Hunt brace rescues a point for Hull against Bolton

Stephen Hunt scored twice as Hull battled back from 2-0 down to deny fellow strugglers Bolton victory.

Ivan Klasnic’s sweet left-foot strike put the hosts ahead on 20 minutes, the lone highlight of a dire first half.

Hull keeper Bo Myhill’s error allowed Kevin Davies to head in a second from Paul Robinson’s 61st-minute free-kick.

Hunt began the comeback 10 minutes later when he headed in Craig Fagan’s cross before his angled effort just crossed the line to make it all square.

A point apiece means both sides stay in the relegation zone, but Phil Brown’s men will surely be delighted with only their third away point of the season.

Bolton boss Gary Megson, meanwhile, bore the brunt of the home fans’ unhappiness, as he has done for much of the season.

His decision to replace striker Klasnic with midfielder Gavin McCann, with the Trotters still leading 2-1, was met with a chorus of loud boos.

Their mood worsened when Hunt forced in the equaliser, and the final whistle was greeted with more booing.

It could even have been worse for the hosts.

Nicky Barmby set up fellow substitute Jan Vennegor of Hesselink with only minutes remaining, but the Dutchman blazed over from a good position.

Such drama looked highly unlikely after an awful first half.

A scrappy opening 15 minutes featured nine free-kicks – and not a single shot on target.

Klasnic’s goal came completely out of the blue.

Zat Knight played a long ball out of defence and Andy Dawson, under pressure from Chung-Yong Lee, could only head back to the Croat, who took one touch before driving a left-foot shot past Myhill.

Myhill then gifted Bolton their second when he rushed out to meet a Robinson free-kick, only for Davies to get there first and nod the ball over the stranded keeper.

With Hull barely threatening, Bolton’s fans might even have been dreaming of a first clean sheet of the season, but it was not to be.

Craig Fagan provided a delicious cross for Hunt to head in, and the nerves began to jangle in the Bolton defence.

It took only seven minutes for them to cave in.

Hunt latched onto Vennegor of Hesselink’s knockdown and though Jussi Jaaskelainen got a hand to his cross-shot, it crossed the line before Robinson desperately hooked it out.

Suddenly, it was end-to-end, and Steinsson saw a thumping shot deflected wide for Bolton before Vennegor of Hesselink squandered his shot at glory.

By that time, many of the disgruntled home supporters had already headed for the exit, and those who stayed behind left Megson in no doubt as to their feelings.

Bolton 2-2 Hull

Bolton:
Klasnic 20
Davies 61

Hull:
Hunt 71, 78

Source: BBC

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Posted by Bilal Sulehri on Dec 30 2009. Filed under Football. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry