Stoke City vs Hull City. Sky Bet Championship.
Bet365 StadiumAttendance23,970.
Report and free match highlights from the Sky Bet Championship match between Stoke City and Hull City at the bet365 Stadium as Alex Neil's Potters and Liam Rosenior's Tigers played out a goalless draw.
Saturday 11 February 2023 18:14, UK
Hull's resurgence under Liam Rosenior continued as they earned a hard-fought point in a goalless draw at Stoke.
The in-form Tigers, backed by 2,520 travelling supporters, have now lost just two of their 13 league games since Rosenior took charge.
Aaron Connolly enjoyed the two best chances, but the Brighton loanee failed to add to his two goals since a January move.
Teenager Emre Tezgel almost snatched a late winner for the Potters, but Alex Neil's side saw their poor league form continue, with one win in seven outings.
Neil, whose first win as Stoke boss came in the reverse fixture in September, handed a first start to January recruit Ki-Jana Hoever.
The on-loan Wolves youngster was influential in a bright start and the Potters nearly made their early dominance count.
A determined Will Smallbone run ended with the midfielder firing a curling effort goalwards, but his strike dropped just wide of the far post.
The visitors responded positively with Oscar Estupinan going close to adding to his tally of 12 league goals but Matija Sarkic made a smart save.
Sarkic - another Wolves loanee - then kept out a Greg Docherty header from the resulting corner as the first half burst into life.
Striker Tyrese Campbell nearly handed Stoke the advantage from a quick free-kick, but a strong hand from Matt Ingram kept the game goalless.
Hull finished the opening period stronger with Ozan Tufan twice thwarted; first by a last-gasp Morgan Fox block and then by another Sarkic stop.
New recruit Connolly had the opportunity of the half when he cut inside and shot, but his curling effort veered agonisingly wide.
The Tigers' dominance was not swayed by the interval and the Republic of Ireland youngster spurned another glorious chance when he scooped over from close range.
Potters boss Neil attempted to rouse a response from his side with the introduction of Nick Powell and Jacob Brown, and the duo almost made an immediate impact.
However, Scotland international Brown, who had scored three goals in five games leading into the fixture, failed to connect cleanly from a dangerous position.
Hull substitute Ryan Longman then advanced forward promisingly but dragged his shot wide as a low-quality fixture slumped to a disappointing end.
In the process, Rosenior's side recorded a third successive league clean sheet for the first time since January 2022.
Hull's wait for a league victory at Stoke stretches to 11 matches, with their last win in the Potteries coming in 2006.
Stoke's Alex Neil:
"It gives us a platform and an opportunity to pick points up. I think we'll build confidence from that. At least if you're secure, you know you can work on being more aggressive and more attacking and creating more chances. When you're leaking goals and not scoring you've got two areas to fix, so the fact that we've done that is pleasing, but you're always going to be greedy, so that's the next step. I thought we started really well; I thought the game was bright to start with.
"We had a lot of opportunities in that first 25-minute period, so we've got to punish them at least once. I thought we were really aggressive in our approach, and I was really pleased with the first half. Second half, it was really even without either team creating an unbelievable chance. They've been a good side recently, they're one of the form teams in the
league and I feel we've more than matched them and maybe even shaded it. The finer details are what has not got us the result today, but I thought the effort was excellent. But I thought we didn't use the ball as well as we could, though."
Hull's Liam Rosenior:
"It was a hard-earned and battling point away from home. I think they paid us a big compliment by trying to stop us from playing our football. I have to give credit to every single player because we looked so organised, so disciplined and so resilient. That's a side of the game you need in the Championship. When we have the ball, every player's an attacker. When we don't, every player's a defender.
"There's no change in your role wherever you are; Oscar (Estupinan) epitomises that when he defends from the front, and they've all bought into that mentality. Hopefully that mentality will stay because we're proving to be a very difficult team to beat. We've lost one game in 10 and kept three clean sheets in a row, and that gives us the basis to do well in this league."
