"I wish this coffee was whiskey," were the words from Nigel Pearson as he poured himself a hot beverage in the media room to conduct his post-match interview.
Perhaps it was inevitable that Bristol City were going to be on the end of a cruel defeat after their pre-match preparations were disrupted when the team coach had an electrical fault before even leaving the team hotel.
Ten taxis later, the players rocked up into the MKM Stadium in good mood just over an hour before kick-off as the buzz of the new season took its grip among those inside the stadium.
City were on a one-way journey to three crucial points when Andi Weimann, the driving force of the club's attack last season, fired the visitors ahead on 30 minutes when he crashed home Zak Vyner's header back across goal from Kal Naismith's excellent free-kick.
With 18 minutes to go, the wheels came off as City were on the receiving end of two hugely questionable decisions. Naismith was adjudged to have made contact on Benjamin Tetteh with a dangled leg in the box which brought Hull level before the referee waved away a penalty shout up the other end when Rob Atkinson was dragged down for a corner. A new season but some things never change.
Then came the brutal blow when Jean Michael Seri's effort from distance took a wicked deflection off Timm Klose before rippling into the back of the net.
Here's the verdict from the MKM Stadium.
Crying out for a defensive midfielder
Nigel Pearson's already clearly confessed the squad is short in certain areas and one can only assume he is referring to both to a midfielder and a central defender.
There was a moment last season after the defeat to Birmingham where the manager stated in the post-match press conference that he didn't have a defensive midfielder in his squad. Well, almost five months on and City remain in the same boat.
Although it's surely not through the will of trying the manager has his hands tied to an extent about the business he can do in this transfer window. He's admitted there may not be any more incomings unless players leave but even so, the squad remains so small anyway - who can afford to leave?
Today City were crying out for a defensive midfielder in that second half when Hull were committing numbers forward looking to get themselves back into the contest. Matty James and Joe Williams were excellent, particularly in that first half, but they were overrun at times during the second period and were forced on too many occasions to run towards their own goal.
They needed an authoritative figure to sit in front of the defence and prevent the likes of Seri from getting hold of the ball. Not only that, they needed somebody who could pick up possession and get their foot on the ball to alleviate any pressure.
Pearson mentioned it in his post-match presser, saying: "There's a lot of things I liked about our performance, we just didn't have the clinical edge to our passing in the second half."
It's why the ongoing issue with Han-Noah Massengo is having more impact than one as we approach an important final month of the transfer window. In an ideal world, City can sell the Frenchman and reinvest the money in signing a defensive midfielder but this isn't a game of Football Manager and it's a lot more complicated than that.
It's clear that Pearson is reluctant to play Massengo, in spite of all his talent, and rightly so if he's not going to be part of the squad looking towards the future. It's easy to look back on hindsight and say his energy was perhaps missing out there today in the final 30 minutes in particular but even so, he's not the midfield enforcer City need at the moment.
Loan deals remain a possibility and the links with Aston Villa's Tim Iroegbunam suggest Pearson's honing in on a player that ticks those boxes but the second half, in particular, was prime evidence of how that game could have been influenced by the extra man in the middle.
Tommy Conway over Nahki Wells?
The pecking order may have just changed in attack over the summer. On 60 minutes, Pearson made a double change replacing Alex Scott and Mark Sykes with Kane Wilson and Tommy Conway.
Of course, it's just the first game of the new season so it's not right to read too much into it but there's still ground for speculation that perhaps Conway's form in pre-season has elevated him ahead of Nahki Wells in the pecking order of strikers.
On his introduction, Weimann slotted back into the No10 role with Conway moving alongside Chris Martin in attack. The young forward, who recently signed a three-year contract extension, looked sharp and buoyed by the fact he had been given the nod on the back of his recent form.
At one moment, he gathered the ball on the left and drove at the defender beating him for pace. His cross was low and powerful with his left foot but he couldn't find the runner and the keeper was allowed to smother the ball.
The warning signs were there and there was another opportunity that he may be thinking about while laying in bed last night. Wilson did superbly to take the ball inside the area on the right side, he played it into Conway but he couldn't adjust his body and fired it over the crossbar.
It's worth noting that City were 1-0 ahead when Conway was introduced and therefore Hull were looking to put men forward in search of an equaliser. Perhaps the manager thought his pace on the counter-attack would be more effective than Wells during that situation.
