Stalwart Ashbee taken to Hull and back

IAN ASHBEE is leading from the front as Hull City scent a Premier League future only four years after they were languishing in the bottom tier of English league football.

The City captain powered in an 86th-minute header to secure a victory that means they could yet finish in an automatic promotion place.

There could be no more fitting scorer of such a critical goal than the 31-year-old midfield player, who has been with Hull every step of the way on their journey from the old Third Division.

Now they go to Ipswich on Sunday knowing a win could lift them into the top flight in the unlikely event that Stoke City lose at Leicester and West Brom fail to gather a point from their last two matches.

Otherwise, they are destined for the play-offs where their likeliest opponents in the semi-finals will be Crystal Palace, whose appearance in the top six is even more surprising than Hull’s after their abysmal start to the season.

Ashbee is happy to accept either route if it ends in the Premier League. Indeed, he is happy just to be playing after spending nearly a year on the sidelines with a degenerative bone condition.

“There are players who have been finished with what I had, but I’ve come back and that’s why I’m savouring every game because I didn’t think I’d get this chance again,” he said.

Palace, meanwhile, need to beat Burnley to be certain of an appearance in the play-offs that appeared improbable when they were second-bottom shortly after Neil Warnock’s arrival as manager in October.

They have been on an impressive run and, until Ashbee’s goal, looked destined for another point after Scott Sinclair’s 38th-minute goal wiped out a lead given to Hull by Fraizer Campbell.

Warnock said: “We know what we have to do and we should really enjoy the challenge. It’s still in our own hands.

“We can’t complain if we don’t get into the play-offs. We’ve given it a good go and taken it to the last game, when I thought we might be playing somebody to avoid relegation. We should have a good crowd for once — we might get 16,000.”

If Palace do face Hull in the play-offs it should be tasty affair if Hull’s Dean Windass and Palace midfielder Shaun Derry are involved. Windass was left on crutches after a tackle that earned Derry a booking. If Windass recovers from his gashed leg, prepare for a return bout worth watching.

HULL (4-3-1-2): Myhill 6, Ricketts 5, Turner 7, Brown 5, Pedersen 5 (Doyle 32, 6), Marney 6, Ashbee 8, Hughes 6 (Barmby 6), Windass 6 (Fagan 24, 6), Campbell 7, Folan 7.

Subs Not Used: Duke, Walton.

CRYSTAL PALACE (4-3-3): Speroni 6, Butterfield 6, Hudson 7, Fonte 6, Hill 6, Sinclair 7 (Ifill 6, 70), Soares 7, Derry 6 (Scannell 5, 87), Watson 7, Sinclair 7, Morrison 7, Moses 7.

REFEREE: Russell Booth (Nottinghamshire) 7: Came in for criticism from Neil Warnock, but what referee doesn’t?

MATCH RATING: *** Quality was in short supply, though Hull’s Fraizer Campbell and Palace’s Victor Moses gave further evidence of their potential.