Hull City 1 Norwich City 0: Penalty hero Brady is confident Tigers can stay distance this time

The first of the 10 wins targeted by Steve Bruce to achieve Hull City’s holy grail of Premier League survival has been achieved, and it a fair bet that most of them will need to be accrued in the Tigers’ East Yorkshire lair if the Broad Acres is to be staging top-flight football next season.

With due respect to Norwich, the fact that their arrival at the KC Stadium was sandwiched between visits to Stamford Bridge and then the Etihad Stadium will not have been lost on anyone of an amber-and-black persuasion.

Certainly not Bruce, also mindful of the guest list coming up at the KC. Cardiff, West Ham, Aston Villa, Sunderland, Crystal Palace. Teams who do not exactly come with a health warning.

Not that wins in the Premier League are guaranteed – unless you are Chelsea, Manchester United or Manchester City.

They most definitely are not handed to you on a plate when you go down to 10 men after a mere 27 minutes as Hull did when Yannick Sagbo was dismissed after making an aggressive head movement towards visiting captain Russell Martin.

Sagbo inserted a choice swear word into a Tweet in describing the Tigers’ league opener at Chelsea.

After this home debut, the Frenchman had occasion to send out another message – sans expletive – humbly apologising for his red mist.

Thankfully, his team-mates bailed him out and while the name of Robbie Brady is the one which will enter the Tigers’ history books for his 22nd-minute spot-kick winner, nine others played their part.

Brady’s strike was the first goal netted by a Hull player in the Premier League at the KC in 379 minutes with the Irishman also becoming the first scorer of a Tigers goal in the top flight since Mark Cullen netted in a 2-2 draw at Wigan on May 3, 2010.

You had to go back to March 27 of that year for City’s previous top-flight win – a 2-0 home victory against Fulham under Ian Dowie – although Saturday was all about Hull turning back the clock to last season.

The promotion campaign of 2012-13 saw Hull, who scored fewer goals than relegated Peterborough, win eight Championship matches by a 1-0 scoreline and 10 others by a single goal margin.

On Saturday’s case of plus ca change, Brady said: “All these games add up; we went up last year by winning games by one goal, which was the difference. These wins mean a lot.

“It was a setback when Yannick got sent off, which was disappointing but the lads stuck together and we had a good last 70 minutes of hard work and played well.

“I think we are more than capable of playing at this level and we showed that against Norwich.”

A banner draped over a bridge on Clive Sullivan Way was there for all to see on Saturday. It simply said ‘Come On You Hull’ – in homage to Hull FC on their rugby league Challenge Cup final date at Wembley.

But it was the Tigers who followed that directive to the letter. From Allan McGregor and the back four, led by the indomitable Curtis Davies, to a midfield inspired by the efforts of classy man-of-the-match Tom Huddlestone.

Not forgetting the forwards. Or rather the lone one in Sone Aluko, outstanding following Sagbo’s dismissal and justifying Bruce’s post-match claim he can make a top-flight name for himself this term.

Thankfully, Sagbo’s other meaningful contribution was more positive, albeit with a little help from referee Michael Jones, who penalised a half-tug on him in the area from former Tigers defender Michael Turner, leaving Brady to oblige with the penalty.

On the dismissal of Sagbo, Bruce said: “He was stupid and there was no-one more disappointed than he was. He will learn from it because it was one of those horrible days for him.

“Where everyone else had really wonderful debuts, he had a day to forget. Let’s hope he forgets, learns from it and moves on.

“But it was a great day for us. We are back in the Premiership and proved we can make a fist of it. We aren’t going to get away with playing with 10 men for very often, but we did it today and it was a remarkable achievement.

“The spirit amongst them is terrific and we are going to need that in the winter months.”

Norwich, who went close early through Leroy Fer’s header and had a shot from the lively Nathan Redmond, may have justifiably lamented Jones’s penalty award.

But of greater concern to manager Chris Hughton should have been his side’s ineptitude to seriously threaten a Hull side light in number for over an hour – with the hosts seeing out the game in relative comfort.

Ricky Van Wolfswinkel, Norwich’s £8.7m summer arrival, was expertly muzzled by the Tigers back four, with the Wolf forced to feed on scraps and afforded just one scent of goal.

That came in the Canaries sole moment of genuine second-half quality when his fine header was tipped over in terrific fashion by McGregor.

Other than that, the innovation on show came from the Tigers, personified by Huddlestone and Aluko, with Bruce revealing the latter has pledged not to get his Afro-style hair cut until he scores a goal.

If he continues to perform like he did on Saturday without scoring, expect some wacky Hair Bear Bunch-type wigs to start appearing in the KC stands in tribute.

Bruce quipped: “You should see him without his hairband! It’s like Michael Jackson of the Seventies and it makes him look nine-foot -six tall!”

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