Rampant Tigers apply a thorough seeing-to to a limited Barnsley side that had curiously lifted itself to the top six.  The game saw the emergence of loan striker Fraizer Campbell, who netted two early goals.

Report by Keith Dean.

With Folan, Pedersen, Nicky Barmby and Jay-Jay all still out, it wasn't easy to see where the goals or creativity would come from. Confident enough of a nil:nil draw was I, that I invested a few quid with the concourse bookie before kick-off. But the Tigers turned in a convincing display last night, albeit it against lacklustre opponents, to run out easy winners, move into the top half of the table and, in the process, we found ourselves a new hero. Fraizer Campbell, for it was he, had the sort of game, topped off with a brace of goals, that would suggest that Sir Alex isn't going to let us keep hold of him for very long without parting with some serious wedge.

Do we actually need a match report for this one ? I mean, you all sat and watched it on the tele, right ? Oh, go on then.

Just the one change from Saturday's line-up saw Windass in the starting XI with McPhee relegated to the bench. Our visitors have a squad list that wouldn't look out of place as a delegation to the United Nations: Brazilians, Germans, a Dane, a Dutchman, a Peruvian, an Hungarian, a Nigerian. But Mostto ain't no Teofilio Cubillas; Christensen ain't no Preben Elkjaer, and Anderson de Silva certainly ain't no Clodoaldo. So, based on last night's performance, Barnsley's promising young manager still has a lot of work to do to mould them all into a cohesive, productive unit. They do have a rather fetching kit though, of pillar-box red shirts and white shorts.

If there was one ounce of humour in the Barnsley dressing room, they would surely have demanded that goalie Heinz Muller (sounds like a character from 'Allo, Allo') be given squad number 57. Sadly not. Within six minutes my betting slip was being torn to shreds. A great through ball from Deano, and a well-timed run from our Old Trafford loanee, beat the offside trap and saw the newbie clean through and left Muller light of defensive cover. Our man advanced, kept his cool and slotted the ball home into the bottom right corner. V. clinical. Moments later he nearly doubled his tally; a Garcia header found him in space by the penalty spot but, in stretching, he wasn't able to get enough power on the shot to trouble Das Kustodien. We're still in the first ten minutes and again Campbell causes all sorts of problems for the Barnsley rearguard. A direct, surging run is ended with a tumble on the edge of the box but no free-kick is awarded. At the other end a minor scare is averted by a fine interception from Wayne Brown but it's only an isolated incident in the one-way traffic. One of theirs plants a scary back-header just wide of his own post and into the side netting before we deservedly add to our advantage. Campbell collects the ball on the edge of the D but this time is surrounded by Barns and there's no support nor obvious prospect of troubling Herr Muller. He twists and turns and wriggles and jinks past the first two challenges, squeezes through a narrow gap to avoid the next two and then shows great strength in holding off their last defender before firing, on the turn, across goal and into the far corner. Superb, absolutely superb. And it just goes to show that it isn't only in the world of tinned soups where Campbell proves better than Heinz. Our visitors are in a real pickle now (OK, I'll stop) and are lucky to escape again when a great ball from Livermore finds Garcia on the right. He turns inside, then out, and fires in a low cross that evades a couple of lunging, prowling Tigers at the far post.

Aside from a 30-yard free-kick that takes a big deflection and flies just wide of Bo's right hand post, we aren't really troubled. The half ends with a surging run into the box from Hughes and he's denied only by a fine last-ditch tackle at the expense of a corner.

Having taken the sting out of the contest, the game fades somewhat in the second half but the better chances still fall to the boys in black and amber. A long free-kick from Livermore is drilled into the area and is mysteriously left by everyone. Heinzy-boy is nowhere near it as the ball strikes the foot of his post and flies to safety. Then Garcia goes on a run from his own half, plays a neat 1-2 with Deano, 15 yards out, and is unceremoniously blocked and floored by one of theirs. No card is issued and the free-kick is wasted. A big Bo clearance is laid off by Campbell to Deano but he blasts it well over the bar. then Delaney makes good use of a lot of space on the left, his cross is weakly headed out and Campbell hits a clean strike that forces the keeper into a smart save. Again, incidents at the other end are rare. A weak shot from Da Silva, off target, causes little concern. We respond with some slick passing down the inside right channel and a vicious cross is sent just too far ahead of Turner, and then Campbell, at the back post. On 75 McPhee replaces Windass. His first contribution is an attempted cross that takes a deflection and forces a twisting save before another Delaney surge is brutally halted and this time the yellow is brandished to Da Silva. Featherstone replaces the boy Campbell before he has the chance to complete his hat-trick but, in truth, he had started to fade from the game a little. Just as the board is held aloft showing an extra three minutes, we put the seal on the evening with a third goal. McPhee does really well to turn and hold off a defender on halfway. He has almost a clean run on goal and has support on both sides. He draws the last defender and plays the ball to his right where Marney is able to slot it home with aplomb. And even then, we had a chance for another when a break down the right leads to

Featherstone being found in acres of space on the left. His first touch isn't great and he's forced wide but his cross/shot hits the keeper and rolls agonisingly across the face of the goal.

So, a much needed three points from a decent team performance but it should be said that our opponents were a big disappointment. Particularly anonymous for them were Odebayi (pronouced O-dee-bah-ee), Howard (pronounce How-ard) and Campbell-Ryce (pronounced Comp-plete-shite).

Our back four looked solid and totally in control and, yes, that includes Delaney, whilst the front six took the opportunity to revel in the space and freedom afforded to them. It won't be anywhere near as easy on Saturday but who knows, maybe we can contribute to the sacking of buffoon Robson as we did with Mr Taylor earlier in the month.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Ricketts, Turner, Brown, Delaney; Garcia, Livermore, Marney, Hughes; Windass, Campbell.  Subs: McPhee (for Windass, 75), Featherstone (for Campbell, 87), Elliott, Dawson, Duke.

Goals: Campbell 7, 18; Marney 90

Booked: None

Sent Off: None

BARNSLEY: Muller, Werling, Nyatanga, Foster, Souza, Campbell-Ryce, Howard, McCann, Da Silva, Mostto, Odejayi.  Subs: Devaney (for McCann, 61), Christensen (for Foster, 68), Ricketts (for Campbell-Ryce, 81), Coglan, Kozluk.

Goals: None

Booked: De Silva, Souza

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:  A D'Urso

ATTENDANCE: 15,761