A thorough cuffing is delivered by a committed Huddersfield side perhaps taking advantage of the malaise caused by Peter Taylor's absence on Under-21 duty.

We had Elliott absent on international duty with Northern Ireland. We had Delaney absent with an injury. We had Green absent for no apparent reason. We had Taylor absent with the Under-21s. It was a fiercely hot and sunny lunchtime. There were lay-lines aligned against us. The Huddersfield players were looking at us in a funny way.

Make what excuses you like, the fact is that the Tigers were shat today, second best in key periods of the game against a committed Huddersfield side. This side achieved promotion last season through the play-offs and they have added only one player to their first eleven, combative midfielder Brandon signed from, gasp, Chesterfield. They may not have the relative riches of the Tigers but what they do have is a strong will to win and desire to succeed. I've spent decades watching the Tigers capitulate on the big match occasions and in the last week we have seen this habit return twice. OK, so derbies against Bradford and Huddersfield aren't exactly the defining moments of the club's history but nevertheless our opposition were able to raise their game for these fixtures, and City were not.

Lining up with the long and confusing words of Colin Murphy ringing in their ears were the following:

Myhill
Hinds Cort Joseph Dawson
France Ashbee Lewis Barmby
Allsopp Wilbraham

Stuart Green didn't even feature on the bench. Jason Price did. It'd be truly remarkable if we were looking to offload Greenie at this stage of the season but if that opens the door for Price, the one man to take real credit from his performance, then it won't all be entirely negative.

The opening moments were predictable. A lot of City fans came into the ground after the kick-off and attempted to claim the seat numbers quoted on their tickets, and a lot of people occupying those seats told them that if they wanted their allocated position they had better go and clear that big hairy bloke out of MY seat first. At which point the latecomers either got stroppy, called on a steward for assistance or took up one of the many empty seats elsewhere in the stand and made a mental note to get their arses out of bed earlier next time we had a midday kick-off. Or a combination of some or all of those.

Meanwhile on the pitch the Terriers, living up to their name, snapped at the heels of the Tigers and immediately set their rather more laid back foes on the back foot. Wilbraham and Barmby were both treated to some, er, robust tackles early on, mostly perpetrated by the somewhat off-his-rocker Sodje, but the passion and commitment had the desired effect and the away side retreated into a defensive shell. The first five minutes saw Barmby, selected in the left midfield position, play as left sided attacker and leave Dawson horribly exposed to raids down that wing. After seven minutes Holdsworth was found in acres of space on our left (Dawson had been eliminated by a neat 1-2 while Barmby was wandering around disinterestedly on halfway) and he advanced on our box. This lured Cort from his central position but Holdsworth was still able to pull a pass back to Abbott twelve yards from goal. To say that Abbott was unmarked is to say that Chechnya is currently a poor choice of destination for a school trip, but the Hudds striker was armed with nothing more than a right boot as he lashed his shot past the exposed Myhill into the roof of the net. Joseph, inattentively failing to cover Cort's covering run to the left, stood horribly out of position at the back post as all this happened. It wasn't a master class in defending, that's for sure.

One wonders what Huddersfield Town supporters must make of Hull City, especially those who don't often travel to away games. In the last ten months they have twice seen Hull City come to their stadium and defend in the manner of blindfolded parks players. This is a team that won automatic promotion last season and are amongst many people's favourites for a second elevation next May. "How can this be?", they must muse as they witness another calamitous mix-up in our defensive unit. That must've been their thoughts on 12 minutes as Booth rose above the lax Hinds on the far post and looped a powerful header onto Myhill's crossbar. That's what they must've thought as Cort and Myhill played out a faithful re-enactment of last season's Fettis/Joseph "after you sir" approach to backpasses, except this time Abbott wasn't as sharp as Stead and Myhill was able to scramble the ball clear. It would most certainly have been the question forming on the Town supporters' lips as Booth won a header and caused massed panic in the City box, which climaxed with a neat Hudds dummy and the ball rolling to left wing-back Edwards in space 14 yards from goal. With Hinds conspicuous by his absence Edwards gleefully fired a shot into the roof of the City net, matching Abbott's effort for direction, venom and panache. Thus the home side's advantage became two goals and a gulf in effort that a super tanker could easily sail through. Sideways.

