Hull City 1 Wanderers 0

WHAT started off as a vocal minority is now threatening to turn into a sizeable majority — these are worrying times indeed for Wanderers boss Gary Megson.

Having started the season on such a low note at home against Sunderland, an undeniably improved performance in Humberside is unlikely to pacify those growing number of club patrons who have started to demand that action is taken after a second successive defeat.

It’s nothing new for the beleaguered boss, whose unique position in the Premier League among his own supporters continues to puzzle onlookers from outside this area of Lancashire.

In the past, such waves of negative emotion have been checked by results, forged by a collective team spirit that even the most ardent anti-Megson subscriber can hardly fail to notice.

Fans have voiced their disapproval in such numbers before on their travels — Ewood Park and White Hart Lane spring to mind — but within a week, Wanderers had conjured a performance to silence the doubters, such as the home wins over Manchester City and Spurs, and their influence has subsided.

The unattractive prospect of Prenton Park and a home visit of Liverpool now present the only two chances to do just that before the international break.

If a result is to be gleaned from either game, then someone within the side is going to have to find their shooting boots.

Chances came and went from the second minute to the last at the KC Stadium and while Hull were marginally less profligate, the fact that Kamel Ghilas did put one away ensured that Wanderers paid dearly.

Johan Elmander missed a glorious opportunity after only 100 seconds of the game but in lashing wide from eight yards, looks like a player with over a day’s worth of goal-less football weighing heavy on his mind.

Hull bear a striking resemblance these days to an early-Premier League Whites, with Phil Brown looking like he has gone back to what he knows best to make sure the Tigers enjoy a second successive season in the big time.

Wanderers mopped up everything that was thrown at them up to the break, venturing forward on a regular basis to earn several free-kicks around the penalty area that would have been punished on a different day.

Kevin Davies later held up his hands for his part in the wastefulness of it all. His unconvincing poke at Matt Taylor’s free-kick on the stroke of half time goes down as the miss of the game.

In unheralded Algerian striker Ghilas, Hull seem to have recruited well, and his determination allied to Geovanni’s guile made sure the home side kept themselves in the hunt.

Fabrice Muamba was the unlikely driving force behind Wanderers’ best work — the England Under-21 international continuing his golden summer in Sweden with the national team into the new season.

On the hour, Brown opted for a change in tack, bringing on American striker Jozy Altidore and shifting to a front two. Within a minute, he reaped the dividends.

Gary Cahill failed to get any distance on a cleared header, allowing the newly-installed substitute to dink the ball over the flat-footed Zat Knight for Ghilas to lash past Jussi Jaaskelainen.

The goal signalled some renewed vigour in the chants from the away end, perhaps accounting for the sudden nervousness displayed in Wanderers’ efforts to get back into the game.

Hull simply picked their chances on the break and should have extended their lead. Altidore beat Jaaskelainen with a shot that landed inches wide and Ghilas nearly claimed a second with a rasping shot that cannoned off the bar.

Elmander was withdrawn for Lee Chung-Yong who twice had chances to make the same scoring impact as his American counterpart but was on both occasions denied by Boaz Myhill.

The Hull keeper had been living a relatively charmed life in goal, struggling to deal with Taylor’s free-kicks throughout.

But it was only later in the game that his shot-stopping abilities shone through, as the former Aston Villa youngster denied Sam Ricketts a scoring return to his old club.

The home side rode their luck, and Cahill could have had a penalty when Dawson clattered him on the edge of the box. Referee Mike Jones was never likely to be the villain of this piece, however, as most of the visiting supporters’ gaze — rightly or wrongly — was fixed firmly on the dugout.

Wanderers’ need for a goalscorer is obvious. But, worryingly, Megson believes it would take a striker of Nicolas Anelka’s considerable stature to turn his current squad from potential mid-table fodder to something approaching that which could emulate their former glories.

Given that he is unlikely to get funds approximating the £8million Sam Allardyce paid for the Frenchman three years ago from Fenerbahce, let alone the £15m it took for Chelsea to tempt him to Stamford Bridge, his assessment is made all the more concerning to those with the club at heart.

“It’s not just a case of ‘let’s get a striker and everything will be hunky-dory’,” Megson told The Bolton News. “If we could get Nicolas Anelka back, we’d go back to the football club we were a couple of years ago.

“That’s what he did. He changed Bolton from a team that finished 13th to a team that finished seventh. It’s a huge, huge difference. Take his goals away, and do the maths. Even though he left in January, we would have got relegated but for the goals he scored in the first half of the season.”

So with little chance of bringing a player with guaranteed goals “a la Anelka” it is likely the manager must again inspire someone from within his own ranks to turn the tide, or at least slow it, over the next six days.