Hull City’s defeat to Manchester United followed in a similar vein to previous efforts against the big teams this season; with excellent going unrewarded points-wise. It was great to see the Tigers trying to play in a positive fashion against the champions, and City caused the visitors problems at times, creating a number of excellent chances, and being denied a good penalty-kick shout in the first half.

So, what to make of it? Clearly the major lesson to Phil Brown is to keep playing in an aggressive, attacking manner. Unless we’re away against the top teams, then 4-4-2 looks like the way to go. None of our strikers look comfortable in a lone striker role, and we never look like scoring.

Altidore made the most of another chance, putting in a good shift against United. He still doesn’t carry enough of a goal threat, but his partnership with Fagan started to look more exciting, and it will be interesting to see who Brown sees as his first choice striking options in the coming weeks.

The midfield also worked hard, Olofinjana and Boateng both sticking manfully to their tasks. Olly’s departure to the African cup of nations will be a blow to the club, and it will be up to the likes of Dean Marney to fill the void.

The defence did quite well, and Zayatte is producing more and more excellent performances alongside Gardner at centre half. That said, the team defending was very disappointing in Sunday’s game. All of Man Utd’s goals were easily avoidable, even though the back four (and surprisingly Mendy in particular were excellent).

Go to go to Bolton now, will do a proper blog tomorrow.

Go Tigers!