Hull City have been held to a goalless draw by League Two side Grimsby Town in their opening pre-season game this evening.
Both sides struck the woodwork at Blundell Park, but ultimately there was no way through as the two teams were forced to settle for a stalemate.
The match was barely five minutes old when Hull were hit with an early setback, with Moses Odubajo being forced off in the opening exchanges with an injury.
That was a rare moment of note during the early stages of the match as both sides struggled to get anything going in attack, with the first shot not arriving until the 25th minute when Mohamed Diame's long-range strike was beaten away by James McKeown.
Diame had earlier seen a penalty shout turned down, and it was the playoff hero who continued to look like Hull's biggest threat as the half wore on, with only a last-ditch challenge from Josh Gowling denying the midfielder a chance on the half-hour mark.
The two teams went into the interval without a goal, or even a chance, to show between them, but 10 minutes into the second half there was finally some goalmouth action as Jarrod Bowen's 25-yard piledriver came back off the woodwork.
A second opening arrived just a minute later when Andy Robertson's low cross found Sam Clucas in the middle, but he fired his shot straight at McKeown in the Grimsby goal.
Suddenly the chances were arriving thick and fast for the visitors, and McKeown was called into action again shortly after the hour mark when he denied Robert Snodgrass, who had latched on to Diame's pass and opened his body looking to pick out the bottom corner.
Grimsby finally created their first opening with just under 20 minutes remaining when Shaun Pearson climbed highest in the penalty area, only to nod his finish narrowly over the top.
The hosts came even closer to pulling off an upset just three minutes later when they caught Hull out with a quick free kick which was met by the head of Luke Summerfield, but his effort came back off the crossbar.
The newly-promoted Premier League outfit almost broke the deadlock themselves in the final 10 minutes when a free kick was played short to Greg Olley before the young striker curled his effort narrowly wide from just outside the area.
Olley had another chance to open the scoring moments later when he collected Jake Livermore's pass inside the area, but once again McKeown was equal to the effort to keep the scores goalless.
Indeed, that was how it stayed until the end of the match as Hull got their pre-season off to an inauspicious start ahead of their first campaign back in the top flight.
Barney Corkhill
