A poor game sees the Tigers stumble past League One side Tranmere Rovers into the Carling Cup second round.

Not the most enervating or encouraging 120 minutes of football, but nonetheless the Tigers dug deep against decent opposition to garner a late extra time victory and a place in the Second Round of the League Cup for the first time since 1896. Roughly.

The cretinous KC announcer insisted on going through his pre-match stand introduction routine despite the stadium only housing a throng of 6,000-ish, and his pleas for a roar from West and South stands were met with a stony silence. Later his attempt to get the crowd to shout goalscorers' surnames was similarly ignored. This clown needs a new script, or the boot.

Second paragraph of the report and I'm talking about pre-match announcers, which suggests that the football on offer was not worthy of much discussion. And that was indeed the case. Parkinson carded the great majority of his first eleven for this tie - Burgess in for Parkin and Elliott for Barmby being the only changes - as he searched for a confidence generating win. But the performance was muted and put me in mind of the sort of evening out enjoyed by a drunkard.

Lining up the first round of cocktails were:

Myhill
Ricketts Collins Turner Dawson
France Livermore Marney Elliott
Burgess Fagan

Tranmere also had a significant City contingent with Kevin Ellison - white booted, would you believe - on the left, Robbie Stockdale at right back and Ian Goodison in the heart of defence. Two of the three played pretty well. Remarkably, Stockdale was one of those two. Ellison wasn't, he huffed and puffed but ended up being utterly befuddled by the constant barrage of banter and niggles served up by Craig Fagan. Indeed from the get-go Ellison looked very unwilling to stand his round for his Tranmere drinking buddies, preferring to challenge half heartedly for a header at the back post that represented the match's first chance after 10 minutes.

Both teams had the dazed look that comes with a couple of early rushed pints, and noteworthy moments were few and far between. A long clearance from Goodison on 15 caught out Turner as he nipped back from the bogs after a seal-cracking piss, and the ex-Bee handled the ball 30 yards from his goal. Ex-Barnsley shortarse Shuker curled his free kick inches wide, amid "ooo"s and "aah"s from the 50-strong assembled Wirral throng.

Already it was apparent that the two new additions to the team, Elliott and Burgess, had not sobered up sufficiently to impress the new manager. Burgess was living on scraps but was too often caught swigging from a whisky bottle in a brown paper bag when he should have been chasing the ball. Elliott was very poor, misplacing pass after pass and singularly failing to take on his opponent - who was Robbie Stockdale, for pete's sake.

On 18 the first City chance. Marney dribbled through the centre of the Tran midfield before feeding Ricketts wide right, who tricked Goodison tidily and crossed low. The Tranmere defence, clearly distracted by six nudges coming up on the bandit, failed to clear properly and the ball fell to Marney 16 yards out whose shot was poorly struck and plopped apologetically into Ward's midriff. The best chance of the half - wasted badly.

The game now descended from poor to very poor as the effects of the brandy chasers kicked in. Only Greenacre was able to retain his composure through the alcoholic fug as he composed himself, dispossessed Marney deep in City territory and curled a pleasing shot towards the top right corner that was clawed away spectacularly by Myhill. The corner was swung into the six yard box by Ellison with enough whip to evade Myhill's ugly mistimed punch and find Cansdill-Sheriff at the back post. The tall left back stubbed out his ciggie and made a half attempt at heading home, but the ball was cleared off the line. Or so it seemed. For about 15 seconds later, with the ball now cleared to halfway, the referee signalled "goal" on the say-so of the linesman and Tranmere took a lead that they probably deserved.

Tranmere spent the rest of the half spurning a couple of half chances while City spent it resembling a team at the lower end of League 2. Good enough to beat Sunderland, obviously, but not enough to quell a willing Wirral side. City's only further chance of the half came when Elliott attempted an overhead cross from the left touchline that dropped just under Ward's crossbar, forcing the keeper to palm over. Normally in these games Tranmere are down to their third choice keeper by now so it was disappointing to see Ward misread the script and turn in a strong 120 minute performance.

Into the second half and things didn't get much better. Those without their beer legs were now becoming more disorientated while the hard drinkers were content to prop up the bar rather than entertain. On 53 Stockdale won a soft free kick by the right touchline and Ellison whipped a tasty cross into the box that Taylor attacked. City's defence didn't, and it was with some relief that Taylor's free header was butted wastefully over the crossbar.

