City finish the season with a weak display that encapsulates the previous months' efforts, as Playmouth inflict the Tigers' 12th home defeat of the season.

About ten minutes into this afternoon's game, kicking off early at 1pm to allow the Sky cameras to feast upon the footballing fayre served up by the last round of Championship fixtures, the Plymouth fans sang - to a tune I can't recall - words to the effect of "you only stayed up because Leeds are shite". Smart lads these West Country folk. It's absolutely true, as demonstrated by the bulk of this match in which a committed neat passing Plymouth side comfortably outplayed a less-than-committed sloppy passing City eleven. Only when the ball fell to Parlour did City use it well - when he was taken off after 50 minutes all signs of creativity disappeared and City were left with high balls punted towards Windass as their only hope of salvation.

What a wretchedly horrible season this has been. For all the euphoria at Stoke and Cardiff, I left both games angry that the only reason I felt such excitement at those three season-defining goals (by Nick Barmby, Dean Windass, Alan Lee) was because of all the utter rubbish that had gone before. With the foundations set by perhaps City's finest ever manager - in terms of success and making the best of what you have, if not in terms of raw entertainment from first whistle to last - City have squandered all momentum built up by Peter Taylor, firstly by a ghastly error in recruiting Phil Parkinson then by replacing him with the friendly but ultimately limited Phil Brown.

Parkinson is a good young manager that will be successful one day. He had an impossible act to follow and appeared to misjudge badly the strength of feeling in the dressing room for Taylor and, by implication, against him. He was on a hiding to nothing and it didn't take long for the beating (and beatings) to be administered.

The fact that the players didn't want to, or were unable to, play for Parkinson was demonstrated the minute he left as Phil Brown was able to lift the squad and compile a number of results in the December/January period that awoke City from their slumbers. But one always felt that a cuffing could be around the corner any time and so it proved, as City were consistent only in their abject inconsistency. Defeats at the hands of Barnsley, Leeds and Ipswich were gut-wrenchingly gutless - such spinelessness was bought into sharper focus by occasional high quality wins against the promotion chasing likes of Birmingham and Preston. City have a half decent team that only plays decent half the time. That isn't even half useful I'm afraid, it's an absolute disgrace.

I think Phil Brown has a lot to answer for. If Phil Parkinson had an impossible act to follow, Brown had the easiest possible act to follow. He did his job ... I suppose ... just ... in that he kept City in the Championship, but rarely can survival have been secured so unconvincingly and feebly as it has this season by the Tigers. As recently as February or March, before Luton's total collapse, a points total of 51 looked necessary to secure survival. As it turns out, 47 would have done it even if Leeds' 10 point penalty had not been applied. City's retention of second tier status is therefore not a massive achievement, a statement that appears strange but is borne out by recent performances, all of which have been disjointed, ugly and - with the possible exception of Stoke away - featured long periods of the game when City were a distant second best.

City have been rubbish this season, and were a whisker away from being relegated. Don't let anyone tell you different. And don't let anyone tell you that our survival is some kind of mark of "success" for Phil Brown. He has proved himself inadequate. He should go.

The match itself today left me far too dispirited to submit a detailed report. Suffice it to say that the early exchanges were of the non-combative variety as both teams longed to be closer to the holiday tickets tucked in their kitbags back in the dressing room. City gave a debut to Nathan Doyle (surely the first player to ever don the black and amber whose first name is a Yorkshire greeting) and restored the willing Marney in midfield in place of the unwilling Peltier. We therefore lined up:

Myhill
Doyle Turner Delaney Dawson
Parlour Ashbee Marney
Forster Windass McPhee

Another day, but some things don't change. Turner adopted a none-shall-pass attitude to the game while Delaney looked shaky - he was at fault for both goals. The full backs defended OK but didn't get forward enough to pose the threat out wide that City needed in order to worry Plymouth's solid looking back 5. Parlour looked composed on the ball but was dispossessed by raw aggression on some occasions. Marney rampaged around in his usual bucaneering style but ultimately created little. Ashbee was abject, with and without ball. McPhee was much the same as Ashbee. Forster was much the same as Marney. Windass was ace.

For them the Hungarian Halmosi on the left was all fey and white booted and easily damaged, while Norris on the right was more robust and tricky to dispossess. Hayles up front, a bull of a man, was the usual handful and looked their best player. I've liked Barry Hayles for years and would add him to City's squad tomorrow - alas it's not a transfer that Baz himself would welcome, I suspect, given current form.

I'd love to tell you all about the noteworthy things that happened in the first half but I'd be forced to lie. Noteworthy stuff either didn't occur or I can't remember it, one or the other - the former I suspect. One thing was notable, a tremendous passing move by the away side - 25 minutes in and Larrieu in Plymouth's goal halted a City attack and bowled the ball to the left back. A sizzling exchange of five or six passes then transferred to ball from one end of the pitch to the other and Hayles was about to plop his shot past Myhill when a long Delaney leg felled him and gave Argyle a penalty. Ebanks-Blake, perhaps Plymouth's lamest performer on the day, certainly got plenty of gas behind his spot kick but he hit it straight, Myhill didn't commit to an extravagant dive and the parry was easy for Boaz to make.

