Middlesbrough grabbed a vital three points in there race to avoid the drop, as they gave them selves a huge lifeline in their battle to beat the drop. Phil Brown elected to start with a 4-4-1-1 formation, with Geovanni operating in the hole behind lone front man Manucho. It was Middlesbrough who started the brighter, and took the lead within three minutes. The goal came after hesitsation in the City backline, as Alves charged down the attempted clearance of Kamil Zayatte, the Marlon King, who was at Hull from the start of the season till Januray, but left due to a reported bust up with Phil Brown, fed Alves in, and his cross come shot was only parried by Duke into the path of Tuncay, who buried the ball into the net to give the home side the perfect start. Hull didn’t let the goal put them down though, and only six minutes later, found themselves level, after Manucho met Nick Barmbys cross to put the ball beyond the Boro keeper. Both sides was pushing to take the lead, and it was turning out to be quite end to end. Dukes failure to deal with a Stewart Downing free kick almost proved costly, but Wheater’s header was wide of the post.
Craig Fagan then found himself in on goal, but was denied at Jones knocked the ball away from him as he was about to pull the trigger, but the ball only fell to the path of Manucho, but he could only fire across the face of girl. Moments later, Bates restored Boros lead, as he met McMahon’s corner, and stabbed it beyond Duke. The lead up to the goal was controversial however, as Ian Ashbee claimed that he had cleared the ball before it had crossed the line. Ashbees protests proved invain, and costly as the City midfielder picked up his tenth yellow card of the season amidst his protests, which will rule him out of Citys next two Premier League games. Middlesbrough started to dominate the game after the break, and Downings free-kick went just curled wide of the Boro goal. But despite all their possesion they only had a one goal lead, which was almost cancelled out when Manucho headed towards goal after Boro keeper Jones had missed the cross, but Wheater hacked the ball off the line. Downing once again tryed his luck on the hull goal, as he cut in after being played in on the wing, but his shot was held by Duke in the Hull goal.
City pushed for a equaliser, but the closest they came was when Dean Marney headed towards goal, but it was inches to high. Any hopes of a point where quashed, as King, who left Hull on bad times, sidefooted past Duke to twist the knife into Hull. City now look well in amongst the relegation battle, and need to find a win from somewhere. After the January transfer window, alot was made of Phil Brown not bringing in a renowned striker, now those calls are looking even more evident, as the Tigers head towards the crunch period of the season.
