What a good day to be a Premier League manager on gardening leave. Whatever Phil Brown was doing yesterday it seems fair to assume that Hull City's departing manager had a much more enjoyable afternoon counting his wages in the sunshine than the 26,669 spectators who had the misfortune of paying to watch this soporific match.
Aesthetics will matter little to Iain Dowie at this stage of the season, and in particular in the wake of a 4-1 drubbing at home by Burnley last Saturday, but the man with the grand title of Temporary Football Management Consultant must surely realise that Hull will have to be much more ambitious in their final three home fixtures if they are to secure Premier League survival.
In most circumstances a draw at St Andrew's, where Birmingham are unbeaten since September and have taken points off the Premier League's top six clubs, would be a result to celebrate. But Hull's parlous league position – they are in effect four points adrift of safety because of their vastly inferior goal difference and have only four matches remaining – means this could well be viewed as a missed opportunity come the end of the season.
That feeling was reinforced in the closing stages, when Hull appeared belatedly to realise that a mid-table Birmingham side, whose minds seem to be on their summer holidays, were actually there for the taking. Having forced only one save from Joe Hart in the previous 85 minutes, when the Birmingham goalkeeper brilliantly repelled a glancing header from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink just before the interval, Hull threatened three times late on and came within inches of grabbing a winner in injury time when Craig Fagan's vicious volley from the edge of the area fizzed past Hart's near upright.
How the travelling supporters must have wished that Hull had broken free from the shackles that a 4-1-4-1 system imposed and attacked with more menace earlier. Dowie defended his tactics afterwards but it seemed curious that, given their predicament, he decided to replace one striker, Vennegoor of Hesselink, with another, Jozy Altidore, rather than play the two together for the final 15 minutes. "I just think we are not set up to go gung-ho," said Dowie. "Look at our record and we often concede goals."
There was little danger yesterday. Matt Duke, who replaced the dropped Boaz Myhill, made only one notable stop, when he beat away a sweeping shot from Lee Bowyer in the first half. Otherwise Birmingham were disappointing, with this result stretching their run of matches without a win to seven. "We didn't quite have the imagination and creativity in the final third today but I am proud of the guys and the way they bounced back [from the 5-1 defeat at Manchester City last Sunday]," said their manager, Alex McLeish.
Dowie had also demanded a response from his players following a poor result, although he had adopted a more forthright approach to get it. "I had a conversation this week with the boys, ramming home exactly what Premier League survival means to the area, the people that work at the club and the fans," said Dowie, who described the midweek home game against Aston Villa as "pivotal".
"Hull's a working-class area and they demand to see the lads put a shift in. It's a response today and we'll see how good a point that is at the end of the year. But I thought, given Birmingham's good home record, it was a display to be proud of. What we now need to do is respond to a really good away point with some points at home."
THE FANS' PLAYER RATINGS AND VERDICT
JON BERRY, BluesInLondon@yahoogroups.co.uk
It was one of those afternoons when you ask yourself if you don't have something better to do on a Saturday. Absolutely awful. It was not worth 15 seconds on the end of Match of the Day. All our shortcomings this season – lack of pace, lack of invention – were very evident. Fair play to Bullard: he obviously came here thinking that if Hull lost it would have nothing to do with him. But it was a dreadful afternoon, as bad as anything last season. I hope to God we were just getting it out of our system before playing the Villa next week. It's unlike us to be in April with nothing to play for. It's uncharted territory so no wonder we're disorientated.
The fan's player ratings Hart 7; Carr 5, Johnson 7, Dann 7, Ridgewell 7; Gardner 5, Ferguson 5, Bowyer 4, Fahey 4 (Larsson 63 5); Jerome 6, McFadden 5 (Phillips 60 5)
RICK SKELTON, HullCityOnline.com Iain Dowie is still shuffling the same deck of bad cards that Phil Brown was, the only difference is that it was Brown's deck, he put it together. But this was better – much, much better. I was disappointed we didn't win it in the end: in the last 20 minutes there was only us in it. Dowie went with five in midfield and we won the ball much better. We had players who looked like they cared, though we were still not super-creative. That said, Birmingham weren't as up for it as Burnley last week. Realistically, we need to win three games from four and we've won only six all season. But there are other teams as bad as we are.
The fan's player ratings Duke 7; McShane 6, Mouyokolo 7, Sonko 7, Dawson 7; Boateng 8; Fagan 6, Bullard 7, Cairney 7, Kilbane 6; Vennegoor of Hesselink 7 (Altidore 76 7)
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