Derby County vs Hull City. Sky Bet Championship.
Pride Park StadiumAttendance29,969.
Saturday 14 May 2016 18:04, UK
Hull City put one foot in the final of the Sky Bet Championship play-offs with a convincing 3-0 victory at lacklustre Derby County on Saturday.
Abel Hernandez's classy opener, a Jason Shackell own goal and a late Andrew Robertson strike on the counter did the damage for Steve Bruce's men.
Despite winning by an aggregate of 6-0 in the two league meetings, Derby were strangely subdued, only registering their first shot on target with 80 minutes on the clock.
Much like Brighton, who suffered a 2-0 defeat at Sheffield Wednesday on Friday, Derby will need to become the first team to overturn a 2-0 or more first-leg deficit in a Championship play-off when the teams meet again on Tuesday.
Hull made only one change to their side with the ever reliable Alan McGregor missing out between the sticks with a back problem. That handed a rare start for Eldin Jakupovic and he played a big part in the crucial opening goal.
After a very nervy start from both teams, where only a Chris Martin effort that skied over the bar tested the Hull defence, Jakupovic raced off his line to clear a long ball forward, which triggered a Hull attack.
Jake Livermore skilfully flicked the ball through midfield and into the path of Hernandez, who took the ball into his stride and fired a powerful effort into the bottom corner from 22 yards.
That goal took the sting out of the home crowd who were in good voice up until that point. They stayed with their team but despite their urgings the hosts rarely troubled the Hull back four.
On 40 minutes, Hull doubled their lead.
Moses Odubajo - the standout player on the pitch, running Marcus Olsson ragged in the opening stages - found himself in the box and fired an effort goal bound. It was clearly going off target but two deflections, the first off Olsson and the second off Shackell, completely wrong footed Scott Carson and the ball looped into the far corner of the net.
Bruce's men are now unbeaten in 36 games when taking the lead, winning 32 of those and it's easy to see why.
Without the ball, the Tigers were magnificently organised across midfield with Tom Huddlestone shielding his back four with Premier League authority.
Cyrus Christie nearly turned home an effort at the back post on 72 minutes but an offside flag spared his blushes as he spooned the ball over from close range.
It was Hull that posed more of a threat on the break and some better decision making from Mo Diame and Andrew Robertson could have yielded more goals.
Derby staged a half-hearted late rally with substitute Jacob Butterfield testing Jakupovic on 80 minutes before the goalkeeper was brave to dive at the feet of Martin inside his own six-yard box in injury-time.
With Derby pushing forward, Hull struck with the last kick of the game to rubber stamp their authority. After clearing a Derby corner, Hull broke like lightning and Robertson swept a low effort into the net.
Derby, who were booed off by sections of the home crowd, have a mountain to climb.
