The Premier League is often touted to be the most entertaining league in the world and there would have been few in the KC Stadium who would argue with that as Hull City and Manchester City played out a lively 2-2 draw. As for quality, well that's a different story. Both sides benefitted from defensive mistakes that would have been more at home in the playground, before Stephen Ireland and Geovanni gave the game some credibility.
Both sides had lost their previous three league matches, and in the absence of the suspended Richard Dunne, the Manchester City manager Mark Hughes made the odd decision to hand Robinho the captain's armband. While the Brazilian may have offered a different style of captaincy to the 'roll your sleeves up' leadership of Dunne it was a familiar story on the pitch as City soon found themselves behind.
Hull took the lead in the 14th minute without even breaking sweat. Micah Richards' pass across the edge of his own box seemed risky, but Tal Ben-Haim's decision to play the ball back to goalkeeper Joe Hart rather than clear upfield was downright careless. The backpass was hopelessly short and Daniel Cousin was left with the simple task of poking the ball past the onrushing Hart. To make matter worse, the Manchester City goalkeeper was injured in the process and was replaced shortly after by Kasper Schmeichel, and is now unlikely to join up with the England squad for Wednesday's friendly in Germany.
It was a case of anything you can do we can do better, or rather anything you can do we can do worse, as Manchester City equalised eight minutes before half-time. There was no danger as Kamil Zayatte picked up the ball in his own penalty area after Robinho had lost possession. But rather than clear the ball, the centre-back elected to run across the face of his own goal, losing control of the ball with his second touch and Ireland merely had to roll the ball into an empty net. It was a most bizarre goal, but one that was in keeping with the contest as a whole.
Ireland got his second shortly before half-time in a manner that was every bit as brilliant as the first two goals were comical. Javier Garrido broke down the left and picked out Ireland with a clever pass. The midfielder took one touch before curling a delightful half-volley which gave Boaz Myhill in the Hull goal no chance. It was Ireland's sixth goal of an extremely impressive season.
Geovanni attempted to improve the all-round standard with a bicycle kick which went over the bar two minutes into the second-half, while Marlon King forced Schmeichel into a full-length save moments later.
Geovanni then tried his luck with a free-kick from 40-yards which, predictably enough, didn't threaten Schmeichel, but when Hull were awarded a soft free-kick on the hour Geovanni once again stepped-up. This time his shot took a big deflection off the head of Vincent Kompany and gave Schmeichel no chance.
Zayatte partly made up for his earlier error when he blocked a goal-bound Robinho shot, after the Brazilian had been put-in by an incisive Ireland pass. In the ensuing scramble Darius Vassell completely missed the ball when presented with a glorious chance to restore the lead.
Geovanni again threatened from a set-piece, or rather three set-pieces after referee Phil Dowd twice ordered a free-kick on the edge of the Manchester City area to be retaken - booking both Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ireland for encroachment - before the third attempt cannoned off Vassell and out for a corner.
By this stage there were few players brave enough to take more than one touch of the ball for fear of what mistake they might make. Vassell had one last opportunity to snatch all three points but his finish was extremely poor when one-on-one with Myhill. If nothing else, it was an effort in keeping with the spirit of the game.
