Talk about Chelsea centre-halves and it’s only fair to concentrate on the future rather than the past as John Terry’s Aston Villa debut was overshadowed somewhat by Michael Hector, the loanee from Stamford Bridge in the heart of the Hull defence. Hector stood out as Hull forced their way back into this game and then held firm as Villa rallied late in the second half.
It had looked plain sailing for Terry and Villa as they controlled the first half and took the lead through a Gabriel Agbonlahor goal after only six minutes, but Steve Bruce’s team were profligate thereafter and Hull punished them as Jarrod Bowen scored a second-half equaliser on his full debut. After the final whistle, Hector, who had impressed before on a loan spell at Reading, was embraced by Terry, who will have appreciated his display more than anybody as Villa tried to snatch a late winner with a series of long balls into the visitors’ box, but Hull also were indebted to the speedy winger Kamil Grosicki for spearheading the comeback.
“He [Terry] was everything we expected him to be,” said Bruce, the Villa manager. “The lads we have brought in have brought a bit of experience to us which will help us, and we have a nice sprinkling of youngsters. We just have to improve on one thing, which is to capitalise on the chances we create.”
Apart from Terry, Bruce was referring to Glenn Whelan and Ahmed Elmohamady, two others with plenty of Premier League games behind them who also made their debuts. For Hull City, the new boys include manager Leonid Slutsky from Russia, who bestrode the touchline for half an hour before the game enjoying near total anonymity. Clearly, however, he is quite a character. He lightheartedly declared afterwards that he was acting as a “shaman” casting a spell on the game, but initially it didn’t appear to work as Villa started at a gallop.
In the first five minutes, Agbonlahor played in Henri Lansbury who shot wide, while Agbonlahor himself had also tested the Hull goalkeeper Allan McGregor, who saved well with his feet. The third time McGregor was left exposed by his dozy defence, there was no escape. Whelan played a simple ball to Alan Hutton, who made a typically direct run down the right flank and, while his cross should have been cut out before it reached Agbonlahor at the far post, the Villa veteran still needed to keep his cool as he slotted the ball past McGregor.
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By half-time, Villa should have been two or three goals ahead as they completely controlled the tempo of the game and created several more good chances. Whelan and Leandro Bacuna dominated the midfield and the long ball in behind the defence for the fleet-footed Scott Hogan to run onto had the Hull defence constantly asking questions about what their opponents would do next.
Hogan had three chances to add to the Villa tally before the interval, but snatched at two of his opportunities and completely mishit a third, a sign that he is still low on confidence having had a difficult time in the west midlands since joining from Brentford for £14m in the January transfer window.
Villa were almost caught out on the stroke of half-time when Grosicki made a powerful run at their defence and Fraizer Campbell had a chance but shot too close to Sam Johnstone.
That should have been a warning sign for Villa but just as Agbonlahor had stretched Hull in the first half, so Grosicki started to motor in the second and the home side didn’t know how to handle him. With Villa dropping deeper and deeper in an attempt to stifle the speedy Hull winger, Bowen had a chance which was blocked by Terry, but the Hull midfielder, purchased for £50,000 from Hereford in 2014 when Bruce was Hull manager, delivered a blow to his old boss as Villa failed to clear their lines properly on the hour mark. Grosicki’s cross found Bowen in space and with time to deliver a left-foot volley which flew past Johnstone for the equaliser.
Two Villa substitutes, Andre Green and Joshua Onomah, both missed great opportunities to score a Villa winner in the final 10 minutes. “I worked in CSKA Moscow and usually we won each match,” said Slutsky. “But this was a new team against one of the favourites of the competition. I think it was a good result.”
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Star man: Kamil Grosicki (Hull City)
Yellow cards: Aston Villa: Whelan, Lansbury
Referee: A Madley
Attendance: 31,241
