Hunt shows signs of success as Hull City come to town

Date Published: {J}

Galway United 0

Hull City 1

Dave O’Connell

Of all the visiting Hull City stars, Stephen Hunt put in the most productive shift at Terryland Park on Friday night – and he wasn’t even playing.

The Irish international took his seat in the stand just after kick-off – and from then until half-time he signed autographs and posed for photographs as a queue formed down the steps in his honour.

What he made of the Premier League’s strugglers’ visit to the West is anybody’s idea because arguably nobody in the ground saw less of the action up to the break.

Not surprisingly, wherever the Waterford man watched the second-half from, it wasn’t his first-half perch; he’d have seen more from the team bus outside the ground.

There was something wonderfully incongruous about the sight of a Premier League side turning up, almost unannounced, for a friendly game on the weekend they should have been battling for three badly needed points against Aston Villa.

But with the Carling Cup final at Wembley presenting a more attractive option for their opponents, the Tigers took on a Galway United side a week away from the start of their own new season.

And even if Hull doesn’t boast a side packed with household names, there were times when their players were a lot more familiar than Galway United’s new look squad.

‘Decimated’ is one word to describe what the close season has done to the League of Ireland club, but two of the experienced heads provided the highlights of the first-half – a 25 yard rocket from Derek O’Brien that just whizzed over the top and a second effort from Seamus Conneely, revelling in the captaincy.

There was much nailbiting over the last few weeks as to whether or not Conneely, like so many of last year’s better performers, would be signed by another League of Ireland club in the Summer – after a performance like this, Phil Brown could do worse than stick him straight into the Premier League.

As it was, the game was settled by a Nicky Barmby goal, but United never looked out of their depth. This was a Hull City side packed with Premier League regulars – the impressive Kevin Kilbane, Amr Zaki, Jozy Altidore, Ibrahima Sonka – even Paul McShane got a run, although a small section of the crowd booed him at every touch.

For more, read page 27 of this week’s Connacht Sentinel.