Hull City head coach Nigel Adkins has admitted that in many ways the side beat themselves during our FA Cup tie with Chelsea.
Heading to Stamford Bridge for the fifth round affair, Hull found themselves a goal down within the opening two minutes as Willian gave them the advantage. Pedro added a second just shy of the half hour mark with Willian completing his brace five minutes later. The scoring was complete three minutes before the half time break as Olivier Giroud added a fourth and was largely game over before the second half had even begun.
David Meyler did have an opportunity from the penalty spot to reduce the score, but much like the overall day, he saw that effort saved by Willy Caballero.
Speaking to the Official Site as he met with the media following the heavy defeat, Adkins admitted we made way too many mistakes in the opening half and in many cases they were completely avoidable – but Chelsea capitalised clinically in those moments.
There were positives he could take from the second half showing however.
‘We came with a game plan and within a couple of minutes it`s out of the window. We gifted them the opportunities to score goals in the first half and you saw how good their players are when you`re up close and personal. We allowed them too much ball in the first half.’
Adkins went on to say.
‘I was calm at half-time. I told the players this wasn`t the situation we wanted to be in but we tweaked one or two things and improved. Yes, they took their foot off the gas, but we were much better in the second half and my players deserve credit for that. They were staring down the barrel at 4-0 – and it could have gone the other way. But what they did in the second half was what we were hoping to do in the first half.’
Speaking more about the second half he felt the players got back to the original game plan and we put that into action in the second period.
‘The second half was a different story, although it was game over. We kept the ball and built things. We should have scored some goals. But the disappointment is the first half. We stood off them too much and didn`t get close enough to them. We let some talented players demonstrate how good they are.’
Onto the trip to the Riverside Stadium and Middlesbrough later this evening and Adkins will dearly be hoping he can celebrate a victory to draw a line under this defeat and see us focus now on moving away from the bottom reaches of the Championship table.
