Immediately on the back foot after Preston score a jammy goal in the first minute, City then generally live with the second placed team but end up losing narrowly by two goals to one.

I've been looking at the latest Championship table and I'm confused. Burnley are fourth, yet even with the gifts of two undefended headers and the most lacklustre of City performances, they failed to impress last week. Luton are fifth yet they were cagey and defensive on Tuesday and were lucky to escape the KC with a point. And now I see that Preston are second, yet they too were gifted two goals, only had one player that could hurt us and were rocking and rolling all over the place as City dominated them and created 20 goalscoring chances over 90 minutes.

All these teams had limitations for all to see, all are in the top 5. While City continue to prop up the table. The reasons for this are plain to see – bad luck and abject defending of high balls. This wicked twosome has been the cause of most goals scored against the Tigers in a winless streak that now extends to five games, they are continuing to hurt us big. But let's accentuate the positive – Preston are the form team in this division and yet despite this we lived with them throughout the game, often dominated and never looked as though we were giving it up despite a fluke opener and a dreadfully defended second. The worrying signs of "players not caring" at Burnley have been banished in the last two games – these Tigers want to play for their club and manager, and they desperately want to turn this bad form around. And on today's evidence, that could happen quite soon.

Perhaps mindful of the roaming threats of Preston's David Nugent, Phil Parkinson decided to accommodate Delaney as an auxiliary midfielder in a rather cautious 4-5-1 formation that relied on the wide players to get forward and support the lone striker. This worked to an extent, although it was the splendid John Welsh making lung-busting runs from midfield that threatened PNE most. City lined up:

Myhill
Mills Coles Turner Ricketts
Fagan Ashbee Welsh Delaney Elliott
Forster

It all looked quite promising during the opening 30 seconds. Then Nugent chased down a ball in the inside right channel, held off Coles far too easily and back heeled a clever pass into the feet of the onrushing Whaley 15 yards out. Whaley took an ugly swish at the ball and rather than burst the net, he quite accidentally gave it the merest touch with the shin and feathered it square across the goal. Across the goal to the unmarked Dichio who plonked the ball very tidily low to Myhill's right for the opener. 39 seconds on the clock, and a combination of Coles' inaction and pure fluke put City 1-0 down once again.

The reaction could have been ugly and gutless, but it was in fact incisive and plucky. City assumed the lion's share of possession for the next half hour and made most of the goalscoring chances, confining PNE to occasional forays on the break via the twinkle toes of Nugent, who was inadequately marked throughout the half by the stand-offish Turner and Coles. Only Ricketts got close enough to show that Nugent was indeed fallible - only to fatally fail to repeat the trick when confronted by Whaley, of which you will read more in a moment.

City appeared keen to use Fagan and Elliott as auxiliary strikers when in possession, with the wide men winning back post headers and teeing up Forster or any midfielders that care to join the attack. This worked OK for Fagan but played much more to the strengths of Elliott, who was superb in the air all match and is generally much more reliable nodding balls across the face of goal than he is receiving the ball on the halfway line and employing slight of foot to skip past 2-3 defenders. One such move on eight minutes fell to Mills, who got forward throughout to support Fagan and later France, but his powerful shot was deflected wide for a corner. Then a cross from deep towards the far post was met by Elliott's head, but he steered the ball too close to Nash who saved easily. A Welsh corner was cleared to Ricketts who swept the ball back wide to Welsh, allowing the every-blade-of-grass-covering Scouser to canter into the box and drive a low shot into Nash's midriff from a narrow angle.

Preston also had their chances. Pugh shattered City's offside trap and galloped into the box but his low cross was behind both strikers and City cleared. Nugent charged into Myhill's box once or twice, largely unhindered by the close attentions of any defenders, but his final pass or shot were always found wanting. But City's good half hour continued as Forster ploughed through the challenge of St Ledger and set up a 18 yard shot that was not struck cleanly and span wide of Nash's post. Then Welsh repeated the trick and dribbled from halfway deep into the heart of North End's defence, drawing a foul and a free kick that Elliott struck powerfully but straight at the wall. Twice.

Then on 37 Whaley gained possession by City's left corner flag and as the PNE winger dithered and Ricketts covered, the City defence assembled in the box. Ricketts stood too far off Whaley though, this allowed him to swish in an easy cross. That's bad defending. The ball dropped at the far post and was nutted firmly by the onrushing Dichio as Coles bobbed up lamely when a full blooded jumping clearance was needed. That's more bad defending. The header nestled gently into Myhill's net. Shucks, that's 2-0.

This time the Tigers were rattled for a while but our attacking intent was re-established on the stroke of half-time when Mills rampaged forward and clopped a fizzing drive from 30 yards that Nash could only parry. The ball bounced up in front of the keeper and Forster nodded the ball goalwards but a foot over the crossbar. I was a long way away, but from the other end of the ground this looked to be a very presentable chance to claim that most prized of footballing assets, a goal on the stroke of half time. Dammit.

We were treated to not one but two cheerleader groups at half-time. The first group were all about 8 years old, the second group – wearing the exact same uniforms in larger sizes – were mid to late teens and prompted some confusion amongst City fans who wondered if it was the same kids, having grown eight inches in height in the space of five minutes.

