Hull City stay top of Sky Bet League One despite losing at home to a stubborn Shrewsbury Town side who did a job on the home side. Charlie Daniels scored the only goal of the game in the first half to ensure the visitors took all three points.

  • Story of the match

As the game kicked off in the pouring rain, both sides battled for the ball early with the Shrews looking to apply the early pressure. Hull had an early claim for a penalty for handball in the area, but as seems to be the trend this season the referee was unmoved. After six minutes, Josh Emmanuel cut inside and curled an effort that just grazed Matija Sarkic's right hand post.

Shrewsbury were awarded a golden chance on ten minutes when Greg Docherty was harshly pulled up for a challenge on the edge of the Hull City box. Sean Goss' resulting effort was easily saved by Matt Ingram. Ingram then had to tip Goss' deflected effort from the edge of the area five minutes later, with the visitors earning their first corner, but the Hull defense stood firm.

Both sides were competing for the ball heavily and it didn't take long for the loud shouts from both sides to exacerbate things for the referee, who seemed keen to play advantage wherever he could. Daniels went from being booked for time-wasting to scoring within 30 seconds. He finished smartly with a chip over Ingram to give the visitors a shock lead - the home side hadn't started particularly well and had paid the price for it.

After going 1-0 up, Shrewsbury seemed determined to push, shove and time-waste their way to half time. Both Josh Magennis and Mallik Wilks were the subject of much physical treatment, with the referee again playing advantage a lot of the time. The Shrews also had a habit of blocking quickly taken free kicks, which went unpunished and the frustration was evident in the home side.

Hull's best chance of the half came on 40 minutes. Honeyman's free kick was curled in and Jacob Greaves headed just wide. There were no real clear cut chances for either side as the score remained 0-1 at the break. 

Both sides came out unchanged for the second half with the home team knowing they needed to improve massively from the first whistle. Ingram's poor kick on 52 minutes almost let Shrewsbury in, but they couldn't put their chance away or make the most of the resulting corner. Hull came close minutes later when a short corner routine saw Greg Docherty have a shooting chance, but he put it over the bar. 

Richie Smallwood and Hakeeb Adelakun made way for Tom Eaves and Keane Lewis-Potter on the hour mark with McCann throwing caution to the wind somewhat - he now had four players who have all played through the middle at some point for the Tigers. Shrewsbury had their goal, so seemed willing to let Hull have the ball and try and break them down. 

Hull started to pile on the pressure as the last 15 minutes approached but couldn't find a way through a Shrewsbury defense that stood firm. The balls into the box approach didn't seem to be working and as Lewis Coyle replaced Emmanuel, Hull had only ten minutes to rescue something from the game. Honeyman had a glorious chance after good work from Lewis-Potter and Coyle but put his chance over the bar. Try as they may, Shrewsbury held on for the win and Hull certainly didn't deserve to take a point from the game as they failed to register a single shot on target.

  • Takeaways from the match

Hull draw a blank in the league for the first time this season

Hull failed to score in the week against Crewe Alexandra, eventually winning their Papa John's Trophy match on penalties. They didn't look like scoring here either, with not a single shot on target in the 90 minutes despite large amounts of possession and crosses into the opposition box. Grant McCann will want to remedy that quickly with high-flying Portsmouth visiting the KCOM on Friday night in the 5.30pm kick off on Sky Sports.

Shrews use the dark arts to fashion win

Charlie Daniel's goal was very well taken, but the visitors used all the tricks in the book to keep Hull City at bay. Unseen shoves, pulls and constant timewasting - whether from throw-ins, goal kicks or when Hull were lining up to quickly take one of their numerous free kicks by kicking the ball away were employed smartly and disrupted the home side's tempo, which looked very much under par. Ultimately, this was a case of the home side performing very poorly, and the Shrews taking full advantage.

  • Stand-out players

Hull City's players didn't really show up for this one, but both Charlie Daniels and Daniel Udoh were the stand-out players for the away side. Daniels scored a goal of real quality in the first half and Udoh was a constant thorn in the side of the Hull defense with Shrewsbury letting Hull have the ball in the second half and he worked tirelessly.

  • Teams

Hull City: Ingram; Emmanuel, Burke, Greaves, Elder; Smallwood, Docherty, Honeyman; Adelakun, Wilks, Magennis.

Substitutions: Cartwright; Coyle, Batty, Eaves, McLoughlin, Slater, Lewis-Potter.

Shrewsbury Town: Sarkic; Pierre, Ebanks-Landell, Williams, Daniels; Goss, Norburn, Vela; Millar, Udoh, Whalley.

Substitutions: Burgoyne, Golburne, Edwards, Tracey, Daniels, Pugh, Cummings.

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