City field a reserve side in the League Cup and take a severe beating from a talented Everton side.

Report by Matthew Rudd.

Crumbs. After a performance like this, from a team so woefully underpowered, one wonders exactly what is going on within the mind of Phil Brown right now. So awful was the display against Birmingham that it seemed obvious that he should pick the same team of relative strangers to give them more chance to get to know one another before the no-brainer at Anfield.

Instead, he picks the kids and cast-offs. Well, it's the Carling Cup, after all.

But Everton, desperate for a trophy (as proved by last season's FA Cup run), second guessed Brown's lack of respect for the competition and put out a team of stars. It made for an uncomfortable night for any of us daring to hope that we may even progress to a stage of the competition last experienced on our patch in 1978.

How can we expect the opposition, and football as a whole, to take us seriously when we select a team that suggests we don't take ourselves seriously?

The XI carded by Brown read thus:

Duke
Mendy Zayatte Cooper Halmosi
Ghilas Featherstone Boateng Cairney Barmby
Vennegoor of Hesselink

Two wingers playing as full backs. More to the point, they played like wingers who were being asked to play as full backs when really they were just wanting to be wingers. It was a train wreck. If this is all we can do with a natural winger like Peter Halmosi, then we may as well pay the poor lad off. Bernard Mendy, meanwhile, is little short of a liability when asked to defend. The only thing he has in his favour right now is that he tends to applaud the fans after games for a lot longer than anyone else. It isn't much to go on.

Let's not prolong the agony. Yakubu put a tasty, cornered shot past Duke after perseverance from Diniyar Bilyaletdinov - a name so complicated that he didn't appear on the back page of the programme - and then the same madly-named player delivered a peach of a free kick which Jo, aided by some chronic marking, nodded in.

A counter attack allowed Yakubu to send Dan Gosling free on the right and he thumped home a marvellous shot with real authority. Heaven forfend that we could have anticipated that Everton would have actually picked proven footballers and attempted to win the game. That wasn't in Brown's thinking. It's all about giving the squad players a chance ... isn't it?

For all this, it wasn't a total calamity, thanks to one lad. Tom Cairney looks a real find, a City star in the making and his keen, proactive performance in the midfield, always wanting the ball, always looking ahead, should now earn him a place on the bench at the very least this weekend. If nothing else, the absence of any real inspiration from the existing midfield protagonists should be enough to let Brown hang all doubts about the immaturity of his youthful charge and give him a chance.

Cairney was, however, City's only real success of a deeply embarrassing first half. The second saw recognised first-teamers Paul McShane and Dean Marney introduced for the helpless duo of Nicky Featherstone and George Boateng, and with Mendy pushing into midfield, suddenly there was a contest. The result wasn't in doubt, obviously, but City did at least seem to find a second wind.

Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink headed too high from McShane's cross, then Mendy combined sweetly with Barmby but saw his shot blocked by Tim Howard. Kamel Ghilas, a tireless workaholic in the second half who really deserves better than this, sliced one effort wide and set up another header for Vennegoor of Hesselink which Howard held. It seemed inevitable that a goal would come, and soon it did.

Barmby tripped Leon Osman on the edge of the City box, and Leighton Baines free kick squirmed through the wall into Osman's path, with no chance of him missing the target from a couple of yards.

So there you go. City make loads of chances, Everton make one. And Everton score.

It all became a bit queer afterwards, as City's endeavour to get something, anything, from an awful lost cause seemed to grow as the rest of us just wanted to get to the pub. McShane, Ghilas and Cairney were excellent within this, with two of them putting together a scrummy passing move with Mendy which ended in Cairney volleying a vicious effort straight into the face of the dazed Johnny Heitinga.

Ghilas hit the post late on and McShane followed up a Halmosi cross twice only for the keeper to block the first and for the full back to lose his head and smack over the second. The goal City scarcely deserved wasn't going to come. The final whistle was greeted with hoots of derision and displeasure - and that's putting it politely.

This was a shocker, and the bit of gloss from the second half display must be tainted by Everton's position in an unimpeachable comfort zone thanks to their ruthless exposure of Brown's horrific team selection. This game was lost horribly before anyone kicked a ball and only one man is to blame.

HULL CITY (4-5-1): Duke; Mendy, Cooper, Zayatte, Halmosi; Ghilas, Featherstone, Boateng, Cairney, Barmby; Vennegoor of Hesselink.  Subs: Marney (for Boateng, 46), McShane (for Featherstone, 46), Kilbane (for Barmby, 65), Geovanni, Fagan, Cousin, Warner.

Goals: None

Booked: Cairney, Kilbane, Zayatte

Sent Off: None

EVERTON: Howard, Heitinga, Baines, Distin, Hibbert, Bilyaletdinov, Gosling, Rodwell, Osman, Yakubu, Jo.  Subs: Fellaini (for Yakubu, 46), Neill (for Baines, 62), Agard (for Bilyaletdinov, 84), Nash, Cahill, Saha, Duffy.

Goals: Yakubu 11; Jo 20; Gosling 24; Osman 57

Booked: None

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:    S Bennett

ATTENDANCE: 13,558