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It was an absolute shocker and how on earth we got into the dressing rooms at half time only two goals behind is anyone's guess. It will be four years next week since we last conceded four goals in a game (at Coventry) and this could have easily been more. Just like Blackpool in January it was on a par with that Coventry performance. We were over run, we were out thought, we were out muscled and by some considerable distance we were outplayed.
Hull boss Phil Brown said ahead of the game that he wanted his team to come out like a wounded animal and without doubt they did. Owen Coyle said he wanted his players to take the bull by the horns and in all honesty I don't think we even bothered to take the bull with us, let alone the horns.
In front of a very healthy away support the first forty-five minutes was totally unacceptable as Jay-Jay Okocha run the show and their front two Fraizer Campbell and Caleb Folan had chance, after chance, after chance.
I arrived at the KC, via the M62 problems, in good time to learn that Owen Coyle had made just one change from Saturday with David Unsworth coming in at left back for Jon Harley and Stanislav Varga returning to the bench. It seemed a strange change to make but we later learned that Harley was attending the birth of his baby boy who was born just over an hour before kick off.
We took seats very close to where we have sat in the two previous seasons and I think now is the time to start thinking of finding different seats for any subsequent visits to a ground where we still await our first goal.
Sometimes you can sense a poor performance very early and with less than three minutes on the clock last night I expressed my concern that this was going to be a nightmare. Hull got hold of the ball and just came at us, and I'm afraid we'd no real answer. When we did get possession of the ball you could guarantee that we would promptly give it away again.
In the opening exchanges we did have one good moment as Wade Elliott got into a good position after taking the ball off left back Andy Dawson but he made a mess of his shot. Apart from that all the action was right in front of us.
They fired a couple of testers just wide of the target before Campbell shot wide when he really should have scored. Then there was an almighty scramble in our box following a shocking mistake by captain Steven Caldwell and this time we were thankful to Caleb Folan making a complete hash of things.
It was one way traffic, and we needed to see it off one way or the other. That we didn't was in the end down to another piece of totally inept goalkeeping from Brian Jensen who, just as he had done ten days earlier at Plymouth, gifted the hosts the lead.
Yes, Campbell should not have been given the sort of opportunity he was given, but he didn't get a good shot in and it was routine stuff for the goalkeeper. Sadly it went right through him and just over the line before we could hack it away.
Out came the apologetic arms to his team mates again but this was all our beleaguered defence needed and looking at their reaction you knew, just knew, that we were not coming back from this. To be fair to Jensen he went on to make some good saves after this but that's like shutting the stable door once the horses have bolted.
By the time the second one came they should have been out of sight but the two strikers both missed another good chance each. Then came that second and once the shot was hit there was nothing anyone could do about it.
Carlisle it was who allowed him to get his shot in after he gave the ball away but Richard Garcia hit an absolute screamer into the corner and no goalkeeper on earth would have stopped that one.
Nothing changed, other than us bringing Joey Gudjonsson on for Chris McCann. All Hull had to do was knock balls over the top of our back four and it was Bob's your uncle, they had another chance. Twice Jensen was very alert to get out and dive at the feet of forwards but we just sat aghast at how inept and totally naïve we were.
One real optimist to my left kept mentioning QPR but this was never going to be another comeback although Kyle Lafferty should have pulled one back just before half time but shot weakly into the hands of otherwise redundant Boaz Myhill.
I bet we were relieved to get in at 2-0. I'm not sure what Owen Coyle could possibly have said to them during the fifteen minute break but I think he must have been lost for words because they came out very early for the second half.
Lafferty missed another chance just after the restart as we decided to go for it and try and get ourselves back into the game. The theory was good but in reality we never really threatened and Hull just seemed to be happy for us to have the ball as they protected their lead with some ease.
Just a few minutes in Coyle had had enough and brought Robbie Blake on with Lafferty hauled off. We did have much of the play and Andrew Cole hit the bar with a header from a Wade Elliott cross in one of our better moments.
The game in effect came to an abrupt end with some twenty minutes to go. At that point referee Riley sent off Folan following an off the ball incident at the far end of the ground and Caldwell was also yellow carded in the incident.
Could having a one man advantage make a difference? We never got the chance to find out. Just thirty seconds later Caldwell stupidly committed a foul on the half way line. He turned to walk off even before Riley got his cards out.
Five minutes later we won a corner on the right wing but before we could take it Gudjonsson went down with Okocha in close proximity. After deliberations and talks with his assistant he red carded Okocha and yellow carded Joey. Strangely it looked as if Riley was about to do a Poll with Joey but he then realised it was a second yellow and the red came out again.
Carlisle led a Burnley protest that it should have been a penalty, but this all took place with the ball out of play and a Burnley corner. He correctly restarted the game with the corner after explaining it to Carlisle.
The rest of the game, to be honest, was pointless. I'm not sure what formation we played but Hull were able to sort theirs out with three substitutions. It all of a sudden looked a very big pitch for 9-a-side football.
The final whistle couldn't come soon enough but we had to endure another four minutes of stoppage time before he brought this shocking episode to an end.
We'd talked about the play offs ahead of the game. Really? On this showing we'll be miles away and there is a concern now with the away form. We've lost four of the last six and in those games have turned in two horror shows. It has to be sorted.
This was one we really couldn't afford to lose, but having lost it we now have to go to Stoke and get at least a point if not all three. We go without Caldwell and frankly given this performance that will be a bonus. He had an absolute shocker. We'll also be without Gudjonsson for two games so all of a sudden the squad is reducing in numbers again.
But whoever plays, it has to be better than this. The performance at Hull was just totally unacceptable, we cannot afford even one more like, or anything like, that this season.
Man of the match - there wasn't one.
The teams were;
Hull: Boaz Myhill, Sam Ricketts, Michael Turner, Wayne Brown, Andy Dawson, Ian Ashbee, Jay-Jay Okocha, Henrik Pederson (Simon Walton 90), Richard Garcia (Dean Marney 81), Fraizer Campbell (Ryan France 79). Subs not used: Mark Tyler, Neil Clement.
Burnley: Brian Jensen, Graham Alexander, Clarke Carlisle, Steven Caldwell, David Unsworth, Wade Elliott, James O'Connor (Mark Randall 71), Chris McCann (Joey Gudjonsson 33), Kyle Lafferty (Robbie Blake 54), Ade Akinbiyi, Andrew Cole. Subs not used: Gabor Kiraly, Stanislav Varga.
Referee: Mike Riley (Leeds).
