Match report
So, Villa get off to a winning start – something they failed to do in their last two Championship campaigns. Things look much brighter than they did a few weeks ago. Hull can take a few positives, but need to sort out that defence or it’ll be a long season. We’ll have a full match report up shortly. Thanks for joining me. Bye!
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Here’s Alan Hutton: “Everyone knows what’s been going on here over the summer, but we’ve shown great character to come back today. I don’t get to score many, but it opened up for me and I thought why not?”
“We’re all desperate for Jack [Grealish] to stay. We understand he’s in a difficult position, but we’re hoping he stays with us.”
Full time: Hull City 1-3 Aston Villa
That’s it! Villa are up and running after coming from a goal down to win here.
91 mins: Villa break away again, but Hourihane’s attempted low ball to Hepburn-Murphy is cut out by Marshall.
90 mins: Three added minutes.
89 mins: Bjarnason boosts his midfield hard-man credentials by getting booked in his 10-minute cameo.
88 mins: Jarrod Bowen, who doesn’t really deserve to be on the losing side, drags a low effort that Steer gets down to at the near post.
87 mins: Another chance for Villa, as Hepburn-Murphy ghosts in from the touchline and squares to Hourihane, who fires over with his trusty left foot.
86 mins: Evandro, whose opening goal feels a long time ago, goes off, replaced by Will Keane.
83 mins: “Jack Grealish, we want you to stay” is the message from the away fans. We’ll see if they get their wish by Thursday. Lichaj tries to force his way through the Villa defence, but the game’s up for Hull.
82 mins: Jack Grealish comes off after a productive evening, and doesn’t give too much away as he applauds the away fans. He’s replaced by Birkir Bjarnason.
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81 mins: Worth noting that, within minutes of the impressive Todd Kane coming off, Villa scored twice down the side he’d been marshalling.
80 mins: That was Hutton’s second ever goal for Aston Villa, the full-back booked for his lusty celebrations. The visitors have made a second change, Hepburn-Murphy replacing Kodjia up front.
78 mins: Hull have a glorious chance to cut the deficit, Milinkovic robbing Elphick and playing a one-two with Henriksen – but he can’t sort his feet out and is closed down.
More dodgy defending allowed Elphick to pick up the ball in midfield and he played it to Hutton, who still had plenty to do, but wriggled past two defenders and cut the ball under the advancing Marshall. The away fans go absolutely mad!
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GOAL! Hull City 1-3 Aston Villa (Hutton 74')
Alan Hutton has scored a glorious solo goal! Football’s back, everyone!
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72 mins: Apparently, that’s Elmohamady’s first goal for two-and-a-half years, when he was a Hull player. That doesn’t seem a great return for a winger, but he took that one very well.
David Marshall has to cop the flak for this one. His goal kick was weak, floating into the path of Elmohamady, who played a one-two with Hourihane, raced into the box and finished clinically inside the far post.
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GOAL! Hull City 1-2 Aston Villa (Elmohamady 70')
Villa lead through Hull City’s old boy Elmohamady, who raises his hands in apology. Again with the hands!
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68 mins: Henriksen fires another speculative shot over the bar. For Villa, the up-and-coming Andre Green replaces Albert Adomah.
66 mins: Hourihane fires a dipping effort towards the far corner – and clips the top of the bar! For Hull, Campbell and Kane are off, replaced by Dicko and new arrival David Milinkovic.
65 mins: Villa push forward again, and Kodjia draws a free kick on the edge of the box! Free kick, about a yard outside the D, and Hourihane will take it...
64 mins: Penalty shout for Villa! Hull get in a right mess in defence and the ball ricochets into Adomah’s path. He gets away from Henriksen and goes over, but it looked soft...
63 mins: Before that, a decent crossing position for the hosts from a free-kick, after Hutton concedes a cheap foul – but the right-back is able to nod away a poor delivery.
62 mins: Lichaj sends a hopeful deep cross sailing into the stands. That’s Adkins’ cue to make a couple of changes, with Nouha Dicko set to come on.
60 mins: Campbell leads a counter down the right and finds Henriksen, whose cross is flicked into the path of Todd Kane. His half-volley is parried away by Steer – but the flag was up.
58 mins: When Hull do get forward, they’re keen to keep ball, pass it around and be patient – which all bodes well for the season ahead. It doesn’t work here, Henriksen’s scooped pass into the box finding no-one in particular.
56 mins: Hourihane fires at goal from the corner of the box, but his shot cannons off a defender. Villa in the ascendancy just now, though.
