David Moyes was recently asked if he felt “shown up” by Marco Silva’s impressive stewardship of Hull City. Sunderland’s manager gave a bland answer, yet the flintiness in his eyes suggested he was inwardly seething and particularly keen to end his east Yorkshire counterpart’s proud record of having not lost a home league game in Portugal, Greece and England since March 2014.
Thanks to an amalgam of Jordan Pickford’s heroics in goal and Hull’s failure to cope with the pressure of suddenly being expected to be the team in control, Moyes not only shattered Silva’s record but significantly increased the prospect of Hull joining Sunderland down in the Championship next season.
With awkward fixtures at Crystal Palace and at home to Tottenham Hotspur ahead, hope is suddenly an unexpectedly dwindling resource by the Humber, especially after Swansea’s win against Everton.
“Losing today is not good for us,” said Silva, who thought Hull merited at least one penalty. “I knew beforehand it wasn’t an easy game and Sunderland came here to prove something. I believe if we’d scored first we would have won but we didn’t play well. Our team played with big tension behind us. It’s not a good moment for us but it’s a moment to be calm. Today we weren’t calm, we tried to do everything too fast. If you don’t play calm, it’s impossible to play well.”
David Moyes, whose Wearside future remains uncertain, was somewhat brighter-eyed: “I definitely wish this had happened a few weeks ago but we’ve been playing well and the win was coming,” he said. “The players showed pride in their performance.”
George Honeyman should really have given Sunderland an early lead but the young midfielder – decent throughout – headed wide after connecting with Billy Jones’s inviting cross after Jermain Defoe’s decoy run had distracted Hull’s defence.
Cheered on by their convalescent midfielder Ryan Mason – back at the KCom for the first time since fracturing his skull at Chelsea in January – Silva’s side made an ominously shaky start.
Accustomed to sitting back at home before hurting visitors on the counter-attack, they were now supposed to be dominant but did not seem to have entirely got the hang of it. Almost imperceptibly such uncertainty spread to an initially noisy home crowd, prompting chants of “Is this a library?” from Sunderland’s large, vocal and surprisingly cheerful, travelling support.
Not for the first time this season Sam Clucas did more than any other Hull player, bar the menacing Kamil Grosicki, to recalibrate the mood. Invariably integral to his team’s better manoeuvres, Clucas proved the conduit through with much of their play flowed. Fittingly his low volley stretched Pickford to the absolute limit in the wake of Grosicki’s sashay past Billy Jones and clever cross.
With Harry Maguire subsequently shooting inches wide and Pablo Hernández changing pace before surging beyond Javier Manquillo and bending a left-foot shot past the far post, Silva’s side improved but never looked exactly secure at the back.
Clucas needed to watch his step after collecting a booking for fouling Didier Ndong but he retained sufficient cool to whisk the ball off Defoe’s toecaps as the England striker threatened to end his recent goal drought.
Eldin Jakupovic, whose late penalty save the previous weekend earned Hull the point at Southampton that sent Sunderland down, did similarly well to repel Defoe’s shot at the end of a rapid Sunderland break while Pickford’s intervention just prevented Alfred N’Diaye heading Grosicki’s cross beyond him.
Pickford’s wonderful reflexes and brilliant footwork are coveted by a host of leading clubs and he emphasised his ability with a fabulous fingertip save which somehow steered Lazar Markovic’s header to safety after the Liverpool loanee met Ahmed Elmohamady’s pinpoint cross. “If Jordan leaves us this summer, it will be for a big price,” said Moyes. “A really, really big price.”
As John O’Shea’s sliding interception forced Hernández into shooting wide, Hull fans grew despondent. The previously real prospect of a bright Premier League future was dimming with every passing minute with the lights very nearly going out completely when Jones stunned both sets of supporters by giving Sunderland the lead. Demonstrating he remains useful at both ends, O’Shea flicked on Honeyman’s corner, enabling Jones to power a diving, six-yard header in off a post.
If Grosicki’s uncomfortable relocation from left to right following an injury to Markovic suited Sunderland, Moyes still required Pickford to preserve his side’s lead. A particularly outstanding one-handed save to deny Hernández probably pushed his value up at least a couple of million.
By now alternately disconsolate and frantic, Silva replaced a midfielder with a striker, swapping N’Diaye with Dieumerci Mbokani but, for once, his customary boldness rebounded as Defoe scored a late, arguably offside, close-range, second for Sunderland.
“My home record isn’t important,” said Hull’s manager. “But the result is.”
