Football Mar 02, 2026

Portsmouth 0-1 Hull City: Matt Crooks earns narrow Tigers victory

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By Admin
Sports Journalist
Portsmouth 0-1 Hull City: Matt Crooks earns narrow Tigers victory

Matt Crooks' smash-and-grab goal secured Hull a 1-0 victory at Portsmouth to match a 60-year record.

The Tigers only had two shots but made them count as Crooks capitalised on a defensive mix-up to make it five away wins in a row; the last time Hull had won as many on the road was 1966.

It also made sure they kept the pressure on the top two in the Sky Bet Championship automatic promotion race, while Pompey lost back-to-back home matches for just the third time since their return to the second tier.

The Tigers came out of the traps quickly and should have opened the scoring after 44 seconds - on a ground where they confirmed their Championship status on the final day of last season.

Lewis Koumas got down the left side, after a quick turnover, and sent a low ball in the box for Joe Gelhardt, but he fired straight at Nicolas Schmid. Oli McBurnie headed the rebound home but was flagged offside.

From then on in the first half, Pompey had 69 per cent of the possession and all 14 of the other shots in the half.

The barrage began with Zak Swanson attempting to score in back-to-back matches, but goalkeeper Ivor Pandur pushed away his piledriver from 25 yards.

Terry Devlin was the next to try his luck from range and, while it was straight at Pandur, the Croatian fumbled the effort. Colby Bishop could not meet the rebound and there were questions about whether he should have been given a penalty for a dragback.

An Adrian Segecic corner sparked pinball in the box before Regan Poole improvised an acrobatic shot, which was smartly stopped by Pandur.

Portsmouth continued to press forward as Swanson forced another save out of Pandur, before Segecic and Bishop crashed shots across the face of goal.

The start of the second half continued in a similar fashion, as Bishop failed to poke in at the back post, after a set-piece had beaten everyone in the middle.

After a scrappy 20 minutes, Millenic Alli did managed to dance his way off the left flank but his low shot was blocked out by Pandur.

Then, out of nowhere, the Tigers took the lead, as Crooks was gifted a tap-in after a double Segecic error.

The Australian's miscontrol put him in danger before a short backpass allowed McBurnie to close down keeper Schmid and the ball popped up for Crooks to lash home for his fourth goal of the season.

Pompey almost hit back immediately but John Egan's header looped over his own keeper and went agonisingly wide.

But their only other attacking moment of note saw Marlon Pack head onto the roof of the net.

Portsmouth's John Mousinho:

"I'm very disappointed with the result. I think we controlled pretty much the entire game. The performance in the first half was really good. We made some poor decisions in the second half but we came away with 21 shots, Hull had two.

"We shot ourselves in the foot with what we did for the goal.

"If it was one of those games where we don't create enough at the top end of the pitch then fine, we dust ourselves down and take a point, but the manner of the goal was unacceptable."

Hull's Sergej Jakirovic:

"We didn't play our game or our style because it was very demanding. I don't know the reason but in some parts of the game we lacked energy especially in midfield.

"My main message at half-time was that we cannot play like this and we had to try something at least.

"In the second half, especially after the substitutions, we brought a lot of energy on the pitch and we scored after one mistake.

"We knew their goalkeeper likes to take risks as he is very good with the ball so we pressed the ball.

"We have shown this season that we can win without playing well. I would like us to play much better but it wasn't on me, it was on the players.

"There are 12 games to go and we are there. We will push but I would like to enjoy it more."

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