City were not without their attacking intent as well. Well, yes they were actually. When we got forward Wilbraham was comfortably bested in the air by Sodje and Yates while Allsopp consistently took too many touches on the ball and ceded possession cheaply. Sodje's fired up state boiled over just before their second goal and he saw yellow for scything through Wilbraham's legs, but once the two goal margin was attained the Hudders' defence eased back. Too much as it nearly turned out.

Galvanised by Sodje's fouling, Ashbee decided immediately after Town's second to launch himself studs-up into two tackles right in front of the Hudders bench, a policy that the wounded Abbott took exception to. Ash saw yellow, probably rightly as while he went for the ball on both occasions, he failed painfully on at least one. As the half reached its midway point City finally had a chance worthy of the term, a Wilbraham shot from 22 yards smeared well wide after good play by Allsopp. This was soon followed by a promisingly positioned free-kick after another shove on Wilbraham but the weary Dawson, pooped after doing all of Barmby's defensive running as well as his own, fired the ball weakly at the Terriers' wall.

City now finally started to play in the opposition's half of the pitch and in the fifteen minutes before half-time had the tiger's share of possession without causing too many real alarms for Gray in the Hudds' goal. Lewis warmed Gray's hands after Dawson dispossessed Booth and set France free on the right. Then a replica move down our right saw Allsopp find space on the right hand side of the box, his low cross finding Lewis beyond the far post in a shooting position, albeit from a very narrow angle. Lewis's effort may or may not have been on target, but Sodje asked no questions and hacked it clear from off the goal line anyway. As half time dawned Huddersfield had clearly retreated into their shell after taking a comfortable lead, and if Murphy could invigorate the Tigers then a chance of getting back into the game was beckoning.

And that's pretty much what happened for a time. The largest City cheer of the day so far accompanied Price's introduction for the feeble HInds, France reverting to right back. On current evidence, Hinds simply isn't good enough for this level - Macclesfield will be interested, I should imagine. The sound from the thus-far mute City following of just over 3,000 was then racked up further as City tore into their opponents for 25 minutes of splendid attacking endeavour, the majority for City but Town also showing flashes of danger on the break. Price was into the game within seconds, beating a man and panicking their back line, then charging down a Sodje clearance and earning a yellow card for a high challenge that I thought the defender made a meal of. Seconds later Joseph fed Wilbraham who flicked on to Allsopp, but the Aussie's shot was blocked. Then Allsopp and Wilbraham briefly inhabited the same wavelength to craft a close-range chance for Price that hit the post. Barmby had a half chance after he worked a half-yard of space from a Joseph pass, but his effort was charged down. Then Price was fouled cynically by Edwards as the City wide man rampaged into space after City cleared a poor Hudders corner. At the heart of much of City's good work was Lewis, who covered masses of ground and used the ball well practically every time he received it. Less impressive was Ashbee who was very out of sorts for most of the game. Perhaps he was missing Taylor. Bless.

On the hour Cort flashed a header inches over from a France corner and a City goal seemed inevitable. Huddersfield had their chances, the main one being when Abbott raced clear and fired a nice shot past Myhill into the net. Alas, Abbott was flagged and whistled offside long before he applied his finish, and he was shown the yellow card. The ineffective Wilbraham was replaced by the willing Walters, whose entry to the pitch was cheered royally, and Jonboy soon made his mark with some intelligent "inside to out" runs that stretched the Hudders back three and created a couple of smothered scoring opportunities. Barmby was exerting little influence on the game but one neat through ball was Allsopp-bound before Mirfin stuck out an obvious hand and blocked the pass. He also saw yellow. From the free kick City reprised the "Joseph stands in wall, runs in a circle to behind the ball then shoots" routine. Remarkably, the shot was again piss-poor and barely reached the wall, let alone was blocked by it. Barmby had another shot which hit Joseph, the ball falling to Walters who swivelled and shot inches wide. Lots of possession, quite a few chances, no goals. By 70 minutes it was becoming evident that it wasn't to be today for City. And so it proved on 73 as the ball was yielded cheaply on halfway and Town broke swiftly down our left before a cross was rolled to the unmarked Brandon on the penalty spot who beat Myhill with ease for 3-0. From memory, it was practically a carbon copy of Huddersfield's third goal last season at their place.

Heads now dropped severely. Possession was given away cheaply on several occasions and a series of chances for the home side ensued. Booth skied one into the No-Fans Stand behind the goal, another was scrambled clear after a decent Booth cross then eventually Booth struck Town's fourth after a dreadful sequence of comedy moments saw the ball reach him inside our box. Booth's shot only went in thanks to a big deflection off Ashbee's arse, and Myhill was booked for a rabid protest to the referee as Booth looked as though he may, I stress MAY, have handled as he controlled it.

