Hull City 2 Leicester City 1: Tigers show different sides to record third straight win
In the first half it was scintilating, in the second it was real squeaky bum stuff. No one at Hull City could complain about not getting their monety's worth on a Tuesday night.
But if entertainment is the name of the game for owner Acun Ilicali, most in the 20,211-strong crowd just wanted to see their team win. Hull's supporters eventually did, for the third match on the trot, a result which has them pressed right up against the Championship play-off places 11 games into the season.
A Leicester City side who had drawn five of their last six matches nearly did it again, Harry Winks hitting a post in stoppage-time to deny his side the comeback from 2-0 down they had spent the second period threatening.
With Oli McBurnie nursing a niggle, Hull found themselves experimenting with different combinations, and the result was great to watch in the opening period. But from 2-0 up they just had to roll up their sleeves and get the job done.
The gasps of relief as Jordan Ayew volleyed wide in the fifth added minute were on a par with the roars when the final whistle blew shortly after.
Ahead of the game, supporters got slightly incongruous piano renditions of songs such as Rocking All Over the World, Cum on Feel the Noize and Zombie.
On the field they had no choice but to try something different without their top-scorer.
It helped massively that Liam Millar was fit to start for the first time since injuring his anterior cruciate knee ligament a year earlier, but right-winger Joe Gelhardt, No 10 Matt Crooks and stand-in centre-forward Kyle Joseph all played their part in a wonderful first-half attacking display.
The away fans who had only seen their side lose once this season, at Preston North End in mid-August, did not know what had hit them.
"Marti sort it out," they demanded of their manager Cifuentes. He would at half-time, but fortunately for the Tigers, his side could not see it through.
The hosts were 1-0 up inside the first six minutes, having already hit the post as the suspended Segej Jakirovic watched on from the stands.
Millar fizzed a short pass into Joseph at the near post four minutes in. It looked like Jacob Stolarcycyk might knock it in off the woodwork, but the ball stayed out for him to recover.
Gelhardt looked to pick Crooks out with a low cross a couple of minutes later but when he slipped, Millar whipped in a lovely curling finish.
To watch how Crooks plucked a Cody Drameh ball down the line out of the air, and to see how Millar backheeled his way out of trouble when pinned to the touchline, Hull were oozing confidence.
Joseph was unable to get a clean header on a Millar cross, giving Solarcyk the chance to step across and collect it. The striker failed to keep his shot down when Crooks slipped him in again.
Hull being Hull, though, they managed to give Leicester encouragement at the other end.
Ayew was left alone near the penalty spot after 14 minutes but badly missed the target with the pull-back Luke Thomas served him up.
Five minutes later Ivor Pandur's hesitancy to come off the line was almost punished. When he finally decided to come out to Hamza Choudhury, Leicester's captain gave the ball to Patson Daka for a shot that was well smothered.
But the second goal would be Hull's.
Wout Faes looked like he might have stopped it, cutting out a low Millar pass that was on course to give Joseph and unmissable tap-in but the hosts kept the ball alive and when Ryan Giles played it in, it was Gelhardt who had the relatively easy task of finding the net.
Not that Hull fans were only interested in the attacking side of the game, giving Gelhardt a deserved ovation when he tracked the ball back and won a free-kick near his own corner flag deep into first-half stoppage time.
There was an equal amount of love for Joseph in the second half when he made a Jannik Vestergaard backpass far less comfortable than it ought to have been.
But Leicester were a Premier League side last season and to an extent, Marti did sort it out, his double half-time substitution provoking a much-improved second 45 minutes.
Ayew headed wide with a deflection and substitute Aaron Ramsey missed a glorious chance on the hour, popping up between Hull's centre-backs in splendid isolation, only to put his header way beyond the far post.
Hull's workrate – as much from their forward players as anyone else - was outstanding but they were lucky that when Charlie Hughes made a complete hash of a clearance, Ayew was more interested in jumping at Pandur than the ball, and Gelhardt was earlier booked for a dive in the penalty area.
In the 67th minute, a goal did come, Ramsey proving much better at dipping shots from distance than straightforward headers. Seconds later Abdual Fatawu shot over the bar.
Hull brought on substitutes to try and stem the flow and re-energise a team that had run so hard. It almost paid quick dividends, but when Enis Destan gave the ball back to Gelhardt, Stolarczyk was off his line to save.
At the other end, Regan Slater did well to throw himself in the line of a Ramsey shot as the ball pinballed around Pandur's area, his last notable act before making way for the security of a third centre-back.
That a minimum of seven minutes were added to the second half did nothing to reassure the home fans.
But the full-time whistle was greeted with relief at a job well done and the home fans headed into the night to the rather more familiar Status Quo version of Rocking All Over the World wreathed in smiles.
Whatever way they go about things right now, it is working.
Hull City: Pandur; Drameh, Ajayi, Hughes, Giles (Famewo 53); Hadziahmetovic (Gyabi 73), Slater (Egan 85); Gelhardt (Ndala 85), Crooks, Millar; Joseph (Destan 73).
Unused substitutes: Coyle, Akintola, Phillips, McCarthy.
Leicester City: Stolarczyk; Choudhury (Carranza 77), Faes (Kristiansen 88), Vestergaard, L Thomas (Okoli 77); Soumare, Winks; Fatawu, James, (Ramsey HT), Ayew; Daka (Monga HT).
Unused substitutes: Pereira, Skipp, Begovic, S Thomas.
Referee: M Donohue (Greater Manchester).