Sunday 10 May 2015 17:37, UK
Hull manager Steve Bruce has slammed the rule that left his side without Michael Dawson to help defend the corner from which Burnley scored the winner at the KC Stadium.
However, Bruce admitted that the tension of the occasion got to his players, resulting in a poor display which left Hull two points from safety after this deeply damaging 1-0 defeat.
Danny Ings got the winner in the aftermath of a 62nd-minute corner and Dawson was watching from the touch-line, having been made to go off and change his shirt, because his first one had got blood on it.
Bruce said: “Listen, the rules are the rules.
“It is a totally ridiculous rule.
“Who knows? It might not have made any effect on the outcome but, when the ball is played into your box and you are without your centre-half , who you expect to see standing and heading it away, then it summed up the afternoon for us, which was deeply disappointing.
“That rule is totally disappointing because there was not really blood pouring everywhere. Why can’t we get on with it and give him a chance to get on the pitch and defend the corner?”
Although Robbie Brady hit the bar twice with a pair of fine free-kicks, Hull struggled to create chances in general and Bruce agreed that it had been a tense afternoon.
“I think tense is the right word,” he said. “With tension comes a fear to play and that is unfortunately what has happened today.
The whole thing has got to the team and we haven’t performed at all. We were nowhere near the level which you need to perform at to go and get yourselves out of trouble.
“The whole thing has got to the team and we haven’t performed at all. We were nowhere near the level which you need to perform at to go and get yourselves out of trouble.
“From where we were a week ago, after performances against Palace and Liverpool (a pair of Hull wins), to put in a performance like that is the frustrating thing for us all. If we are being honest, that has happened too many times.
“We didn’t do enough, to create enough chances, to play with the energy and the speed that you need to play at. We were slow in everything we did, we passed the ball slow, we moved around the pitch slow.
“It was one of those awful afternoons which you would rather forget.”
Burnley have been relegated despite the victory and Hull will join them in the Championship unless they can get at least one win from their remaining matches, away at Spurs and at home to Manchester United.
Bruce said: “I have always said, it does not matter who you have on paper, you have got to perform.
“Against Palace and Liverpool, nobody gave us a chance, so we have got to believe that we can go (to Tottenham) and get a result.
“We will play much better next week, because we simply could not play any worse.
“We will be ready for it, we have to dust ourselves down. We have given ourselves a huge challenge but we are not going to give up yet.
“It is not over. We have two big games coming up, huge games. We have to go and perform.”
