Pleasing Acun Ilicali can make coaching Hull City feel like an impossible job, but in his first competitive home game, Sergej Jakirovic hit on a formula.

The Tigers played the sort of open, attractive football their Turkish owner demands – so open, in fact, that Oxford United were able to keep the outcome on edge right to the end.

A television mogul like knows the value of a happy ending, and Oli McBurnie provided it with a dramatic stoppage-time goal to secure a 3-2 win.

The free transfer signing had a hand in both of Hull's first-half goals, scored by Joe Gelhardt and Matt Crooks, only for the team to give up two soft equalisers.

Victory was all the sweeter because it was starting to look as though Hull might have to settle for a third consecutive draw under their new Bosnian coach – Wrexham came through the midweek League Cup tie on penalties. Home draws have been the bane of Ilcali's tenure,

When Jakirovic's Tigers had the ball, they were wonderful to watch – not something you can say of that many home teams here in the recent past.

The confidence was obvious from the way Kasey Palmer tried to play a chest pass down the line to Joel Ndala – that did not come off – and score direct from a corner – that did not – and when Gelhardt nutmegged Greg Leigh.

They played short, sharp passes down the right in particular as Cody Drameh, Crooks and Gelhardt combined with one another, and centre-forward McBurnie and No 10 Kasey Palmer.

NOT BAD FOR STARTERS: Joe Gelhardt celebrates opening the scoring with his Hull City team-mate Oli McBurnie (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)

placeholder image — NOT BAD FOR STARTERS: Joe Gelhardt celebrates opening the scoring with his Hull City team-mate Oli McBurnie (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)

John Lundstram provided something different. At Sheffield United he was a running midfielder, at Hull is a quarter-back, providing raking balls.

It all made for a heady combination. It was just a shame that a defence that is set to be without Semi Ajayi for some time looked a shambles.

Gelhardt set the tone for the first home game of the season in less than a minute and a half. John Egan sent a long pass to McBurnie, who found the on-loan Leeds United forward, playing o the right wing.

Gelhardt beat Leigh and with only a small space between the full-back and his goalkeeper, he needed a ricochet to find the net, but got it.

SHUSH! Matt Crooks finds the net (Image: George Wood/Getty Images)

The lead could have been doubled inside six minutes, Joe Ndala collecting Lundstram's pass and putting in a cross that was behind McBurnie. Crooks ran onto it but Leigh blocked his shot.

But Oxford soon served notice that Hull would not have things all their own way.

Tyler Goodrham looped a hopeful ball back across the penalty area, where Will Lankshear probably could not believe how much time and space he had to measure his volley as the ball came down. he used it well.

Hull were undeterred, Gelhardt and McBurnie fizzing short passes with little pressure on them, and Crooks finishing coolly to restore the lead after 20 minutes.

Minutes later Jamie Cumming had to punch the ball from right under his crossbar or else Palmer would have scored direct from the corner.

You could have no such confidence in their defensive work, though, especially when former Rotherham united and Sheffield Wednesday man Will Vaulks was lining up long throw-ins. One was nodded back to Cameron Branngan in the D for a volley Ivor Pandur could only touch into his own net.

Pandur's poor kick presented Lankshear with another chance late in the first half but after a one-two, he shot wide. A sweeping pass from one of his own team-mates released the centre-forward but he could not pick Mark Harris out.

But either side of those chances a stretching Gelhardt found the side netting and McBurnie had a shot deflected wide.

Oxford replaced a centre-forward with a centre-back at half-time to make it harder for Hull to play through them but the Tigers still nearly bundled in a Palmer free-kick.

At the other end, a Matt Phillips shot Pandur tocuhed behind drew oohs, and the goalkeeper needed two attempts to hold Sam Long's shot at a corner.

In the space of little more than a minute Drameh won a corner with a blocked shot, then needlessly conceded one – something he will have regretted when Vaulks leathered a shot into him.

A Gelhardt shot was deflected into the side netting and another went hard straight at the goalkeeper after he moved into the hole and it looked like an opportunity might be passed up until Ryan Giles pulled the ball back from the byline for McBurnie to convert three minutes into added time as Gary Rowett raged on the touchline about a foul in the build-up.

That's entertainment.

Hull City: Pandur; Drameh, Egan, Hughes,Giles; Crooks (Slater 87), Lundstram; Gelhardt (Joseph 87), Palmer (Kamara 69), Ndala (Akintola 69); McBurnie (Famewo 90+7). Unused substitutes: Phillips, Williams, Brown, McCarthy.

Oxford United: Cumming; Spence, Helik, Moore, Leigh (Currie 82); Mills (Dembele 57), Vaulks, Brannagan; Goodrham (Phillips 57); M Harris (Long HT), Lankshear (Bradshaw 75). Unused substitutes: Sibley, Ingram, Ter Avest, Johnson.

Referee: A Kitchen (Durham).