Derby County 0 Hull City 3: Steve Bruce's tactical strategy central to Tigers' win

This expression of bonhomie began shortly after the final whistle in the away seats, but a few of the locals joined in, the air of conviviality being such that fans on both sides of the divide also gave each other the ‘thumbs up’ sign.

A little over three weeks on and the Owls have backed up those warm words with actions after taking a giant step towards the Championship play-off final with a 2-0 first-leg victory at home to Brighton & Hove Albion.

For Derby, however, a Wembley reunion with Carlos Carvalhal’s men seems a prospect much more distant than the 125 miles that separate the Ipro Stadium from the cathedral of English football.

Hull City produced arguably their most disciplined performance of the season to build a lead that surely borders on unassailable even with potentially two hours of football still to play.

Of course, no one in the Hull camp is going to come out and say that publicly. Manager Steve Bruce, for instance, was warning about the need to guard against complacency within minutes of the final whistle being blown here.

Moses Odubajo was similarly on message, insisting that there was still plenty of work to do if the Tigers are to book that big day out in the capital.

The reality, though, is that no team in the history of the play-offs has managed to overturn a three-goal deficit from the first leg to reach the final.

Not so much an uphill task for Derby, therefore, as the need to pull off the footballing equivalent of scaling Mount Everest come Tuesday night at the KC Stadium.

Adding further fuel to the belief that this tie is as good as over was the body language of the Rams after Andrew Robertson had netted Hull’s third goal in the seventh minute of stoppage time.

The slumped shoulders and eyes gazing into the middle distance betrayed the look of a team whose spirit had been broken and their belief shattered.

Lifting those same players, many of whom suffered similar disappointment 12 months ago when Derby went from table toppers in February to missing out on even a play-off place, is going to be a tough task.

Odubajo, then at Brentford, was a beneficiary of last year’s stunning collapse in form by the Rams as it was the London side who snatched sixth place on the final day.

The Bees’ promotion hopes were subsequently ended by Middlesbrough over two legs, meaning Odubajo is hoping to make it third time lucky this time around after also being part of the Leyton Orient side beaten at Wembley on penalties in the 2014 League One final by Rotherham United.

He points to one major difference between Brentford a year ago and Hull right now.

“We sneaked in on the last day a year ago and were delighted to do so,” said the £3.5m summer signing.

“We had been favourites to get relegated so we proved everyone wrong. The lads were just happy to be on the big stage. And we lost to Boro because they were more professional and more experienced. This group here wants to go up. No one is just happy to take part.”

This much was evident from the steely-eyed manner in which Hull set about their task in Saturday’s first leg.

Bruce deserves huge credit, the Tigers’ manager having set up his side with Abel Hernandez playing as a lone frontman and Mohamed Diame told to tuck into midfield.

This gave Hull a numerical advantage in the centre of the field that, ultimately, proved decisive.

Such was the stranglehold enjoyed by the visitors that 80 minutes had been played before Derby mustered a shot on target.

Even then, Jacob Butterfield’s shot was so tame that it drew derisory cheers from the home fans.

Allied to this shield of amber and black shirts was an ability to break at speed, as epitomised by the darting runs of full-backs Robertson and Odubajo that caused the home side so many problems throughout the afternoon.

It was no coincidence that the Tigers’ second and third goals should come from the duo.

Odubajo was behind the first of those, latching on to Jake Livermore’s pass on the stroke of half-time before cutting inside to hit a shot that took a slight deflection from Marcus Olsson’s thigh before then taking a more decisive change of direction off Jason Shackell.

Scott Carson stood no chance in the home goal, as had been the case when Hernandez had opened the scoring on the half-hour with a drilled shot from 20 yards.

Two goals ahead at the break, Hull retained their vice-like grip in a second half that saw Diame have a shot saved by Carson and then Ahmed Elmohamady fire into the side-netting.

Derby tried to get back into proceedings but, in doing so, huge gaps were left at the back and these were ruthlessly exploited deep into stoppage time when Odubajo raced forward before passing to Robertson.

The Scotland international took a couple of touches before firing past Carson to spark a mass exodus from the home fans.

In the away seats, the party was well under way. Just as with three weeks earlier, the voices filling the air were from Yorkshire, but this time there was an implied warning in the chant. ‘Sheffield Wednesday, we’re coming for you’.