Leicester City 3 Hull City 1: Nugent’s hat-trick helps silence the gloating of Tigers’ support

To those of a Hull City persuasion, however, yesterday was all about the visit to Leicester City and a chance to put one over their former manager Nigel Pearson.

Adding further to the sense of anticipation for those heading down the M1 was the knowledge that even a draw would be enough to seal a return to the automatic promotion places in the Championship for the first time since the Spring of 2008.

Imagine, therefore, the crushing disappointment felt by the 1,482 fans who did make the trip to a rain-soaked King Power Stadium after seeing their side well beaten as David Nugent netted the first hat-trick of his career.

That the defeat came against a Foxes outfit led by a manager who walked out on their own club last November only added to the dejected mood among the Hull ranks at the final whistle.

It had been evident throughout the afternoon that time had not healed the hurt felt by the Tigers fans over Pearson’s acrimonious exit to Leicester.

After regaling their former manager with the almost obligatory chant of ‘You’re getting sacked in the morning’ during the early exchanges, the visiting contingent upped the stakes by poking fun at the style of play employed by Pearson during his 16 months in charge at the KC Stadium.

“We’re not boring any more” was the first ditty to ring out once Jay Simpson had cancelled out Nugent’s seventh-minute opener, closely followed by, “He’s Nigel Pearson, he’ll send you to sleep”.

Sadly for the Hull travelling contingent, it was their former manager who had the last laugh courtesy of Nugent bagging another couple of goals to leave their present incumbent a frustrated figure at the final whistle.

“We got what we deserved and that was nothing,” admitted Steve Bruce, who had to watch the final eight minutes from the stand after being banished from the dugout following a confrontation with a linesman over a disputed throw-in.

“We have to say that Leicester were worthy winners. We held in there but they were the better team on the day.

“It is disappointing, especially considering how we have played in recent weeks. We were nowhere near those levels.”

On being banished from the stand by referee Eddie Ilderton, Bruce added: ”I went in to see the referee afterwards and apologised to him. Sometimes you do stupid things. At my age, I should know better. I was like a raving lunatic.

“The ball wasn’t out but that doesn’t mean I should go on like an idiot.”

Pearson had clearly done his homework on the Tigers and ordered his two wide men to push forward at every opportunity.

That way, both Ahmed Elmohamady and Joe Dudgeon – the two wing-backs whose marauding runs forward in an expansive 3-5-2 formation had helped the Tigers to a trio of wins before the trip to Leicester – were too busy dealing with their defensive duties to cause the home side too many problems.

The tactic worked well in the first half as Hull were pinned back thanks to Ben Marshall and Anthony Knockaert asking serious questions of the Yorkshire side.

Once ahead, Leicester switched formation at the interval as 
Nugent reverted to a lone frontman role and, once again, it worked admirably as the visitors were restricted to little more than hopeful long-range efforts before Nugent killed off the game in stoppage time with his hat-trick goal.

It was deserved reward for a fine display from the striker, who had opened the scoring on seven minutes with a smart shot across Ben Amos and into the corner of the net.

Hull then had two fortunate escapes in quick succession as, first, Amos brilliantly denied Jamie Vardy after the Leicester striker had nipped in behind the visitors’ defence.

Then, from the resulting corner, Sone Aluko was in the right place to clear off the line to deny Vardy again following a flick on from Wes Morgan.

As the game moved into the second quarter, Hull were struggling to retain a foothold only to then equalise against the run of play. An exquisite turn and pass from Robert Koren was the catalyst as he fed Corry Evans, who rolled a quick pass out to Aluko. The former Rangers forward looked up before drilling a low cross that Jay Simpson finished at full stretch as the Leicester defence appealed optimistically for offside.

Simpson’s fourth strike of the season looked like being enough to send the two sides in level at the break only for Nugent to strike for a second time from close range after being picked out by Knockaert’s inviting right-wing cross.

Pearson’s switch of formation after the break to 4-2-3-1 was designed to protect what Leicester had – a tactic he had used to good effect at the KC.

Even allowing for this, however, it was still the hosts who always looked the more likely to find the fourth goal of the afternoon as Amos had to bravely save from Vardy and Marshall dragged a shot wide when well placed.

Finally, Nugent killed off any lingering hopes of a fightback with a breakaway goal moments after Nick Proschwitz had seen his header cleared off the line at the other end to cap a miserable afternoon for the Tigers.