Ruben Selles described Abu Kamara’s 90th-minute equaliser against table-topping Leeds United as the perfect way to end the week after the Tigers hauled themselves back from 3-1 down to draw 3-3.
City roared into a fifth minute lead when man of the moment Kamara expertly lobbed Illian Meslier and it stayed that way until early in the second half, when To Tanaka curled in the equaliser, and then the Whites looked to have taken the game away from Selles’ side with goals from Dan James and Joel Piroe.
Joao Pedro capitalised on a goalkeeping error to thump in with 10 minutes to go before Kamara thumped in a fizzing volley in the 90th minute to cap a terrific turnaround.
Kamara’s two goals were his first for the club and came just hours after Selles conducted an unusual pre-match press conference alongside the winger in a bid to support him, after he came in for heavy criticism following Wednesday night’s defeat to Middlesbrough.
“Well, it feels like a perfect final point for what had happened in the last couple of days and I’m very happy for the team and for him,” the Spaniard told Hull Live.
“Yes (it was a sensational end), I think the team is competitive and that competitiveness and my experience with that against teams in the top, like Leeds today, is that, if you want to get something from the game, you need to go and take it.
“You need to just analyse how you can do it and the ways that you can do it. You cannot do it by just chasing, but there are moments in the game when you can just go and attack and press and win balls and score.
“I think we did it today, and there are some moments that you need a little bit of extra (passion) as we showed after going down to 3-1, and I’m very happy because that shows that we can compete against anybody.”
Kamara’s goal after five minutes capped a good start from City and it should have been 2-0 on the half-hour when Regan Slater hit the post with the goal at his mercy from Gustavo Puerta’s brilliant run and cross, and they were punished in the second when the Whites came from a goal down to lead 3-1 and take control. But Selles’ men refused to give up and were rewarded with a stunning comeback – just the fourth time this season they’ve scored more than one goal in a game.
“We started the game showing that we wanted to compete. We wanted first to try to press them in the moment that we can press them because Leeds are a very fluid team in possession, and then we threaded them when we had the ball. I think that action in the fifth minute (Kamara’s goal) shows what we wanted to do and I think we continue going, being ourselves, the game was open.
“We had chances, they had chances and then when we arrived at half-time, we tried to adjust a couple of things, but the general feeling was that we are competitive.
“We’re in the game, and we need to continue doing the right things. We had that conversation after Swansea (about trying to keep attacking) that if we continue doing so, we will be in a good place. I think that goal coming from a great strike (from Tanaka) just put us a little bit on the back foot, and then when we went 3-1 down, we just tried to play one more action, to try to get the feeling of the game again.
“We get that free kick, Joao (Pedro) follows the action perfectly and we scored the second goal. Then we have the feeling in the players that we can get something today from this game, and we did it.
“I think we have been competitive in all the games, sometimes better than others. But, today showed that we can compete, but we have to be at our maximum best to compete against anybody.”