Regan Slater says the Hull City dressing room were quick to rally around Mason Burstow and Alfie Jones after the pair missed penalties in their FA Cup loss to Doncaster Rovers.
Burstow had a chance to win the tie for City with the fifth penalty after four successful kicks, but blazed over the bar, before Teddy Sharman-Lowe saved Jones’ kick. Those misses presented Harry Clifton with the chance to score the winning penalty which he did in sudden-death.
City’s young forward was consoled by his teammates and then again in the dressing room after the game, with the players reflecting on yet another early exit from a cup competition.
“People miss pens,” Slater told Hull Live. “Mase is gutted like anyone would be, but he’s not the first to miss one, and he won’t be the last. It’s not his fault at all. We shouldn’t have let it get to penalties, we feel. We let it get to penalties, and it’s anyone’s game when that happens. I think we created more than enough, really. We just weren’t clinical enough.
“Yes (we’ve supported him). Straight after, the lads said ‘get your head’ up kind of thing. I literally said to him, ‘Mase, you weren’t the first to miss and you won’t be the last’. It just happens, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it was him who was on the receiving end.”
Slater also spoke about the state of the MKM Stadium pitch, which cut up badly and left many fans questioning why it was in such a poor state given the £1m-plus investment in the summer.
“Yes, well, it is (difficult to play on),” he continued. “That’s not me saying that we’ve lost the game because of the pitch at all. We still created more than enough chances to go and take the game, but I’m not really sure what’s happened with the pitch. It’s not even like it’s had the rugby on it. It’s in a bad way.
“We obviously notice it; we’re playing on it. You go to other stadiums, and you’re like, ‘Wow, this is a nice pitch’ and whatnot, and ours is just not really there. It just cuts up easily for whatever reason; it’s quite lively at times, but like I said, that’s not me chucking excuses about at all. We’ve created more than enough chances.
“The training pitches are fine. I think that this time of year, the standard in pitches does drop everywhere with the weather; I think that’s normal, but the training pitches are sound, so I don’t really know what’s going on with this one.”