lost a penalty shoot-out in his entire life either - and certainly I remember him being involved in one on a Friday night at Swansea in May 2018 when he saved two efforts, whipped his shirt off in the adrenaline-fueled celebrations and ended up giving Viktor Johansson (nowadays at Rotherham) a piggyback as Villa won the Premier League Cup.

There’s plenty more I know about Matija which I’ll save for another time when I put together a proper article on him like I did for Oliver a couple of years ago, but sadly for Montenegro’s No.1 ‘keeper, even though he had a pretty quiet afternoon overall and wasn’t peppered with things to do, this wasn’t an occasion where he was able to register his 20th career clean-sheet in the Championship as Hull scored very early on to get three points.

The goal came from sloppiness in the Millwall defence as Japhet Tanganga and Wes Harding contrived between themselves to lose the ball on the edge of their own box which allowed Anass Zaroury to unleash a vicious strike with power which ricocheted back off the bar towards Jaden Philogene who was able to steer it home with Matija scrambling across goal and not able to get near it.

Considering Hull had got that early breakthrough and particularly with how they were playing in the early stages, I feared it might be a long afternoon.

Because in the opening 20 minutes, the Tigers looked massively superior. They retained the ball better, they knocked it about really well. They were crisp, sharp and precise in their passing, very energetic, and their movements and speed-of-thought at knowing what they wanted to do (along with their speed-of-play in then actually doing it) seemed light years ahead of Millwall who were a bit static and struggled to string more than a few passes together and hadn’t really offered anything since they walked out onto the pitch to the ‘Eye of the Tiger’ song at 3.00pm.

I don’t know if they were overwhelmed or intimidated given that it was a decent atmosphere and the early goal only helped raise the excitement and noise levels amongst the Hull fans, but in fairness to Millwall, after their sloppy start and as the first half progressed, they did get something of a foothold to stem the flow and whilst they remained second-best, they stayed in the game which meant it was only 1-0 at half-time.

In the second half, the Lions were more positive. All five substitutions were made by 66 minutes and those who came on impacted the game and gave them a bit of a tempo but they still struggled to create too many inroads. Zian Fleming had one of two good chances when his good technique (with a bit of good fortune) put him on goal but his audacious lob over Ryan Alsop landed on the roof of the net, and his other good chance was right at the end - beyond the four minutes of injury-time that were indicated, when his shot from inside the box was blocked by the Hull ‘keeper.

If that had gone in (with about 94:30 on the clock), Hull’s players would probably have gone ape-shit because it really didn’t feel like there should have been any extra time over the four minutes which were indicated anyway!

Ultimately, Millwall can’t have any complaints about the result and they’ll rue their slow start - you just can’t afford to do it and that’s what cost them. They did alright to stay in the game in the first half when they were on the back-foot and Hull were popping it about for fun, but the intensity, mental sharpness and awareness (not to make any mistakes) needed to be sharper right from the first whistle to ensure they didn’t go behind. It wasn’t good enough and the direct consequence was the early goal. I suspect there'll be a few changes for the next game and some of those in the team which finished this one will be included in the starting line-up  at Coventry next Sunday - and with QPR and Huddersfield having won yesterday, the gap to the relegation places has narrowed, so Millwall could really do with getting a couple of results soon to ease their own nerves and just maintain that gap.

Aside from all that, it was also good to see Matty Jacob - one of the most trustworthy lads in Hull’s U21s - get some minutes and play a part in this win when he came on towards the end to see the game out. He’s not had things easy or straightforward with a couple of niggly injuries over the past 12 months but with the ability he’s got (which I’ve seen myself and he proved in his loan at Gateshead) and also his really good attitude which is a stand-out feature, then if he can stay injury-free, I know he’s on the brink of having an alright career and establishing himself at a decent level whether it be at Hull in the long-term, or out on loan similar to Tom Nixon and a few others. Fingers crossed he gets the luck (no more injuries) and it happens for him because he’s a top lad who deserves it.

And it was also good to meet some of Matija Šarkić’s relatives - you couldn’t make it up that with so many seats to choose from in a stadium with a 25,000ish capacity, we were at the game for the exact same reasons anyway, yet ended up buying tickets in the same numbered seats and on rows right next to one another!

With that sort of fate, I might start playing the lottery!