Hull City 2-1 Brighton & Hove Albion u23s as Tyler Smith forces way into Shota Arveladze thinking

Tyler Smith did his hopes of forcing his way into Shota Arveladze’s thinking no harm by scoring both goals in Hull City’s 2-1 win over Brighton and Hove Albion’s Under-23s on Saturday morning.

Smith, who faces serious competition this season at the MKM Stadium with the arrival of Oscar Estupinan and Benjamin Tetteh, notched two second half goals in true predator style to give the Tigers their opening victory in pre-season.

In blistering heat at the Marbella Football Centre, it was perhaps unsurprising that the game started with a relatively slow tempo. Already well in excess of 30 degrees early in the morning, City came close to going front early on when Williams beat his man down the left before firing in a teasing cross looking for Tyler Smith, who should have done better six yards out but made a mess of his finish. Luckily for him the flag was up on the far side, but he’ll feel disappointed to have not put the ball in the net from such close range.

City’s biggest threat continued to come from wide on the left with the Williams/Fleming combination and it was the former again who this time beat his man to whip in a pacey cross right onto the head of Mallik Wilks, who could only blaze his header over the bar at the back stick.

Brighton were not without their own threats and when Samy Chouchane beat Vaughn Covil inside the box, he could find the finish and dragged his shot into the side-netting of David Robson’s goal.

McLoughlin, captaining the side, looked to bring the ball out of defence but was caught in possession just outside the box, Brighton sprung and from that the Irishman was out of position allowing Matt Everitt to peel away from heading straight at Robson from close range.

Arguably, the best chance of