The second half began and some neat symmetry saw City carve an excellent chance to score 39 seconds after the restart. Ricketts fed Forster – who immediately looked more lively in the second half after, one presumes, a deserved Parkinsonian hairdryer treatment at half time – and Nicky twisted, turned, lost his defender and struck a low shot that was well save by Nash. Coles then gave Nugent so much space that the striker must have wondered if it was either something he had said or pungent BO. Nevertheless he overcame this crisis of self-confidence and squared to Whaley who shot wide in ugly fashion.

A Mills cross was headed weakly by the late-arriving Welsh, a pre- cursor of City's goal a few minutes later when the ball was switched from City's left to right via Forster to reach Fagan, his cross was headed back across goal by Elliott and Welsh was found in plenty of space eight yards out, easy shot ready to be dispatched. Nash made a tremendous save from this first shot, but the ball trickled back to Welsh and he hammered it home for a goal that the player's and the team's performances richly deserved.

City were about to introduce Bridges and Parkin when this goal was scored, and the switches were abandoned as a result. I felt this was a mistake and another ten minutes of formless play – punctuated by 2 or 3 daft bookings by the preening prissy Premiership referee Walton - had elapsed before The Beast slipped his leash and replaced Coles, Delaney moving back to centre half. In all honesty the Delaney experiment was a failure, the big Oirishman rarely influenced the game or saw much of the ball and he drifted around aimlessly much of the time. Credit is due to City's good form if they effectively kept pace with Preston with ten men.

Anyway, Parkin's introduction immediately panicked the young and diminutive St Ledger in the PNE defence and he scuttled away to mark Forster, leaving the man's work to the more rugged yet white booted Chilvers. Parkin's first act was nearly to fire home a golden chance for an equaliser. A Welsh corner was drifted to beyond the back post where Beast stood, completely unmarked, with his right foot wound back ready to launch a powerful shot goalwards. Alas no call was issued by Parkin and Elliott darted into view and nodded a stretching header off for a goal kick. France straight-swapped for Fagan and immediately warmed to his task by heading an Elliott cross across the face of goal to Welsh – once more arriving late into the six yard box – but his header was steered over the crossbar.

A bizarre passage of play demonstrated amply just how useless Premiership referees can be at officiating full blooded Championship games. First PNE sub Neal lunged gracelessly at Mills as our right back passed to France, an obvious yellow card offence. Referee Walton trotted up and withdrew his yellow card but showed it to Mills – the victim – rather than to Neal, the perpetrator who was rolling around on the floor for no apparent reason. Neal was soon restored to full health – approximately a quarter of a second after the yellow card was waved in Mills' direction – and he wandered to the touchline to await permission to re-enter the field of play. A few seconds after the restart France was found wide right in space, poised to launch another raid on the Preston goal. At which point Neal – without the referee's permission – scuttled back onto the pitch and blocked France's path. What should have been a yellow card for Neal (re-entering the field of play without the referee's permission) was instead waved away by the confused and incompetent official.

The game drew to a close with City enjoying plenty of possession but failing to unlock the North End defence. Parkin was especially wasteful of the possession he had in PNE territory. Preston were clearly very happy to emerge from what was a fairly consistent battering with three points, and the City players were deservedly applauded for their efforts as they trudged off. In defence Coles looked dodgy for once while Turner was generally competent, Mills was quite splendid and Ricketts got to grips with the nippy Whaley eventually, albeit after he'd teed up an easy goal. Ashbee was talismanic and manic, issuing bone-crunching tackles like they were going out of fashion. Elliott was aggressive and superb in the air (as was France) while Fagan was less impressive and occasionally a bit lazy. Forster toiled manfully up front, second half especially, and carved himself a couple of good chances. Final word must go to Welsh, however, who delivered the complete midfield performances as he tackled tigerishly, passed cleverly and rampaged into the opposition's box to create scoring chances. He turned in a tremendous shift and has now surely made it impossible to be left out – at least, until he has another drifting stinker, which in the past has usually occurred after 3 good performances.

City did nothing for their relegation plight with this defeat – although Leeds' second paggering in a week did cheer the heart a little as one wandered back to the town centre – but this was a massively promising performance that saw City dominate for long periods against a side apparently destined for automatic promotion to the Premiership. The re-emergence of this sort of form – albeit with Delaney back in defence and Bridges reinstated in behind Forster – in forthcoming fixtures against Blunderland and Southend will surely see the Tigers return to winning ways at least once. If not – well it'll be bad luck and defensive aberrations from crosses at work again.

HULL CITY (4-5-1): Myhill; Mills, Coles, Turner, Ricketts; Fagan, Welsh, Ashbee, Delaney, Elliott; Forster.  Subs: Parkin (for Coles, 69), France (for Fagan, 76), Bridges, Dawson, Duke.

Goals: Welsh 58

Booked: Mills, Delaney, Fagan, Forster

Sent Off: None

PRESTON NORTH END: Nash, Alexander, St Ledger, Chilvers, Hill, Whaley, Sedgwick, McKenna, Pugh, Dichio, Nugent.  Subs: Neal (for Whaley, 74), Ormerod (for Nugent, 89), Lonergan, Davidson, Wilson.

Goals: Dichio 1, 37

Booked: None

Sent Off: None

REFEREE: P Walton

ATTENDANCE: 13,728