Ouattara rescues point for Brentford as Hull maintain unbeaten home record

Hull’s unbeaten home record remains intact but the Tigers have not tasted victory for seven games after this draw with Brentford.

The opening goal came courtesy of a 24th-minute Oli McBurnie penalty, awarded when Aaron Hickey flattened Tim Iroegbunam while trying to hook the ball away.

Although Brentford’s Caoimhín Kelleher guessed right, he could not stop McBurnie scoring his first Premier League goal for more than 900 days.

After the break, Hull were left to rue some inattentive defending as Igor Thiago found his way to Dango Ouattara, who slotted the ball home under very little pressure to make it 1-1 in the 63rd minute.

Jaidon Anthony pushed for a second Brentford goal and saw a shot land just wide before getting a second chance, which forced a save from Konstantinos Tzolakis, but there was a quick counter as Mohamed Belloumi raced in the other direction before firing over from distance.

An 88th-minute chance was Hull’s last to find the winning goal, but Mohamed-Ali Cho’s cross to Joe Gelhardt resulted in an off-target shot that ensured the Tigers took no more than a point.

Hull’s manager, Sergej Jakirovic, was pleased with the improved efforts of his side after last weekend’s defeat by Fulham. “I think we played a good game, especially in the first half,” he said. “We were much more aggressive in duels, we won a lot of first and second balls. Maybe there were some cheap mistakes, bad passing, bad receiving, but you see how fast they are – in five seconds they were in our box. We should have scored one or maybe two more with better decisions.”

Both clubs were required to pick through the detritus of the pre-match display in the opening minutes as balloons and litter were carried by the strong winds of Storm Boelo on to the pitch.

The first chance of note fell to the visitors, with Hull faltering in midfield after 11 minutes and allowing Hickey to unleash a shot that was comfortably dealt with by Tzolakis.

Ten minutes later, Belloumi found McBurnie inside the box, but as the Scot was preparing to strike, Mathias Jensen rushed in to foil the attempt.

After 22 minutes the visitors offered their hosts a golden chance when Hickey, having failed to collect a ball from Kelleher, lunged at the legs of Iroegbunam and floored him to give away a penalty. McBurnie stepped up and made no mistake.

Brentford had to wait until the 63rd minute to equalise, Ouattara made the most of lax Hull defending to collect an Igor Thiago ball and tap home.

Belloumi then reacted with a sprint towards the Brentford goal with substitute Cho in pursuit as back up, but the long-range shot was too high and flew into the stand.

The final roll of the dice was Cho’s cross in to Gelhardt, but he was wide of the mark and the whistle blew on a 1-1 draw that maintains unbeaten records home and away. Jakirovic added: “I can regret the chance we had through Mohamed-Ali Cho and Gelhardt, maybe it should have been 2-1, but in the end I think it’s a fair result.”

Brentford’s head coach, Keith Andrews, who had a spell at Hull as a player, was happy to see the response from the players who were brought off the bench during the second half in the lead up to their equaliser. He said: “It was a tough game and it was always going to be a tough game. I’ve got a lot of respect for Sergej and the journey he’s taken this team on – I think it’s been remarkable. We reacted well at half-time, the impact from the bench was pretty good but it was a tough game.”