54 mins: Just spotted a fan in the away end wearing this 90s beauty – a great example of a shirt that’s both really bad, and really good.
53 mins: Nice idea here, as Hourihane plays a one-two with Grealish and curls an inswinger with his left foot – but it’s a foot too high for Hutton to connect.
52 mins: Hutton almost bursts into space down the right after Elmohamady’s lay-off, but De Wijs closes him down. Villa come again, and Grealish forces a corner...
50 mins: Taylor tries to harry Bowen off the ball in midfield, but succeeds only in fouling him. Nigel Adkins will hope most Premier League managers have given this game a miss.
48 mins: Jarrod Bowen goes close! Cutting in from the right, he slaloms past defenders before drilling a shot towards Steer’s far post. It takes a helpful deflection and goes a foot wide.
47 mins: Kodjia grapples with Stephen Kingsley to try and get onto a wonky long pass from Elphick, and is penalised.
Here we go again
No changes for either team at half-time.
“Every time I see Elmohamady I think of that time a few years ago when he was with Hull and punched the ball into the Newcastle goal, writes JR in Illinois.
“As you can see in the bottom left corner of the video, he actually complained to the referee (good ol’ Phil Dowd. Remember him?) for being booked. The half-time whistle blew, and Elmohamady followed Down down the tunnel complaining all the way. I’ve always wondered what he could possibly have been complaining about.”
Half-time reading:
Stuart James’ excellent, emotional interview with Carl Ikeme:
And David Hytner’s deep dive into the Marcelo Bielsa revolution at Leeds:
Half time! Hull City 1-1 Aston Villa
A lively first half, and the game is very much in the balance. Back soon.
47 mins: Kane’s delivery is on the right lines again, but Villa clear as far as Lichaj. His shot is so awful it kick-starts a short-lived Villa counter-attack. And that’s half time.
46 mins: Bowen wins a corner, which causes a bit of pinball panic in the Villa defence before the winger earns another one. One minute of two added gone – can Hull grab a half-time lead?
45 mins: Campbell darts towards the box, finds space and then turns back for some reason, and is closed down. Kodjia then has a chance to break, but handles the ball on the halfway line.
44 mins: Very early-season feel to this – middling pace, lots of fringe players and empty seats, and it’s still light at half past eight.
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42 mins: Adomah and Elmohady both try, and fail, to deliver telling crosses as Adkins, helpless in his technical area, bellows “no cross!” at his defence.
40 mins: Grealish has too much game for Evandro in midfield, the Brazilian sending him tumbling to the turf.
38 mins: Hull have dominated possession in the last 10 minutes, but haven’t done much with it – although Campbell almost picks out the crafty Evandro through the middle. Jed Steer comes off his line quickly to smother the danger.
Evandro. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA
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36 mins: End-to-end stuff here, as Todd Kane cuts in from the left and fires a low, curling effort to be filed under ‘ambitious’.
35 mins: Villa again find holes in the Hull back line, Grealish sliding the ball wide to Adomah, but the winger’s shot is tame.
33 mins: Hull work the ball forward patiently, before Frazier Campbell goes for goal from 25 yards, his effort curling high and wide.
31 mins: Kodjia is brought down by De Wijs but the referee waves play on, and Hull can break. Bowen picks up the ball down the right, but Albert Adomah gets back to clear the danger.
29 mins: Villa have looked the more dangerous team since Hull missed that second chance, and Adomah almost picks out Grealish with a near-post ball – but he can’t bring it under control.
27 mins: Jarrod Bowen, who has impressed in flashes along with Evandro, wins a foul after Neil Taylor brings him down.
25 mins: Kodjia goes down after battling Lichaj for a high ball, and stays down holding his foot. He’s subjected to pantomime boos from the home crowd, and looks OK to continue.
23 mins: Hull’s new-look defence gives the ball away and Kodjia barrels forward with Elmohamedy offering support – but the striker tries to do too much himself, and is closed down.
20 mins: Villa push forward and Whelan plays Hourihane in on the right side of the area. His cut-back is heading for Kodjia’s boot, but Reece Burke does superbly to intercept!
18 mins: Both sides take a breath after a lively opening spell that’s seen both teams score.
15 mins: And now Steer redeems himself after that weak punch for the Hull goal, getting down well to deny Bowen after Evandro’s smart slide-rule pass in behind the defence.
GOAL! Hull City 1-1 Aston Villa (Elphick 13')
Grealish whips it in and Elphick, totally unmarked, makes amends by nodding the ball into the far corner!
