A sorry end to a dismal season for Hull City as relegation is confirmed at Cardiff City

In fact, almost everything that could have gone wrong on the night did go wrong, as Cardiff inflicted a sixth consecutive defeat on the Tigers, helping them on their way out of the division and into League One.

Grant McCann’s men absolutely had beat the Bluebirds to have any chance of climbing off the foot of the table and out of the bottom-three.

The fact that they didn’t win rendered results elsewhere meaningless, though Luton coming from behind to sink Blackburn at Kenilworth Road and Barnsley’s shock success at Brentford meant that even if City had managed to pull off an unlikely victory, then their efforts would still have been in vain.

There was a sense of inevitability about what was to come once Hull fell behind for the 11th time in 12 matches with 17 minutes on the clock.

Robert Glatzel had already gone close to putting Cardiff in front on two separate occasions before Junior Hoilett beat the offside trap on his way to picking the ball up on the left edge of the away box, then directed a finish across the face of goal and into the far corner.

The feeling that it was not going to be the visitors’ night intensified shortly afterwards when referee James Linington turned his back on appeals for what looked like a stonewall penalty after Joe Bennett had felled Mallik Wilks inside the area.

Those suspicions were then rubber-stamped in the 35th minute, City repeating their recently-acquired and oh-so-costly habit of gifting away goals from set-pieces.

On this occasion it was Ryan Tafazolli who lost Sean Morrison at a corner and the big Cardiff centre-half powered home the simplest of free headers.

It could have been 3-0 before half-time, but Nathaniel Mendez-Laing couldn’t beat George Long at his near post having broken clear down the right then cut inside the covering Angus MacDonald.

The second period saw the Bluebirds ease off the gas, and Hull did begin to gain something resembling a foothold in the match just before the hour-mark.

A mini-spell of pressure saw Wilks force a good save out of Alex Smithies, though McCann then made a triple-substitution which, instead of freshening things up, only served to kill his team’s momentum.

With any hopes of a comeback well-and-truly extinguished, Cardiff then affirmed their dominance by adding a third goal, seven minutes from time.

Unconvincing pieces of glovework have become an all-too regular occurrence where Long is concerned since Hull’s season started to disintegrate in 2020, and he was once again at fault on this occasion, parrying Bennett’s free-kick straight to the waiting Danny Ward, who took a touch then swept the ball into the back of the net.

City could have pulled a consolation goal back in stoppage-time, but in a moment that perfectly encapsulated the shambolic nature in which they have finished 2019/20, they fluffed their lines.

Kevin Stewart delivered an inviting cross from the the right, picking out unmarked substitute Martin Samuelsen, who looked to have the simplest tasks of finishing from inside the six-yard box, only to nod the ball against the back of team-mate Wilks’ head.

That miss meant that the Tigers have failed to score a single goal in any of their last four matches, while they’ve also lost 16 of their last 20 league fixtures, conceding 63 times in the process.

There’s nothing quite like going out in style.

Cardiff: Smithies; Bacuna, Morrison, Nelson, Bennett; Pack, Ralls (Smith 85), Tomlin (Paterson 85); Mendez-Laing (Murphy 72), Glatzel (Ward 72), Hoilett (Vaulks 63). Unused substitutes: Etheridge, Sanderson, Flint, Bamba.

Hull: Long; Da Silva Lopes, MacDonald, Tafazolli, Elder (McLoughlin 75); Batty, Stewart, Honeyman(Toral 59); Wilks, Eaves (Samuelsen 59), Scott (Lewis-Potter 59). Unused substitutes: Ingram, Burke, Bowler, Pennington, Magennis.

Referee: J Linington (Newport).