Hull continue to confound their betters

Hull City 1 West Ham 0:ASKED AT what stage his club's targets would start to change this season, Hull City manager Phil Brown smiled and prevaricated. "People talk about bubbles bursting but if we lose, my answer is we'll simply look to blow another," he shrugged.

As long as their opposition continue to give the impression they have not only underestimated the Tigers but that they have not bothered to do their homework, Hull will continue to pick up points.

With Marlon King coming through a fitness test, Brown was able to name the same side, and formation, with Geovanni playing directly behind Marlon King and Daniel Cousin.

Given that the Hammers' front line saw Craig Bellamy and Matthew Etherington featuring on either side of Carlton Cole, it seemed unlikely the ball would spend too much time in midfield, an impression which proved accurate in an opening quarter during which, if City had the majority of possession, much the better football was played by the visitors.

It should have been rewarded after 15 minutes when Bellamy followed a run down the left with a cross which found Cole unmarked eight yards from goal, only for the striker to steer his shot straight at Hull goalkeeper Boaz Myhill, who saved with ease.

Having already put the ball in the net illegitimately, though cleverly, after nipping the ball off Myhill in mid-clearance - and having been booked for his pains - West Ham left back Herita Ilunga timed his run to meet Mark Noble's corner perfectly, only to head wide from little more than six yards.

The Hammers should still have gone in ahead though, after Cole headed Noble's cross neatly into the path of Bellamy. The Wales forward failed to keep his head down, shooting wildly over.

Strangely flat during the first period, Hull began the second at a different tempo. George Boateng and King both shot wide before they took the lead with a goal - from West Ham's point of view - of depressing simplicity.

Andy Dawson swung in a corner from the right and Michael Turner jumped higher than England's Matthew Upson to head past Robert Green.

Turner had scored in the same way in his team's previous outing here, against Everton, but that was a match in which Hull led by two before being pegged back. A solitary goal looked unlikely to be enough yet West Ham continued to spurn chances.

Cole followed a muscular run down the left with a cross which Etherington volleyed into the side-netting and Noble's free-kick from 20 yards failed to beat the wall as the visitors struggled to unlock Hull's resilient defence.

"We knew they are dangerous at set-pieces but sometimes that's very difficult to stop," said West Ham boss Gianfranco Zola. "I'm not disappointed about the goal, I'm more disappointed about missing all the chances we create."

In the meantime Brown continues to prove himself a more astute tactician than many suspected.

"I thought at half-time we could play more football and because we weren't, we were giving the ball away too cheaply," he said.

"Consequently we had to sacrifice Geovanni behind the front two and play him out wide, because whenever you give possession away, your system will fail, simple as that.

"We decided to go more in the faces of the West Ham players higher up the field. I thought we'd dropped off too much, given them a bit too much respect, and as a good football team they were causing us problems.

"Cousin and King started engaging their centre-halves earlier, and that made it easier for our three in midfield."

Guardian Service