The Bill Howell Column: The hard work is about to start for Wolves and Birmingham City
Dan Magness, aged 25, should therefore be tailor-made for Stoke City.
Fabio Capello was there last night too. He saw Ashley Young torment George Boateng and he saw Young deliver the ball of the match that brought the winner.
He saw Young produce one of those dives to try to win a penalty that would have got him lynched by his own team-mates in the 1970s.
They would also have all seen Daniel Cousin produce one of those two-footed lunges that leaves you open mouthed and wondering just how Joey Barton wasn’t involved.
McCarthy and McLeish, well done them, will have learnt little new last night on how to compete at the top table.
Pack your midfield, play one big lump up front (the aforementioned Cousin in Hull’s case) and get the ball to him with a giant hoof.
Win set-pieces, make your throws long.
That’s football in the Premier League bar the top six and the bottom one.
Why not also narrow the pitch as Pulis has done? Forget entertainment. It’s just about winning.
The toast of football last September, Phil Brown, has now been found out.
The warning to McCarthy and McLeish is that Brown’s Hull City are jam-packed with high wage earners. Brown’s team cost a small fortune.
They have the mix of flair in people like Geovanni, and they have experienced guile in Kilbane, Boateng and Barmby. The loan market has also been explored.
And yet here they are, free-falling towards relegation after one win in 19 matches and hopelessly outclassed by a Villa team who had last won in February.
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