A few minutes later Parkinson had clearly seen enough and was readied Parkin and Duffy to replace the listless Burgess and Elliott before they hurled in the toilets. But the sight of the Beast stripping down appeared to catalyse the Tigers and they enjoyed a brief spell of possession that ended with France working space to cross on the right. His centre was of the highest quality and dropped clean onto Burgess's bonce, who headed an equaliser low to Ward's right hand.

At last the Tigers woke up from their drunken stupor, thankfully before they had posted a witlessly aggressive email to Tiger Chat. McAteer tripped France 35 yards out and Elliott's powerful header from Dawson's cross drew a fine save from Ward. The beer goggles had clearly infected the Tran defence and they chatted up a gaggle of plump women behind the goal when the resulting corner came over, Burgess's header was again saved well by the Dutch keeper.

On 66 good one touch stuff by the sobering Marney and Fagan set up Elliott who fired a shot with the outside of his left boot that Ward saved low. The Tranmere defence was now looking shaky but the Tigers couldn't sustain the challenge, drifting back to sleep on the comfy sofas at the back of the nightclub. Good work by Burgess found Marney unmarked deep in the Tran box but two shots were blocked and the resulting corner was missed by Turner as he was offered a free header by the Tranmere defence huddled around the quiz machine.

The door staff had seen enough of Elliott's lurching demeanour on the dance floor and he went off for Duffy while Marney - refused entry for wearing trainers - was replaced by the dapper Welsh. Within a minute Welsh was booked for raking his studs down the shins of archetypal annoying Scouser Jason McAteer. A ludicrous decision, Nobel Peace Prizes have been awarded for less.

But that was it and ninety minutes were completed with neither team looking too keen to seal a win. So into extra time we went and the fare got worse as the discombobulating effect of the alcohol took its toll. Feckless defending allowed Taylor to waltz through the City defence but his left foot shot was scuffed horribly towards the corner flag. Midway through the first period of extra time Parkin replaced Burgess and this had an immediate effect as the biggest of big men looked for random victims to beast. Tran sub Jennings was the most unfortunate victim, on the receiving end of a trample and a shoulder charge during an awesome five second double-beasting.

Back to the football. Fagan smashed a shot just wide from a tight angle while weary City defending culminated in Welsh chopping down Taylor 25 yards out, but McAteer's tired free kick lolloped over the crossbar. Welsh was perhaps lucky not to see a second yellow for this challenge. Into the second period and Parkin immediately released Fagan down the right whose cross was cleared at the back post by the hurried Stockdale. Then on 110 a back pass to Myhill was drilled up field centrally to Parkin. The Beast nodded on intelligently into Duffy's feet and the fey Scotsman took a touch before lashing a powerful drive into the roof of the net from a good 30 yards. A remarkable moment of quality in a remarkably poor match, Duffy had broken his season duck in style and won the game.

Tranmere had a bit of go at equalising, but only a bit if truth be known and most of their attacking thrusts foundered at the clumsy feet of comedy substitute Zola. Greenacre shot at Myhill from 22 yards and the last word was Tranmere's as Turner again gave away a soft free-kick well within shooting range, only for a low drive to be blocked by the eight man wall.

So, a Cup win! A second round tie! Hooray!! Everton away will suit the ground tick aficionados, but I imagine Pearson would prefer the money generated by big time opposition at home. On our return home we concluded that it was borderline whether City would be seeded in round 2 - if this were to be the case then the dubious pleasures of Bury at home may beckon. Whatever - we've started winning Cup games again, and we've started winning any games at all again. Both are signs of promise for the new Parkinson regime.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Collins, Dawson; France, Livermore, Marney, Elliott; Burgess, Fagan.  Subs: Duffy (for Elliott, 77), Welsh (for Marney, 89), Parkin (for Burgess, 98), Thelwell, Duke.

Goals: Burgess 56, Duffy 110

Booked: Welsh

Sent Off: None

TRANMERE ROVERS: Ward, Stockdale, Goodison, McCready, Cansdill-Sheriff, Shuker, Mullin, McAteer, Ellison, Greenacre, Taylor.  Subs: Zola (for Shuker, 61), Jennings (for McAteer, 102), Davies (for Ellison, 116), Achterberg, Tremarco.

Goals: Cansdill-Sheriff 31

Booked: None

Sent Off: None

REFEREE: J Moss

ATTENDANCE: 6,075