Hull City caretaker manager Mike Phelan was delighted with the character shown by his players as the Tigers stunned reigning Premier League champions Leicester City to become the first newly promoted side to win on the opening day of a new campaign since West Ham in 2012. Then Hull secured a victor to tip the prevailing “narrative” on its head when Robert Snodgrass lashed home from 18 yards.
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Hull City marked their first match back in the top flight with a surprise 2-1 victory, despite only having 13 fully-fit senior players available. At Wembley against Manchester United we played as a team – but we weren’t together today.
“But all credit to the football players. He, of course, wants to play but I can’t say that you play every match”, offered the Italian. “And I thought everything came out today”. “The effort was wonderful, but individual effort – not as a team”. “We made some mistakes and have to think about where we made them”.
However, Hull went into the lead just before half-time as Snodgrass corner was connected with a header by David which Kasper Schmeichel pushed into the path of Hernandez and Diomande and both applied a bicycle kick at the same time to score but the goal was later awarded to Diomande.
Leicester equalized with a penalty nearly immediately after the re-start, Riyad Mahrez driving home the spot-kick.
He began by completely miskicking an inviting cut-back from Ahmed Musa on the Nigerian forward’s debut in the 20th minute. Mahrez completely faded, losing the ball at a constant rate.
Debutant Alvaro Negredo scored with his first chance in a Middlesbrough shirt as he rose above two Stoke defenders in the 11th minute to send Gaston Ramirez’s looping header beyond 40-year-old Shay Given following a teasing cross from Albert Adomah.
Musa again brought Vardy into play but the England striker clumsily blazed way off-target.
Robert Snodgrass eventually secured the three points for Hull, who endured a turbulent pre-season ahead of Saturday’s game.
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Leicester came out of the blocks with all guns blazing in the second period, winning a penalty within 15 seconds after Gray was tripped by Tom Huddlestone on the very edge of the box. Mahrez blasted his spot-kick straight down the middle as Jakupovic dived.
