A spirited, attacking but ultimately fruitless performance against the title holders Manchester United sees the Tigers slip into the bottom 2 with a 3-1 defeat.

Report by Mike Scott.

As if further proof were needed, we got some more today. Play defensively against strong teams = lose meekly and damage squad confidence. Play attack-minded against strong teams = lose bravely and boost squad confidence. H, and a reminder for Tuesday - play attack-minded against weaker teams = a good chance of a win.

City lined up in a progressive 4-4-2 formation today, and it transformed the whole mood of the team. They are a group of players that clearly love to attack. Coupled with the fact that they are a defensive nightmare waiting to happen, this seems to be a good ploy. Proving the point today were:

Myhill
Mendy Zayatte Gardner Dawson
Garcia Boateng Olofinjana Hunt
Altidore Fagan

I was full of high hopes today, given the constant barrage of wisdom that suggested Manchester United had no fit defenders to choose from at all. I therefore expected them to line up with Roger De Courcey in at right centre back, with Nookie Bear keeping tight to Roger's flank at right back. Left centre back would be Cyril Smith and left back would be national treasure Thora Hird. Ferguson's cupboard really was bare. Except it didn't quite work out that way - what with the Chuckle Brothers, Syd Little and Helen Mirren being cunningly disguised as European shopping-list-topper Nemanja Vidic, England's Wes Brown, France's Patrice Evra and a Mancunian kindergarten product Rafael - truly a renaissance defender. Not quite as weakened as we imagined then.

Within a minute of the start Manchester fashioned a dozen slick passes that sliced a hole in City's defence but the final ball was poor and Zayatte, sporting a price tag and "Sale - One Month Only" sash, shepherded the ball out for a goal kick. The pattern of United playing poor passes was set to continue. With 6 gone Valencia was fed on the right by Rooney and the Ecuadorian speedster set off with Andy Dawson in hot pursuit. Except this was the kind of hot pursuit effected by Roscoe P Coltraine, and Valencia was the roaring General Lee. As Valencia jumped the nearby creek and got his cross in, Dawson struggled in his wake before finally coming to rest beached on a tree stump as his siren slowly wound down to silence. Ryan Giggs, full of personality, volleyed Valencia's cross onto the roof of Myhill's net.

A Hunt free kick was under hit and cleared expertly by … err Craig Fagan, lunging to try and get an overhead flick on it. The ball was soon whisked to United's left wing where Rooney cut inside and drifted a low shot well wide. Then Rooney won a cheap foul off Zayatte on the edge of the penalty box and Giggs flashed a curling free kick a few inches wide. Rooney again had a yard of space in the box after a Fletcher shot was blocked, but his snapshot was deflected away by the kidneys of the lunging Mendy. While City hustled and bustled, they were not able to penetrate United in the early stages and the chances all fell to the away side.

But City took heart on 17 when Hunt juggled the ball away from Rafael and hit a low weak shot that was pouched easily by Kuszczak but was at least on target. On 21 Fagan and Hunt combined to release Garcia down the left channel and as he entered the box Wes Brown lunged in and appeared to take the ball - although Garcia's apoplectic reaction suggested that a penalty was a strong possibility, a view that Sky camera footage tended to support. As Manchester's passing continued to deteriorate - none more so than the feckless and utterly ineffective Berbatov - so City grew in confidence. Garcia broke down play at halfway on 27, he danced past a crude Rooney lunge and hared into space behind United's midfield. He fed Fagan out wide and young Craig delivered his, err, trademark pinpoint cross that was met at the far post by an acrobatic Olofinjana volley that drew a fine low save from Kuszczak. City's goal of the season, had it been converted. Garcia again rampaged down the right, drawing an equally crude challenge from Evra that was punished with a yellow card.

City were in the game now but it was open and both teams had chances to attack. From one such foray a weak Valencia pass was rolled back to Myhill by Gardner, but Boaz mistimed his routine clearance horribly and scuffed it to the flank of the six yard box where Berbatov trapped the ball and fed Rooney - but the pug-faced Scouser couldn't wriggle free of Gardner's tight marking, the chance evaporated and Myhill's blushes were spared. Further chances were spurned - a low Hunt shot drifted wide, a Berbatov strike in the six yard box sailed wide as Myhill advanced menacingly, Rafael saw a low shot clawed away quite superbly by Myhill after a tidy combination between Rooney and Berbatov. Deep into injury time Berbatov again found some space down the left but his appalling cross was wafted far too deep and the danger appeared to fade. Except Fletcher was first to the wayward ball and his low whipped cross was of an altogether higher quality and was stabbed home from close range by Rooney after a Giggs dummy/miss. A great second quarter of the match for City ended, as has happened so often this season, with a late goal for the opposition. Most frustrating. Seconds before half time Altidore trapped a high ball, swivelled and hit a low 25 yard shot that hurried Kuszczak into a decent low save. Half time.

