Hull City 2 Manchester City 2.

Both clubs went into this live televised SKY game on the back of three defeats with seemingly more pressure on Mark Hughes than Phil Brown. The expectations at The City of Manchester Stadium having gone through the roof since moneybags chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak took control. The pe-match spotlight was on thier number 10 Robinho who signed for £32.5 million from Real Madrid on transfer deadline day and the Tigers number 10, Geovanni who joined City on a free transfer from Manchester City during the summer. To put this into prespective, the Mancs could have bought our entire club and still had over £20 million in loose change for the price they paid for this one player. On the day we have the bargain of the decade because if Robinho is worth £32.5 million more than Geovanni then I'm playing centre foward for England on Wednesday. They must have been mad.

Phil Brown asked for some noise during the build up to this game and he got it, the KC was thumpingingly loud, raw, full bellied war crys from the East Stand greeted the players. This was fantastic vocal backing from the Tigers faithful, heard loud and clear all over the World by those watching on satellite television. City started the brighter and looked well up for it, the visiting fans quite subdued in comparison to others who have occupied the away end recentley. On twelve minutes the roof nearly lifted off the KC when Danny Cousins pounced on a weak back pass to slide the ball under new England keeper Joe Hart for the first goal. The Tigers sensed blood and tore into thier well healed oppenents only to be ticked off by the over protective referee who gave every 50/50 decision against them, why we cannot have any physical contact in professional football anymore is beyond me. Of course Manchester City dusted themselves down and played themselves back into the match helped considerably by an early Christmas present from City. Cousins misplaced pass in midfield found its innocent looking way to Myhill on the edge of Citys area, but Kamil Zayatte stepped in and with the touch of a young Billy Whitehurst played the ball into the path of the bald headed Stephen Ireland to simply place into the net for the equaliser. Undeserved in my opinion.

This rocked City, and once again the cruelness of life in the Premier League was there for all to see, one mistake (well two in this case) and we are opened up like a festering sore, its not pretty it is brutal, like being smashed in the face with a broken bottle. And it got worse, if City have a weakness its in our midfield, and for the second goal right on half time, Stephen Ireland again had acres of space in front of our static defence to place a delightfull left footed shot that curled into the bottom corner. Far too easy. From coasting it at 1-0 our lads went off at half time down 2-1 down, the Mancs hadn't been in it but suddenly looked as though they could over run us, Browny and Horton had some finger wagging to do in the changing room! Their star man Robinho had hardly been noticed and I had to check with my mate that Shaun Wright-Phillips was actually playing for them, and I'm still not 100% he was!

Everybody on the concourse not actually enjoying thier half-time pint would have taken a point at this stage, as we would before kick-off, and we filtered back to out seats to witness the second half. People tell me it was a good game, I cannot enjoy it when its as tight as this, City heading for a fourth straight defeat and the merchants of gloom already sharpening thier pens, I could actually hear balloons bursting all around me. But our City are made of sterner stuff than some give us credit for and we took it to them once again. As last week all our best options came from little Geovanni, he looked a right handful, eager to prove a point or two, personally I was a little dissappointed with Marlon King, perhaps the casino incident clouds ones judgement but I thought he had his least effective game for us so far. A deserved equaliser came from a deflected Geovanni free kick that wrong footed Kasper Schmeicel standing in for the injured Joe Hart. After this Myhill made his only save of the afternoon and if any team was going to snatch all three points it was us. Nearest we came was from another Geovanni free kick, thrice taken at that ! Ashbee reminded us all he was still on the pitch with a surging run, for him, all of three yards before he was upended on the edge of the visitors box. GEO! GEO! GEO! echoed around the stadium as he lined up the kick, first one being charged down by Wright-Philips, so he was playing! and he was booked for his troubles. Unbelievably the referee never counted the wall back and the second kick was also charged down this time by Ireland and he too was booked. Third kick, Mark Hughes on the touchline seeing his P45 looming up was furious, but again the ref never counted the wall back and this kick clipped the wall now seven yards away and flew to safety.

We saw a cameo appearance of Nick Barmby and Peter Halmosi at the end both not having enough time to influence anything and the ref blew for time to the relief of both teams, 2-2 a fair result and another point gained towards our target for safety. With Mendy, Stelios and now Barmby iching for a start I think Brown will be shuffling up the starting eleven for the forthcoming matches against away to Portsmouth and Stoke, both very winnable with the right attitude from both team and manager.

Karlberg KC Stadium.