Tigers eclipse Terriers as derby temperatures boil

HULL CITY’S promotion push continued with a hard-fought victory over Huddersfield Town that exploded after the final whistle as Alex Bruce and Alan Lee clashed.

An early strike by Rob Koren set the Tigers on the way to a win that was sealed in the third minute of stoppage time when David Meyler’s second goal for the East Riding club.

But it was the post match scenes that saw Bruce red carded by referee Howard Webb after the final whistle for punching Lee, who the City defender intimated had elbowed him seconds earlier.

Players from both sides then clashed on the field before Lee had to be chaperoned down the tunnel by Huddersfield staff and players.

The ending marred an otherwise fine day for Hull as the KC Stadium celebrated its 10th anniversary with three points.

City were full value for the points with Huddersfield threatening only sporadically.

However, despite some decent set-piece delivery from Oliver Norwood, the Terriers rarely looked like snatching an equaliser with their best chance coming when Joel Lynch headed over from a corner.

Hull, meanwhile, took a while to get going in the second half and it was not until the final quarter that they started to genuinely threaten to add to Koren’s opener.

Jay Simpson missed an excellent chance after being picked out on 68 minutes by Ahmed Elmohamady, who had made easy work of getting past Lynch.

The Egyptian then repeated the trick two minutes later but, again, Huddersfield survived as Simpson was beaten to the ball by Peter Clarke.

It was a mystery why Hull wer so reluctant to attack the front post when Elmohamady had possession and once again it cost them 13 minutes from time as the flying wing back again got the better of Lynch only to see his drilled cross cleared with two team-mates at the back of the six yard box.

David Meyler then struck the crossbar in stoppage time before Howard Webb, referee when the KC staged its first ever league game ten years ago, called time to signal another win for City before Bruce took the shine off the day by being red carded.