Bristol City vs Hull City. Sky Bet Championship.
Ashton GateAttendance21,136.
Saturday 21 April 2018 18:22, UK
Hull twice fought back from two goals down to inflict a potentially fatal blow on Bristol City's Championship play-off hopes in an amazing 5-5 draw at Ashton Gate.
Fraizer Campbell slid home an 87th-minute goal from a cross by substitute Kamil Grosicki to put the visitors ahead 5-4 after they had trailed 3-1 and 4-2.
But during six minutes of stoppage time, Joe Bryan cut in from the left to equalise with a low drive from just outside the box. There was still time for Robins goalkeeper Frank Fielding to save from Abel Hernandez as a crazy game reached a costly conclusion for the hosts.
Harry Wilson fired Hull into a 16th-minute lead, accepting a return pass from Jackson Irvine and hammering a left-footed shot past Fielding into the top corner.
But the hosts were level on 37 minutes when, after a period of pressure, the ball broke to Marlon Pack in a central area 30 yards out and he moved forward to strike a low right-footed drive past Allan McGregor.
Three minutes later the home side went ahead through club record-signing Famara Diedhiou, who held off a challenge from Michael Dawson when the ball dropped to him in the box and took his time before hammering home a left-footed shot.
Diedhiou notched his second eight minutes after the break, producing a perfectly placed header from Bobby Reid's left-wing chip and directing the ball inside the far post from 10 yards to make it 3-1.
Hull were back in it almost immediately as substitute Fikayo Tomori headed a diagonal ball from Angus McDonald against a post and the ball went in off Fielding for an own goal.
On 64 minutes, Reid ran onto a through ball and got between Angus McDonald and the advancing McGregor to slot his 21st goal of the season. Still, Hull refused to buckle and the impressive Wilson made it 4-3 with a 30-yard free-kick from the right that beat Fielding at his near post.
Ten minutes from time it was 4-4 as Hernandez fired home a low cross from fellow substitute Grosicki. The game finished like a basketball match with both sides looking set to score from every attack.
Campbell looked to have won it, but Bryan had the final say with an unprecedented stoppage-time equaliser and on a day they needed a win to keep play-off hopes flickering, Lee Johnson's men were found badly wanting defensively.
Lee Johnson: "We are all a bit shell-shocked. Having played well in the first half, we got ourselves 4-2 up and in a great position to take the points we needed. Our attacking play deserved even more goals but some of the defending was schoolboy errors. We will keep fighting, but obviously we now need a storming finish to the season and hope things go our way.
"Perhaps we lack enough leaders on the pitch. Players can be divided into followers, standard-setters and leaders and we need more to graduate from the second of those categories to the third. That was my message in the dressing room after the game. It was a fantastic game for the neutral, but not the outcome we wanted."
Nigel Adkins: "We wanted to be in control of our own destiny today and it is great to achieve safety on the back of a positive result. Again the players have shown great character and a real sense of togetherness to twice come back from two goals down. Some of our attacking play was outstanding.
"Of course, I am not happy to concede five and there were some really poor ones from our point of view. But overall we have come out of a brilliant game to watch, having not been beaten by a team desperate to get into the play-offs. Now we want to continue building on our recent form in the last two games."