The first half began with even possession but few chances at either end. The impasse was broken when a City free kick was cleared to Rooney near the halfway line, who cut back towards his goal and attempted a backpass to Kuszczak. Only Fagan spotted this and nipped in ahead of the keeper. A defter touch would have presented Fagan with an open goal, but instead he was forced wide by his own hamfistedness and instead fashioned a cross towards the advancing Altidore on the back post. Jozy rose to nod into an unguarded net but was shoved in the back by Rafael in the act of heading the ball. A penalty was awarded - rightly - but only a yellow card was issued - wrongly, it was the clearest goalscoring opportunity of the day. Fagan coolly rammed the penalty past Kuszczak and the equaliser was received with glee, but a nagging annoyance remained as United continued with their full complement of 11 men.

On 62 Carrick found space by cutting inside Zayatte's challenge and hit a low drive that Myhill pawed around the post. From the resulting header Brown looped a header goalwards and forced Myhill to tip over. City won a corner at the other end and Hunt's accurate delivery found Garcia who bent his neck backwards to fashion a flashing header that floated just wide of the far post. At this stage City looked to have the upper hand and United's poor passing got even worse as they rocked visibly. So when City cleared a corner and Evra hauled down Fagan it appeared that the balance would tilt further towards City, that being an obvious yellow card offence and Evra's name having already been taken. But feckless ref Wiley decided instead to buck trends, the laws of the game and common sense by instead administering a finger-wagging ticking off in the presence of captain Giggs. This was dreadful refereeing, no excuse whatsoever for sparing Evra other than Wiley's palpable fear of the reaction he would receive from the United bench. Bottler.

Moments later City had a corner that was cleared once to Dawson who returned the ball to the United box, then cleared a second time to Rooney. Wisely eschewing another backpass, Rooney fed Giggs wide right and received a return pass in space as the City defence scattered in the manner of a group of kids playing hide and seek. By the time Rooney had shouted "eighty-nine, ninety, ninety-two, ninety-eleven, hundred, comingrediorNOT" he was deep in City's box and squaring the ball to Park on the back post. Only Dawson stood between ball and goal, but he was running full tilt towards his castle and succeeded only in thumping the ball into his own goal. 1-2, City were quelled. Vennegoor of Hesselink rumbled on for the excellent Garcia, and he was soon joined by the scampering Ghilas and the ineffective Geovanni. On 82 Myhill took a freekick on the edge of his own box but his direction was wayward and Vidic had space to aim a powerful header into the path of Rooney in the inside left channel. Rooney advanced, dummied to cross then cut onto his right foot and threaded a wonderful pass through Gardner's legs to the unmarked Berbatov on the back post. The Bulgarian starlet has made a long and fruitful career from not missing open goals two yards out after fabulous work from an extravagantly skilled team-mate, and he extended his record by poking home the closer to make it 3-1. In the final minutes Mendy rampaged forward and shot narrowly wide after a JVoH backheel, then Fagan swiped a speculative volley a couple of feet wide after a City cross was part-cleared. But the final word came from the fabulous Rooney deep in injury time who flashed a shot inches over when twenty yards out.

City gave it a good go and on the balance of play were perhaps deserving of a point. Indeed midway through the second half all three points seemed a possibility for a while. But in the end the referee's weakness, Rooney's excellence and City's continued defensive indiscipline combined to see another big four club triumph at the KC and our six match unbeaten run at home come to a sticky end. We need to play attacking confident football again on Tuesday and we'll win - especially as we can't defend for toffee.

HULL CITY (4-4-2): Myhill; Mendy, Zayatte, Gardner, Dawson; Garcia, Olofinjana, Boateng, Hunt; Altidore, Fagan.  Subs: Vennegoor of Hesselink (for Garcia, 78), Geovanni (for Boateng, 83), Ghilas (for Altidore, 83), Kilbane, Barmby, Cairney, Duke.

Goals: Fagan (pen) 59

Booked: None

Sent Off: None

MANCHESTER UNITED: Kuszczak, Evra, Vidic, Brown, Rafael, Fletcher, Valencia, Carrick, Giggs, Rooney, Berbatov.  Subs: Park (for Valencia, 63), Obertan (for Giggs, 78), Owen, de Laet, Welbeck, Fabio, Foster.

Goals: Rooney 45; Dawson (og) 73; Berbatov 82

Booked: Evra, Rafael

Sent Off: None

REFEREE:    A Wiley

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