Inside the Tigers dressing room as City star calls for his side to end sluggish starts
Barry Cooper Hull City correspondent
05:00, 06 Nov 2025
Joel Ndala netted his first Championship goal for Hull City at Derby County
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Joel Ndala netted his first Championship goal for Hull City at Derby County(Image: Phil Oldham/Shutterstock)
Hull City winger Joel Ndala admits Tuesday night was a bittersweet moment for him as he netted his first Championship goal in a 2-1 defeat for his side.
The on-loan Manchester City youngster bundled in from Regan Slater's cross five minutes into the second half against Derby County at Pride Park, only for a goalkeeping error late on to see the Rams claim an unlikely 2-1 victory.
Their Pride Park defeat ended City's six-game unbeaten run, as attention now turns to Saturday's home visit of Portsmouth in the Tigers' final game before the international break.
"It's a little bit of a bittersweet moment because I was happy to get my first Championship goal, but to lose in that manner was a bit unlucky. It's football, this stuff happens, and we've just got to keep going and not dwell on this one too much," he told Hull Live.
Ndala's goal cancelled out Carlton Morris' thumping header, which came in a first half where City huffed and puffed, without really looking a threat. Matt Crooks' speculative effort off the bar was the best they could muster.
That showing came on the back of a terrible first half at Norwich City on Saturday, which, fortunately, saw them get to half-time goalless before going on to win the game.
Ndala says starting quickly is key, and he wants to see more of that moving forward as the Tigers look to bounce back against Pompey this weekend.
He added; "We've got to do better in the first half. Like at Norwich, we started a bit slow and got going in the second half, and it was kind of the same thing here. We tweaked it a little bit (at half-time), and then the message was to do better, start strong, play the way that we play, and I felt like we'd done that in the second half, and it was just unlucky to concede so, so late.
"I think that's what we need to do. We need to start strong. The way that we play, we like to play attacking football, and if we're able to do that for a longer period of time, I don't see why we wouldn't win more games, but the lads know that we just gotta keep going, really.
"Playing the way that we play, we were a bit sluggish, a bit slow. We just had to put a shift in. When you know that you're not playing as well, you just gotta try not to concede a goal, and obviously that happened, but we bounced back really well, and we just got to do better next time."
In the first half, City conceded a lot of corners and long throw-ins, something Dean Holden warned against in the build-up to the game, and Ndala admits his side did fall into the Rams' traps.
"Yes, a little bit. We knew that they were going to play a lot of long balls. If they get any type of set piece or throw-ins, they'll lump it in the box, and I felt we didn't do enough to try and stop that. In the second half, we did, and obviously, when you do, we get a lot of the ball, we get a lot of time on the ball, to do what we need to do."
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