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12 mins: Adomah tries to wriggle past Lichaj on the left, but the full-back stands firm and concedes a corner...
10 mins: Villa can’t get going, and the hosts are pinging the ball around nicely.
That goal also went in while fans were paying tribute to Stanley Metcalf, the young Hull supporter who tragically died last month.
What a start! Evandro lobs the ball into the back of the net from the edge of the area with the goalkeeper well beaten in the sixth minute!
— Hull City (@HullCity) August 6, 2018
That one was for you, Stanley!
(1-0)#hcafc #theTigers
The free-kick was whipped into the area from the right, and Villa keeper Jed Steer punched weakly out towards Evandro, who flicked a boot and sent an unconventional lob-volley towards the far post. Tommy Elphick got back, but couldn’t clear it, and Hull lead!
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GOAL! Hull City 1-0 Aston Villa (Evandro 7')
Hull win a free kick on the right and from it, score one of the weirdest goals of the EFL’s opening weekend!
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6 mins: Hull continue to have the better of a high-tempo opening, leaving Steve Bruce puce in the face already. It’s a long old season, Steve.
4 mins: Grealish is brought down by Hull’s captain Henriksen in midfield. From the free kick, Elmohamady finds space and whips a cross to Marshall’s back post. Under heavy pressure, the keeper holds onto the ball.
2 mins: The corner is cleared but Ewandro links up well with Kane, creating space down that right hand side – but his cross is skewed out of play.
1 min: De Wijs fires a long, diagonal ball into Bowen, who beats Taylor down the right and fires a shot from a tight angle that deflects into the side netting!
We're off!
Hull are in amber with black stripes; Villa in claret and blue. A couple of lovely kits too.
Jack Grealish starts for Villa tonight, despite summer-long speculation about a move to Spurs. Steve Bruce has been talking to Sky, and is tight-lipped on the midfielder’s future.
“The two clubs haven’t reached an agreement. He’s our player now, and we don’t want him to go. But if there’s a huge offer, we’ll have to wait and see.”
Bruce also confirmed that the club are busy working on new arrivals, and hit back at speculation that he was set to be replaced by Thierry Henry:
“I found it really disrespectful. One paper was already saying it was a done deal. The owner said [moving for Henry] was never on the table.”
Here’s the Hull manager Nigel Adkins, ever more resembling an over-enthusiastic rep on a coach holiday.
“We’re looking forward to it! We’ve got a new team now, we need to work extremely hard, but we’ve done that so far. It’s going to be a challenge, and it will be tonight. We’ve got an opportunity to do really well this season, although we have a bit of work to do in the transfer market.”
Four summer signings make their competitive debuts tonight – defenders Reece Burke, Jordy de Wijs and Eric Lichaj, plus Todd Kane, nominally a defender too, but set for a midfield berth this evening.
Team news
Hull City: Marshall; Lichaj, De Wijs, Burke, Kingsley; Kane, Batty, Henriksen, Bowen; Evandro; Campbell.
Subs: Stewart, Dicko, Milinkovic, Long, MacDonald, Irvine, Keane.
Aston Villa: Steer; Chester, Elphick, Hutton; Elmohamady, Whelan, Hourihane, Taylor; Grealish, Adomah, Kodjia.
Subs: Lansbury, Bree, Green, Bjarnason, Gardner, Hepburn-Murphy, Bunn.
Referee: Andrew Madley
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Preamble
This summer, Aston Villa have learned how it feels to lose the highest-stakes game of all. While Fulham, 1-0 winners at Wembley ten weeks ago, have set about gambling £75m on Premier League survival, Villa’s house of cards collapsed as soon as the final whistle blew.
New investment appears to have eased those nagging relegation worries, and the club are even spending money again – Bristol City’s Joe Bryan looks set to join for £6m. John Terry has gone but Jack Grealish, James Chester and manager Steve Bruce are, like the sunburnt doctor from Love Island, unexpectedly still at the Villa.
Villa are available at 14-1 to win the Championship or to be relegated, such is the rampant uncertainty around them and so many others in this division. Hull City are tipped to finish closer to the bottom than the top, having lost several first-teamers and replaced them with a hotch-potch of budget signings – but who knows any more?
Tonight’s hosts finished 18th in last year’s haphazard campaign under Leonid Slutsky and Nigel Adkins – but scored 70 goals, just two less than fourth-placed Villa. The trouble was, they let in 70 as well. As is so often the case in the second tier, it’s best to expect the unexpected. Kick-off is at 7.45pm, BST.
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