A season already going nowhere goes nowhere in the cup, either. Woe upon woe in deepest IP1…

Town’s underwhelming season continued its sorry journey with a swift exit in the Cup at the first hurdle. Sadly, Alf and the 600 die-hards who made the trip to Hull and back probably didn’t expect anything else.

The well-worn phrase ‘concentrate on the league’ is hardly a mouth-watering prospect for the Faithful.

The FA Cup aint what it used to be is the general consensus for Alf and his generation.

However, when a hardy bunch of souls unveiled a hopeful ‘Up for the Cup’ banner, closely followed by the ‘Spirit of ‘78’ it did at least revive memories of a once decent cup-fighting team.

Whether beleaguered and under-pressure Paul Jewel fielded a ‘weakened’ side is a moot point. Alf and the cynics would suggest that if the Liverpudlian had drawn eleven names from a hat at random, the difference would have been marginal.

So this week’s poisoned chalice was passed from Andy Drury to Luke Hyam. Nathan Ellington was given a rare start and Tommy Smith put in an appearance. To add to the fringe, one Jaime Peters was even spotted warming up, but presumably had the wrong sort of shorts to make the bench.

Taking this season’s team selection into account, it’s doubtful any of the fore-mentioned will be given a decent crack of the whip.

The KC Stadium at least boasts one of the nations’ keenest PA announcers, who did his best to whip the 10K crowd into a Cup frenzy.

Clearly mathematics is not the strongest subject at Humberside with the local mascot declaring he’d reckoned it would finish two all to Hull!

Bless him. Having not seen his favourites score over the Christmas period, struggling clubs up and down the land must be queuing up to play the side from IP1.

After a reasonably bright start, Alf was soon rocked back into his seat with the usual sight of Town defenders backing off and a general lack of responsibility and leadership. Still why change a habit of a season?

The worry was Sonko made a difference and in fairness this was an improvement of the Forest debacle – but all things are relative.

That said Sonko was out-muscled by Aaron Mclean for the hosts first goal. The second followed all too quickly when Cairney lobbed Lee-Barrett, whose positioning was questionable.

Alf’s finest faced the usual mountain, which has been a common feature all season.

Come the second half at least Town made a game of it and once Jason Scotland pounced on the rebound after the keeper half stopped a long range effort from Emmanuel-Thomas, there was even a long period when the boys looked like forcing a replay.

A dithering Carlos Edwards put paid to any such hopes when he was caught in possession and Cameron Stewart sentenced Town to another early exit from the Budweiser Cup.

It was never a classic and neither side really found the higher gears.

Again Town were found wanting all over the park, with quality crosses a rare treat for the travelling support. At the back, Town looked their usual vulnerable selves and a decent centre back is a must in the transfer window.

With under-fire CEO Simon Clegg facing up to the local media to insist that all was well at Portman Road, clearly he was whistling into a growing wind.

Having survived one tipping point earlier in the season, Paul Jewel’s tenure is looking precarious. Rightly or wrongly he’ll be given less time, simply because of Roy Keane’s failure to turn round Town’s fortunes.

Us Town fans are a patient lot, but we’re nearing the limits.