Hull pierced but still stay up

ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Hull City 0 Manchester Utd 1: RARELY CAN a defeat have been greeted with such jubilation by the losing side.

Hull City might have been outplayed but the most important moment of this unorthodox afternoon came late in the first half when a tiny roar started in the seats behind Phil Brown’s dugout and swept around the ground.

It told us Newcastle were losing at Villa Park and that Hull, the division’s out-of-form team, were on the way to preserving their Premier League status.

By that stage they were losing to Darron Gibson’s 30-yard strike and showing all the signs of anxiety that can be associated with a team that had not won a league match at home since December 6th. Hull were sixth on St Stephen’s Day and spent most of October in the top three, only denied top spot because of their goal difference. Ultimately, their brilliant start to the season has spared them the ignominy of finishing in the bottom three, with only nine points from the last 22 games.

Hull, in short, survived despite looking like the classic relegation side, outpassed and outthought by a callow and experimental Manchester United side whose inexperience could be accurately gauged by the fact their squad numbers totted up to 261.

Brown’s team played with a perplexing lack of urgency and desire, as though shorn of self-belief, but Newcastle’s inability to equalise at Aston Villa would ultimately lead to a joyous post-match celebration, albeit totally out of keeping with a defeat that vindicated Alex Ferguson’s decision to leave out all the players, the fit-again Rio Ferdinand included, who should start in the Champions League final against Barcelona in Rome’s Stadio Olimpico on Wednesday.

Ferguson, who confirmed Ferdinand had trained without any reaction to his calf injury, fielded a line-up including four players – Daniel Welbeck, Lee Martin, Ritchie De Laet and Gibson – who were making their first league starts for the club and a fifth, Federico Macheda, who was starting only his second game at this level, as well as seven players aged 17 to 21 on the bench.

Even with Gary Neville and Wes Brown in central defence, it was a raw, inexperienced side, and yet one that still looked a measure above their opponents. This might have been only the supporting cast but United’s superiority ought to have brought them more than Gibson’s wonderfully taken shot, 24 minutes into a game in which virtually all of the notable penalty-box action took place at the end where Boaz Myhill was in goal.

For long spells it seemed as though Hull’s only tactic was to rely on no further goal updates from Villa Park. They got their wish but it was still faintly shocking to see the vibrant, effervescent side of late-2008 looking so inferior against a team made up from United’s reserves and youth-academy graduates.

It should gall Newcastle, for all their own deficiencies, that Hull could survive after looking so wretched. An equaliser in the West Midlands would have sent them tumbling through the trapdoor.

Instead, there was a spontaneous and joyous pitch invasion and then, once the fans had been cleared from the pitch, Brown strutted out of the tunnel, holding a microphone and leading the crowd in an impromptu croon-a-thon. “We are staying up,” was the first croaky song.

Brown was clearly drunk on euphoria but, when the dust settles and the hangovers wear off, he clearly has some rebuilding work to keep him busy in the summer.

Hull may need to reinvent themselves because, on this evidence, they have kept their place in the league almost by default. Brown must have been disconcerted by the manner in which his players seemed to freeze.

Or maybe that is being unfair on the quality of the young players emerging from Old Trafford’s seemingly endless conveyor belt of talent. Macheda and Welbeck, 17 and 18 respectively, are now trusted members of Ferguson’s squad. Gibson will surely play more games next season and De Laet, a Belgian left-sided defender, did not look like a player who was struggling to get into Stoke City’s reserves until his surprise transfer in January.

The future at Old Trafford radiates with brightness. Hull, and Brown, will like to think the same applies to them.

Guardian Service