City had the odd half chance, but the next item of note was a goal as a cross from the right was deep and found Halmosi rising a long way above Delaney's jump to loop a nice header back across the face of Myhill's into the corner of the net. 0-1 on the stroke of half-time, just reward for Argyle's superior effort and endeavour.

Scotland's champion freestyle footballer came on at half time. I imagined that Scotland's best exponent of keepie-uppie might be limited to a couple of tap-ups, a header then a meaty volley into a distant stand before retiring to the bar for a wee dram of something powerful. Alas it seems that the spirit of Doug Rougvie no longer dominates the game north of the Border and the young lad tortured us with what seemed an hour or more of juggling, wiggling, lying down and general arseing about. Oh how I pray for a City substitute - Danny Coles for preference from today's crop - to see the kid bobbing around with the ball balanced on his nose and launch a scything two footed tackle that removes ball, circus act and all from the scene. It didn't happen and I got a bit colder as the second half commenced.

Peltier immediately replaced Parlour and the young Scouser turned in the sort of effort-free performance that he has made famous in his short loan spell with the Tigers. Leaving all last vestiges of energy on the pitch is the ultimate desire, covering every blade grass would be nice as well. But Peltier didn't even break sweat during the second half as he jogged about shirking challenges, failing to track back and generally adopting the pose of a player that didn't want to be there. We didn't want you there either Lee.

Minutes later on came Elliott and a brief City surge accompanied the change. Windass's scuffed shot became a cross that fell into Stuart's path such that his first touch of the day was a shot on goal. That was the idea anyway, it was in truth a shot not on goal but on some poor unsuspecting soul sat at the rear of South Stand reading his programme and munching on an egg sandwich. Plymouth, cowed by the lift that Elliott's introduction produced, passed their way down our left to feed Halmosi who tricked Doyle rather too easily before striking a low cross to the near post. Ebanks-Blake lumbered into the six yard box with Delaney in tow, but as the Argylester twisted to flick the ball goalwards Delaney made a less than half-hearted attempt (quarter-hearted? It might not have been even that much) at a tackle and the away team eased into a 2 goal lead.

Instant response. A Windass header was parried by Larrieu into Elliott's path and the asthmatic bible-troubler thumped home a right foot shot from two yards. Elliott then saw a lob float just over the bar after Ashbee played him in and at the other end some neat passing allowed Norris to worm his way into space in the box, only for the Bostonian to crash a shot a yard wide of the far post. Other stuff happened - good stuff from Plymouth in the main, desperate stuff by City in the main - but the match fizzled out as a competitive spectacle and City carded their 12th (count 'em) League defeat at home this season - a shocking statistic to cap a shocking season.

So, to the summer. It would appear that despite my protests Phil Brown will get the manager's job. I just hope that the stipulation "change that bloody 4-3-3 every once in a while whn it's obviously not working" has been inserted into Brown's contract. Ashbee - cited quite bizarrely as Adam Pearson's player of the season - has been a superb servant to the club but his form is now poor, his influence now appears to be not entirely positive and his time is now up. We therefore need a new midfield general, we need two wide midfielders to appear in the pecking order ahead of Elliott and France, we need a left footed centre back to replace the ailing (and perhaps Selhurst bound) Delaney and we need pace up front. The latter could be provided by lower league goal machine Duffy if a more reliable and proven striker cannot be secured.

We need big changes - to personnel, to tactics, to the demeanour of the players, to the atmosphere of the entire club. We can't afford another season as terrible as this, we'll not be so lucky again and a repeat would surely see City go down. We need to act incisively and we need to do it fast. We need to improve. We can't be this rubbish again. I won't allow it.

HULL CITY (4-3-3): Myhill; Doyle, Turner, Delaney, Dawson; Parlour, Ashbee, Marney; Forster, Windass, McPhee.  Subs: Peltier (for Parlour, 51), Elliott (for McPhee, 57), Featherstone (for Marney, 75), Coles, Duke.

Goals: Elliott 61

Booked: Ashbee, Doyle

Sent Off: None

PLYMOUTH ARGYLE: Larrieu, Connolly, Doumbe, Seip, Sawyer, Halmosi, Nalis, Norris, Buzsaky, Ebanks-Blake, Hayles.  Subs: Gallen (for Halmosi, 85), Fallon (for Hayles, 89), McCormick, Timar, Djordjic.

Goals: Halmosi 45, Ebanks-Blake 59

Booked: Connolly

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:  S Tanner

ATTENDANCE: 20,661