Brad Rial watched Hull City's 1-0 defeat in Lokeren and says, despite a poor team performance, bright sparks Sone Aluko and Harry Maguire offer crumbs of comfort for Tigers fans.Allan McGregor will win more points than he loses
From the hero last week to the villain this. Allan McGregor's calamitous error against Lokeren last night ultimately cost Hull City the game and served to prove how quickly football can propel you from one extreme to the other.
When he received the ball from Harry Maguire, a pass to James Chester, in space, looked on.
But unfortunately for the Scot, he missed the window of opportunity by a split second - which was enough time for Hans Vanaken to read and intercept the pass - and McGregor was duly punished.
After that gaffe, he prevented Lokeren from increasing their lead on more than one occasion.
You can count the mistakes McGregor has made for City on one hand and he'll win us more points than he'll lose this season, that's for sure.Harry Maguire makes a promising start
Harry Maguire made his competitive debut for the Tigers and, although it wasn't an entirely comfortable night, he can feel reasonably assured with his display.
This was Maguire's first competitive game since the end of last season, so he was bound to be a little rusty. That was evident at times on Thursday. His passing was often a little wayward and on a couple of occasions he was turned too easily.
Having said that, he looked very strong in the air and it's hard to recall him missing a defensive header.
Any definitive judgement on Maguire will have to wait until he has played in the Premier League.
In Steve Bruce - a former centre back of some pedigree - Maguire has the perfect mentor and I'd expect him to push on at some pace this season.Sone Aluko back to his dazzling best
Although it was a night of few positives for City, Sone Aluko looked to be back to his dazzling best.
Time and time again, Aluko completely befuddled the Lokeren defenders and if it wasn't for the incompetence of his teammates in front of goal he'd have had a couple of assists to his name.
He spent the first half playing predominantly on the right, where he looked like City's most potent attacking threat. After 18 minutes, he created space to unleash a fierce drive which went over the bar, and had he shown a little more composure he would've tested Davino Verhulst in the Lokeren net.
He found more joy on the left in the second half. After City had fallen behind and then weathered a Belgian storm, Aluko set up two glorious chances for City to equalise.
First, he showed great guile to beat his full-back before pulling the ball back to David Meyler fifteen yards out. Meyler worked Verhulst but it was a relatively comfortable stop.
Then, he bamboozled substitute Besart Abdurahimi by feinting to cross and then checking back onto his left foot, leaving Abdurahimi looking at thin air, before delivering a perfect cross on to the onrushing head of James Chester, whose effort ended narrowly wide.
Aluko was City's man of the match by some distance and he has surely given himself a chance of starting against Stoke on Sunday.Bruce got his tactics wrong
Steve Bruce admitted post-match that he got the balance of his side wrong against Lokeren. The eleven players on the field should have been good enough to win the game, but they weren't helped by Bruce's puzzling choice of formation.
Chester was deployed in an unfamiliar central midfield role, a position he last played under Nigel Pearson. Yes, you could argue Bruce wanted to rest Tom Huddlestone and Jake Livermore, but the decision still seems baffling.
Neither George Boyd nor Robbie Brady seemed to know exactly where they were supposed to be playing and neither was able to stamp their mark on the game.
Despite that, and as clichéd as it may sound, it is only half-time and City still have a good chance to progress in the return match at the KC. Without an away goal, the key will be to keep a clean sheet and avoid a repeat of the calamitous opening to the second leg of the Trencin tie.