Between the third and fourth goals City did raise one more scare in the Town penalty area as a France corner was headed back across the face by Cort to Allsopp whose shot was handled by Yates. Allsopp himself volunteered to take the spot-kick but as the usual preliminaries were carried out by the keeper and referee the confidence drained visibly from Allsopp's body and he sported a defeated demeanour as he struck a powerful but poorly directed shot well within Gray's grasp to the keeper's right. Credit the keeper for guessing correctly, but once he'd achieved that Allsopp made his job easy. It REALLY wasn't our day.

Lots of negatives to take from this game, obviously, one would struggle to be overwhelmed with positives after a 0-4 humping by opposition from the lower reaches of the early season table. Price's form for 25 minutes was the one real plus, he looked back to his scariest form of last season and should now be worth a start ahead of the limited France and the absent Green. Lewis also put in a good shift and didn't deserve to be part of such a gaping reverse. The negatives were defence, Hinds especially, midfield, Ashbee and Barmby especially, and attack, Wilbraham especially. Ashbee will bounce back, of that I have no doubt. Wilbraham simply isn't worth his place under any objective analysis and should be replaced by Walters, who can't score but can play good football - Wilbraham can do neither at the moment. Delaney's comeback will hopefully be swift and we need new blood at right-back in the meantime. While Thelwell is perma-injured it's hard to see why Wiseman isn't being given a chance (unless he is also crocked?).

Finally, I think it's time to think the unthinkable. I don't think we should be starting with Barmby. Put simply, what is Barmby? Is he a striker? No not really, he doesn't lead the line but can work with a lone striker that has a strong predatory instinct and prodigious work ethic. Allsopp is the nearest we have to that, but not near enough on present form. Is Barmby a wide midfielder? Well, on the evidence of today clearly not. If I say that we sorely missed the defensive qualities of Stuart Elliott today then you'll get the picture. Is he a central midfielder? Certainly not, he's rarely played there throughout his career and he simply doesn't have the engine nor the tackling for the job. His only feasible position is as a spare man "in the hole", a job he has done reasonably well on occasions this season. But to accommodate that you either have to sacrifice a striker - and blunt our attacking threat - sacrifice a wide man - the foundation of Taylor's Tigers is wide-play, so that shouldn't happen although it did today - sacrifice a central midfielder - but that would leave us over-run in the centre of the park too often - or sacrifice a defender - but we don't have the personnel to go three at the back with two wing-backs. He is therefore a dog without a home. And while I don't advocate a trip to Battersea for the yapping Barmby, I do question whether City really can find a system that gets the best out of him - if indeed "the best" is worth having anyway. Stick him on bench is, regrettably, the conclusion that I draw. And frankly, as fellow match reporter Mark Gretton pointed out wisely after the game while inspecting a large gash on my leg, City aren't the first club to struggle to exploit Barmby's particular skills, his chequered Premiership career also lends credence to this "difficult to accommodate" theory.

All of that said, while this was a collective stinker of the most malodorous kind, it is not time to start panicking and ripping up season tickets and calling for the manager's removal and getting in three loan signings and Warren Joyce. We've been outfought by two Yorkshire foes of old in a week, and that should smart in the dressing room. Saturday's home game against table proppers Blackpool, managed by Hateley-alike Colin Hendry, is the ideal chance to bounce back and get the season going again. We are still, after all, in the play-off positions after 7 games. The worst defeat of all is always the next one, not the last one. I think it was Plato who said that. Either that or Colin Appleton.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Hinds, Cort, Joseph, Dawson; France, Ashbee, Lewis, Barmby; Wilbraham, Allsopp.  Subs: Price (for Hinds, 45), Walters (for Wilbraham, 63), Edge, Keane, Duke.

Goals: None

Booked: Ashbee, Price

Sent Off: None

HUDDERSFIELD TOWN: Gray, Yates, Mirfin, Sodje, Edwards, Schofield, Worthington, Brandon, Holdsworth, Booth, Abbott.  Subs: Mendes (for Abbott, 73), Brown (for Holdsworth, 83), McAliskey (for Booth, 89), Senior, Fowler.

Goals: Abbott 7; Edwards 19; Brandon 74; Booth 87

Booked: Abbott, Edwards, Sodje, Mirfin.

Sent Off: None

REFEREE: G Salisbury

ATTENDANCE: 13,542