Although it does pose the question of how Pearson sees his involvement going forward. There's no doubt he'll feature a lot more than the five appearances he made last season.
Following the game against Bournemouth, the manager almost scoffed at the question asking whether there was a possibility he could go out on loan this season. Conway is here to stay this campaign.
It also raises the debate about Wells - another player with a year left on his contract. There has never been a question about his character, desire and commitment although his future before the end of the transfer window remains uncertain. Until that uncertainty has been ironed out, it could be Conway's opportunity to lose.
A glowing debut
Mark Sykes may have not got the same furore as fellow signings Kane Wilson and Kal Naismith when he signed for Bristol City but he's wasting little time in endearing himself to the Robins faithful.
When he signed having spent the season as a right-winger at Oxford, the only familiar questions (and rightly so) about where he was going to fit in with the squad. There was also the niggling feeling, and I was guilty of it, of thinking is he going to be another player that falls into the category of square pegs in round holes?
So far including in pre-season, he has been deployed as the No10 and at wing-back. Yesterday, Sykes was preferred at wing-back with Alex Scott playing behind the forwards.
There's always questions about whether a player can make the step up in leagues, particularly in a position unfamiliar to him but Sykes certainly didn't look a fish out of water on his debut.
In fact, he was possibly City's brightest performer as he started the game on the front foot with no signs whatsoever of nerves. Bursting down that right flank, he could have easily had an assist in the opening six minutes.
Picking the ball up deep in Hull's half, he showed a brilliant piece of skill to take it around his man and dig out a cross. It landed on the head of James but his header was turned around the post by the keeper.
As we will see with City's wing-backs throughout the course of the season, attacking will be just as important as defending and Sykes was eager to get himself involved high up the pitch. However, it was positionally that was most impressive.
There was a moment against Bournemouth when he allowed his man to step in front of him inside the area and although it came to nothing, it showed that there is going to be teething problems as he adapts to the position.
There was no sign of it against Hull with Sykes keeping his side of the pitch quiet alongside the equally as impressive Zak Vyner. It's also worth noting that Sykes may be considered something of a master of the dark arts.
There were a few occasions during the game where he would be on the turf, looking to buy time and free-kicks when City were ahead. At one point his screams were audible from where we were sitting when he went down under a challenge near the corner flag clutching his angle.
Pearson was equally as impressed at full-time, saying: "I thought he was excellent in the first half. He's a quick learner, he's a good footballer and I think he's made a very good debut today."
The referee
Nigel Pearson was reluctant to make a statement on the referee's performance at the full-time whistle and it comes as no surprise considering his record with the FA. His wallet was a little lighter after the QPR game last season when he was fined £5,000 for labelling Andy Davies a park referee.
Ironically the MKM Stadium backs out onto a park and the same could be said for Dean Whitehouse who engineered Hull's way back into the game when he pointed to the spot in the 72nd minute.
Only one glance at the highlight reel doing the rounds on social media after the contest shows what a shambolic decision it was. Tetteh took an age to hit the turf, almost trying to debate in his own mind whether to take the shot off or go down under Naismith's tackle.
Eventually, he went down and much to the disbelief of those in the media gantry, the referee awarded it. I've counted he took five steps before deciding to go down as he weighed up which would be the best opportunity to bring his side level.
So that was that and the Atkinson one was equally as controversial with the defender getting on the wrong side of his man. He had his arms around the City centre-back with the pair both falling to the ground, albeit nothing was given.
Now, I'm not completely biased. Perhaps Alex Scott and Zak Vyner may have been fortunate not to have conceded penalties in the first half with two challenges aptly described as "untidy" by my colleague sitting high up in the main stand.
The fact of the matter is, we're only one game into the new season and already we're still addressing the problem that was so glaringly obvious throughout last campaign and before - the standard of referees on the whole in the Championship is far from good enough.
Unless anything dramatic changes, it's going to be another season of dodgy decisions and frustration. Yes, they may even themselves out as the campaign goes on, but they need help.
I haven't been an advocate of VAR in the past. If used badly it affects the speed and momentum of the game and almost saps the energy out of the spectacle but the longer these decisions continue, the bigger the argument to implement it in the Championship.
Even Hull's Jean Michael Seri said the penalty would have been overturned had VAR been in use and when an opposition player is saying that, something has to give.
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