Hull City 1 Blackpool 1: Fundamentals letting the over-generous Tigers down as they fail again to cash in on red card

The latter cost Hull City two points on Boxing Day. They are playing some decent football but overdid the season of goodwill.

Liam Rosenior believes strongly in playing out from the back.

The thinking is that tapping the ball around near your own goal can draw opposition players forward and open up gaps you can slice through with an accurate pass. it can work very well.

There are a few different skills to it, but perhaps the most important is knowing when not to do it. In fairness to Rosenior, it was a point he emphasised at full-time.

Hull got it drastically wrong in the 29th minute and gave Blackpool a generous start. They are simply not potent enough up front to do that.

Oscar Estupinan finally scored his first goal since early October but in only getting one he let the Tangerines off lightly.

So even playing almost half a game with an extra man, even after equalising with 12 minutes – and the rest – to go, Hull could not grab a first win in six home matches.

The problem they had was when Matt Ingram gave the ball short to Alfie Jones, back after illness, the centre-back was quickly closed down and every other Hull player near the goal was tightly marked.

But you have to play the ball out, Hull's players have been told, so they did it anyway.

The ball went into Ryan Woods, who lost the ball to Gary Madine at his back, and in the blink of an eye Sonny Carey had lashed a shot to put his team in front.

It was a pity because until that point the football had almost all been at the other end.

Hull could have been level within two minutes but for the first 78 minutes they had another basic problem which makes it much harder to win football matches – a centre-forward who cannot find the net.

Estupinan – with only one of his eight goals to that point since August – thudded a Woods free-kick against the crossbar. Later in the first half he would put another Woods delivery over – again with his head.

At 0-0 they got Ozan Tufan heavily involved, which was always going to make them threatening.

In old parlance, the Turk was playing inside-right in a wonky Hull formation, with Regan Slater in a hole behind Estupinan and left winger Ryan Longman. When Hull had the ball, Cyrus Christie balanced things up on the right as Jacob Greaves shifted into a back three.

It worked well up to a point, Longman hitting a shot against a defender, Jones unable to screw his shot on target after Tufan's pull-back from Jean Michael Seri's pass came just behind him. Longman curled a shot just beyond the far post after being picked out by Tufan.

Shortly after the goal Christie blazed his shot after collecting Seri's pass and outmuscling Luke Garbutt.

But after the initial flurry, the goal had the expected effect on both side's confidence. Ingram had to turn a shot from Leeds United loanee Ian Poveda – playing in a three-man midfield – around the post – and Madine curled a shot at the goalkeeper when Jones tried to pass the ball off his byline.

Jordan Thorniley's red card eight minutes after coming on as a half-time substitute ought to have made Hull's task easier. The defender found himself chasing the wrong side of Estupinan and let him get as far as the D before accepting defeat and bundling him over for a free-kick Tufan put wide.

But nine days earlier, Hull had struggled with an 11 v 10, caught on the counter-attack, and history could easily have repeated itself.

Ingram saved brilliantly from Carey before Jerry Yates shot wide with a deflection and shortly after Lewie Coyle needed an outstanding penalty-are tackle on Jake Beesley.

Obviously the traffic was mainly the other way but even as they threw on more attacking players, the Tigers were woefully wasteful.

Dogukan Sinik shot wide from 35 yards, and Tufan missed the target closer in. By the time they equalised, Hull were effectively playing a 3-1-2-4 formation.

Eventually the door gave way, Estupiunan at last putting a header on target from a Coyle cross in the 78th minute.

There were as many scares for Hull as Blackpool in the closing stages, Ingram holding his breath after colliding with Carey in the penalty area and Slater putting a cross just wide of his own goal.

When a stoppage-time corner was worked to Tufan the shot was wild.

These tame Tigers need to tighten up at both ends.

Hull City: Ingram; Christie (Coyle 60), A Jones (Smith 74), McLoughlin, Greaves; Woods (Sayyadmanesh 60), Seri; Tufan, Slater; Estupinan, Longman (Sinik 60). Unused substitutes: Figueiredo, Docherty, Lo-Tutala.

Blackpool: Grimshaw; Connolly, Ekpiteta, Husband, Garbutt (Thorniley 46); Poveda (Thompson 56), Carey, Patino; Beesley, Yates; Madine. Unused substitutes: Dougall, Moore, R Williams, Lavery, Wright.

Referee: J Brooks (Leicestershire).