NEW YEAR’S DAY FOOTBALL: Mixed start to the year for Yorkshire’s clubs

Daniel Agger’s header from a corner and Luis Suarez’s 20th of the season from a free-kick put paid to the Tigers and while the performance was far from the Reds’ best, it was significant after back-to-back defeats at fellow top-four rivals Manchester City and Chelsea.

And Bruce admitted his players lacked the energy required to come close to building on the back of their fantastic 6-0 hammering of Fulham at the weekend.

“Towards the end we were game enough to keep trying but you could see a lot of tired bodies and the third game in six days was a bit too much for us,” he said.

“It was a big ask for us, we needed to be right at it and be fresh and it was a bit too much for us.

“A footballer can play a match every day but he can’t play with the same intensity.

“We looked tired towards the end, your concentration goes and you don’t have the energy to compete.”

In the Championship, Leeds United’s miserable festive spell continued with a 2-1 home defeat to Blackburn Rovers.

Blackburn moved to within four points of the top six after Jordan Rhodes scored his 16th goal of the season in the 13th minute and Rudy Gestede (36) added a second before Matt Smith (53) pulled one back.

Sheffield Wednesday climbed out of the bottom three with a 2-0 victory over Blackpool, who have picked up just one point from their seven games since beating Wednesday at the end of November.

Connor Wickham (51) and Chris Maguire (60) netted the goals.

Theo Robinson gave Doncaster Rovers the lead against Queens Park Rangers in the 43rd minute at Loftus Road, but Matt Phillips levelled 10 minutes after half-time and Charlie Austin struck in injury time to earn the title hopefuls a 2-1 victory.

Huddersfield Town were edged out by title-chasing Burnley, who moved back up to second after they held on at Turf Moor to win 3-2.

Danny Ings (six) opened the scoring and then put Burnley back ahead in the 41st minute after former Claret Martin Paterson (20) had levelled.

Kieran Trippier extended Burnley’s lead in the 79th minute and that proved decisive, despite Paterson (89) scoring his second.

Bottom club Barnsley fought back well to earn a point at Birmingham, Jacob Mellis (61) cancelling out Nikola Zigic’s 10th-minute opener.

The Tykes are level on points with Yeovil, whose match against Watford was postponed because of a waterlogged pitch.

In League One, it was a miserable day for all three of Yorkshire’s clubs.

Coventry continued their climb up the table thanks to a 3-1 victory at Rotherham United that featured a dramatic finish.

Joe Skarz put the Millers ahead (34) but Craig Morgan was sent off for a foul in the box and Carl Baker (70) netted the penalty to level matters.

Franck Moussa (85) then put the visitors ahead and Michael O’Connor missed a chance to level from the penalty spot in the 12th minute of injury time before Baker grabbed Coventry’s third.

Bradford City’s poor run of form continued as they went down 3-0 at Notts County. The Magpies’ goals came from Jamal Campbell-Ryce (32), Callum McGregor (88) and Jack Grealish (90) to climb off the bottom of the table.

Chris Porter put Sheffield United ahead at Walsall in the 17th minute, but Craig Westcarr (52) levelled from the spot before James Chambers scored the winner 10 minutes later to move the Saddlers up to seventh in the table.

In League Two, York City ended an 11-game winless run when Ryan Jarvis’s goal gave them a 1-0 win over Morecambe.