Careful what you wish for – Hull City's 1-0 defeat to Derby County gives Acun Ilicali excitement he craves

The Turkish media mogul sacked Liam Rosenior less than a year ago because the football the Tigers played in falling just short of the Championship play-offs did not get him off his seat enough.

It does not get much more exciting than a final game of the season away from home knowing if you win, you are safe from relegation and if you lose you will be relegated to League One, with all the financial consequences for a club which has prided itself on sailing as closely as possible to the wind of second-tier spending restrictions.

That is Hull's fate at Portsmouth on Saturday.

Draw, and it gets complicated, bringing Derby County, Luton Town and Preston North End's results in.

That excitement could have been avoided by beating Derby on Saturday, but where is the fun in that?

Hull looked like they wanted to win against a Rams side who played as if they would have been happy with a draw which would have put them, rather than their hosts, in the bullet seat on the final day.

Wanted to win, rather than desperate to.

Coach Ruben Selles only started to force the issue with attacking substitutions once Nat Phillips had headed in an 84th-minute free-kick, and by then it was too late.

And although the will was there, the ability was not.

Luck was lacking too, but fortune helps those who help themselves. Hull did not, and have not.

The changes owner/chairman Ilicali instigated have seen them score 43 goals in 45 Championship games, as opposed to 68 in 46 last season.

Joe Gelhardt's loan from Leeds United added attacking class in January, and he showed steel converting two penalties to beat Preston on Easter Monday – a result which could yet be crucial. That composure deserted him against the Rams.

The Merseysider put a snapshot wide when Abu Kamara laid the ball back in the 57th minute, and had another effort deflected just wide in the 65th. But when Harrison Armstrong made a hash of Charlie Hughes' long ball and Gelhardt turned Matt Clarke inside out, he ought to have done better than to screw his shot into the back end of the side netting.

Not that the lack of a goal was all Gelhardt's fault by any means.

Nordin Amrabat looked dangerous on his second Hull start but when Gelhardt closed down a clearance and presented the winger with the chance to go one-on-one with Josh Vickers, he lacked the pace or maybe energy to burst away.

Centre-forward Kyle Joseph's search for a first goal for the club he joined in January goes on.

Some fresh attacking blood looked necessary long before the triple substitution which brought it in the 88th minute but as Alfie Jones prepared to come on for John Egan on the hour, Mason Burstow approached stripped and ready, and was sent back to the bench by Selles.

"It was my call to postpone it for a little bit later," said the coach.

Hull's set-piece fallibility remains.

A Kane Wilson cross-shot beaten away early in the second half was as much as goalkeeper Ivor Pandur had to do until Jones was drawn out to the touchline and fouled Nathaniel Mendez-Laing.

Phillips got between Jones and Hughes to head in the free-kick.

It was not meant to be like that.

Roared on by a big crowd themselves roused by a noisy away following, Hull picked up the gauntlet thrown down by Luton's dramatic late win in the early kick-off. It dropped the Tigers – and Derby – down a place but in a way might have helped, removing the temptation to play for a draw.

Hull certainly did not do that, Gustavo Puerta launching three throw-ins into Derby's penalty area in the first three minutes. Amarabat's shot from the first deflected for a corner, Lewie Coyle's volley looked well off target when blocked at close range, but kept the volume levels high.

Derby had not had an attack of note when Regan Slater twisted his ankle and went down for a spell of treatment which lasted a good few minutes before seemingly ending his season less than a quarter of an hour into the game.

The momentum Hull had been building relaxed, and Derby came to realise there was a net at the other end of the field too.

Injuries have not helped Hull's cause all season. Egan suffered back spasms in the first half and soldiered on as long as he could. Aston Villa loanee Louie Barry, whose recovery from a cartilage injury in his fourth Tigers game has been like waiting for a taxi, will not play another.

But their football has backed Hull into a corner where they have to go to Fratton Park and beat a Portsmouth side with far less to play for.

It will be exciting. It will be awful.

Hull City: Pandur; L Coyle, Egan (Jones 60), Hughes, McLoughlin; Puerta, Slater (Alzate 14); Kamara (Burstow 88), Gelhardt, Amrabat (Pedro 88); Joseph (Crooks 88). Unused substitutes: Lincoln, Drameh, Lo-Tutala, Palmer.

Derby County: Vickers; Langas, Phillips, Clarke; Wilson, Thompson (Mendez-Laing 68), Armstrong, Adams, Forsyth; Yates (Barkhuizen 90+2), Harness (Jackson 80). Unused substitutes: Osborn, Roofe, Luthra, Goudmijn, Blackett-Taylor, Pieters.

Referee: S Martin (Staffordshire).