By Eye Of The Tiger
August 18 2009
Hull boss Phil Brown took Plenty Of Encouragement from Saturday's game at Chelsea despite losing 2-1 . Hull opened the scoring through new signing Stephen Hunt before Didier Drogba Struck a great free-kick ten minutes later and then scored with a cross in the 91st minute.
"I'm bitterly disappointed to lose of course," said Brown.
"But I'm pleased that we've put a marker down to a certain extent, which is what we asked the players to do.
"We played better here this season than we did last season, yet last season we got a point and a clean sheet.
"I thought their first goal was a soft free kick, but we came in at half time with a point. We got to 92 minutes and then got done on a cross, which Didier Drogba has admitted.
"It was a pleasing performance and the most pleasing aspect of that was our game plan. We frustrated Chelsea.
"We might have surprised one or two with our performance, but we
know as a changing room that we have got to have that kind of showing
whenever we play against teams in and around us this season, not just
when we're playing against the big boys."
"We had two or three things to address from last season. One was obviously to get a goal scorer in on the frontline, the second was goals from midfield and another was clean sheets.
"We've addressed the goals from midfield on day one, but unfortunately the clean sheet didn't come along and neither did a goal from a striker.
"Stephen had an energetic game on Saturday, but we knew it would be tough for him. He is the type who can light up a room with the way he plays. He is tenacious, he gets in the face of the opposition and sometimes teams and individuals don't like that, but he is my kind of player."
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