Five things we learned from Hull City's Europa League tie against AS Trencin

After Tom Huddlestone's notorious miss, Brad Rial would like to see Robbie Brady back to take the penalties, and says despite a typically solid defensive performance against AS Trencin, Hull City are still struggling for fluency in the final third.Huddlestone should stick to long-range efforts It was the standout moment of Hull City's maiden game in European football. After missing his penalty, Tom Huddlestone somehow conspired to smash the rebound against the bar from all of two yards. The more you watch it, the worse it looks. After all, Huddlestone is a player capable of pinging a ball seventy yards straight into the feet of a teammate. You have to admire his honesty though – he came out straight away and apologised for his lapse in concentration.

Can only apologise to every for a lapse in concentration and thinking I had scored the rebound before I had. Ridiculous on my behalf

— Tom Huddlestone (@Huddz8) July 31, 2014

Huddlestone isn't one for scrappy goals and it would be interesting to see how many he has actually scored from inside the area. For the time being, he may be better off restricting himself to letting fly from a minimum of 25 yards out. City have now missed their last three penalties (Huddlestone on Thursday, Nikica Jelavic against West Brom and Sone Aluko against Sunderland) which raises the obvious question of who should be taking them? Once Robbie Brady returns to the starting XI you'd expect him to be first choice as he has an excellent record from the spot. In the meantime, Shane Long looks like City's best bet from 12 yards. He has taken penalties in the past and proved in the recent friendly against North Ferriby that he can put them away.Tom Ince and Robert Snodgrass will have to earn their places Steve Bruce opted to leave new signings Tom Ince and Robert Snodgrass on the bench on Thursday. By doing so, he stuck with the side that finished off last season. These are the players who got City into the Europa League in the first place and it's no surprise to see Bruce remaining loyal to them. Nevertheless, it must have been tempting to throw in Ince and/or Snodgrass from the start, but the decision to introduce them from the bench was a shrewd one on Bruce's part. This City squad is tight-knit group and if the new signings had waltzed straight in, it may have upset the balance. Alex Bruce says his dad wanted to ease them in gently, and having shown glimpses of promise on Thursday, Snodgrass and Ince may well push for starting places in the must-win return leg. Their introduction from the bench certainly lifted City and Ince came close to breaking the deadlock when he was unlucky to see Long block his goal-bound effort. One or both may well feature from the off at the KC on Thursday, especially if Bruce opts to ditch the extra defender in favour of a more attacking approach. City must find fluency upfront Speaking of an attacking approach, although they were typically solid at the back on Thursday, a rusty Tigers side struggled for fluency in the final third. Sone Aluko came close to opening the scoring when his low shot almost beat the Trencin 'keeper, and the hard-working Long won the penalty, but neither was able to approach top gear. Despite being just one game into the season, the odd question is already being asked about whether City will have enough going forward this season. But with Nikica Jelavic easing his way back after the World Cup, and Tom Ince and Robert Snodgrass offering new attacking options, it's far too early to be fretting, and with competition for starting places upfront, there's plenty of incentive for the likes of Aluko and Yannick Sagbo to grab a few goals and climb the pecking order. A few goals in the return leg on Thursday should allay any concerns, but whatever the score, it wouldn't surprise me to see City being linked with one or two strikers as the clock counts down towards transfer deadline day.Alex Bruce still has an important role to play Although they were unable to grab that important away goal, City finished the game in Zilina with a valuable clean sheet and at the heart of their defensive effort was Alex Bruce. Bruce picked up as he left off in the FA Cup final with a typically committed and disciplined performance at the centre of the back three to once again remind his critics that he starts games because he is a very capable defender – not because his dad is the manager. He has been linked with a move away from the club, but although City have brought in Harry Maguire and are likely to sign another centre-back before the close of the transfer window, his services will surely be called upon as the Tigers deal with the rigours of competing on four fronts. There are no easy games in Europe As clichéd as it may sound, Thursday night's match against an organised and technically proficient Trencin side proved, if anyone doubted it, that there are unlikely to be any easy games in Europe this season. Let's be honest, nobody connected with City – be it the fans, players or coaching staff – would've been able to name a single Trencin player prior to the draw being made. But as Steve Bruce alluded to post-match, they must have something about them if they finished second in the Slovakian First Division. Trencin have already started their league campaign and that showed as they met a City side still getting up to pace. That leaves City's first ever European home game finely poised and, while we should have enough quality to progress, it promises to be an exciting night in front of a big crowd at the KC.