Hull City passed up the opportunity to move above West Ham after a 2-0 defeat at Stoke.
Fuller and Lawrence make Hull suffer
Hull City passed up the opportunity to move above West Ham out of the relegation zone after a 2-0 defeat at Stoke condemned them to their 13th away defeat of the season.
Ian Dowie's side never tested Thomas Sorensen's goal at any point and were hit by two counter-attacking goals in both the opening and dying minutes of the game.
Ricardo Fuller opened the scoring after six minutes, with Dave Kitson capitalising on a poor piece of defending by Steven Mouyokolo and playing in the Jamaican to dart past Paul McShane and slot home.
Hull struggled to sustain any sort of pressure during the game and despite an improvement in the second half, they lacked inspiration with George Boateng - who later received a suspected fractured cheekbone in a brutal challenge with Tuncay Sanli - going closest for the Tigers.
Stoke settled matters in the final minute of normal time when Liam Lawrence was slipped through by Matthew Etherington to slide the ball into the bottom of Boaz Myhill's left hand corner.
Robert Huth volleyed over from Rory Delap's long throw for only the second decent chance created by either side in the opening 25 minutes.
Struggle
McShane, who was struggling to contain the lively Fuller, also had to dive in to block Kitson's near-post deflection as Stoke cranked up the pressure.
Craig Fagan was lucky to avoid a booking - or worse - after kicking out at Etherington in the 42nd minute as Hull continued to struggle to gain a foothold in the game.
The non-appearance of the injured Fuller for the second half, however, had a debilitating effect on Stoke as his replacement, Tuncay, could not produce the same energy or threat.
They had a let-off when Fagan's first touch was so bad he knocked the ball out of play just when it seemed he had got clear in the six-yard area.
At the other end Kitson just failed to get his head to Lawrence's right-wing cross but it was Hull who were looking the more dangerous.
Abdoulaye Faye's foul on Richard Garcia, pulling back the midfielder after he had gone past him, earned him a yellow card but Jimmy Bullard drilled the 20-yard free-kick into the wall.
The introduction of Geovanni for the ineffectual Dean Marney just before the hour reflected Hull's need to take advantage of their best spell of the match.
But the Brazilian failed to live up to his reputation for spectacular strikes when his first attempt at goal from outside the penalty area bobbled embarrassingly wide.
Bernard Mendy was cautioned for hauling back Etherington and Danny Higginbotham's flicked header from the winger's set-piece went over the crossbar.
But Hull continued to dominate and from Geovanni's cut-back on the left of the penalty area, Fagan saw his shot charged down by Higginbotham and Boateng's rebound blocked by Glenn Whelan.
Stoke's opportunities were becoming increasingly fleeting but Kitson was denied twice in the space of a few seconds from Delap's long throw.
Injury
There was a lengthy delay for Boateng's injury as the Hull captain was carried off on a stretcher to a waiting ambulance.
With boss Dowie having earlier sent on Jozy Altidore and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink for Garcia and Folan it left Hull a man short.
Tuncay should have made the game safe for Stoke with seven minutes to go when Myhill's scuffed clearance reached him 25 yards out but he screwed badly wide of an empty goal.
But Lawrence made no mistake in the 90th minute when put through by Etherington, sliding a shot across Myhill and into the far corner of the net.
Eight minutes of injury-time followed but the fight had been knocked out of Hull, who will feel a sense of injustice that they did not get what they deserved.
| Stoke City |
Team Statistics |
Hull City |
| 2 |
Goals |
0 |
| 1 |
1st Half Goals |
0 |
| 3 |
Shots on Target |
1 |
| 6 |
Shots off Target |
3 |
| 2 |
Blocked Shots |
4 |
| 3 |
Corners |
2 |
| 14 |
Fouls |
13 |
| 5 |
Offsides |
2 |
| 3 |
Yellow Cards |
2 |
| 0 |
Red Cards |
0 |
| 59.3 |
Passing Success |
70.3 |
| 15 |
Tackles |
12 |
| 66.7 |
Tackles Success |
83.3 |
| 40.6 |
Possession |
59.4 |
| 46.6 |
Territorial Advantage |
53.4 |
|
