Match Report: Hull City 1-0 Sunderland - Cats Rob Themselves Of Points

Despite there being two vociferous sets of fans packed into the KC at kick-off, neither team could use it to their advantage in the opening exchanges of the game with little created.

Neither team managed to fashion a chance of note in the opening 15 minutes. Maynor Figueroa lashed well, well wide for the home side after latching on to an overhit cross, while Jozy Altidore against his former side sent one trickling well wide of Steve Harper's goal from distance.

Perhaps the closest anyone came during this time though was when Jake Livermore managed to glance a head on to a good Tom Huddlestone freekick, however Keiren Westwood was able to watch it go wide and look at ease doing so.

Still with neither team taking a hold of the game, Hull managed to get themselves in front though on 25-minutes via the head of Carlos Cuellar.

Liam Rosenior's ball into the front post was challenged for between Yannick Sagbo and Carlos Cuellar. The Frenchman went with a boot, the Spaniard his head, and it was he who flicked the ball beyond Westwood and into the far corner.

Disappointingly it was Hull who grew in confidence from the goal, and not any sort of real noticeable reaction from Sunderland. We'd heard previously how Poyet was the kind of guy who would stick vehemently to his gameplan no matter what, and this looked to be the case in the first half.

Pressure rained down on Westwood's goal, and it came at a cost to the Irishman after he collided with Paul McShane after 35-minutes and was down on the ground for a considerable amount of time with his head and neck being examined heavily by the Sunderland medical team. Eventually it was decided he'd play on, but he looked far, far from comfortable.

Sunderland managed to keep the ball away from putting him in any danger, however when the home side won a freekick in a dangerous position Westwood called for the physios once again and signalled it was time for Vito Mannone to enter the fray. Here's hoping Westwood comes back sooner rather than later as he looked incredibly groggy following the hit from McShane for a solid five or six minutes.

Having lost his goalkeeper to injury things went from bad to worse for Gus Poyet before half time as Lee Cattermole chimed in with his first sending off of the season.

After Ahmed Elmohamady picked the ball up in midfield our former captain went in fast and hard on the Egyptian to draw the red card. Now then, it wasn't two-footed and it didn't seem to inflict a great deal of pain on Elmohamady, however it was very, very late and even more so aggressive. Things had become chippy in the game, and this was the boiling point. Very stupid from Cattermole.

So we've got a 'keeper injured, a goal down and a player sent off. Could things get worse? Absolutely, as Andrea Dossena was also sent off.

Seriously.

Minutes after the Cattermole incident and with Gus Poyet having had a calming down by the referee you have to imagine that things just need to be seen through to the half and reorganised. It's not impossible to come back with ten men, just unlikely.

If Cattermole's was a rash challenge, Dossena's was just ugly. A stupid and dangerous challenge that could well have snapped David Meyler's shin in half. Stupid, and ridiculous as the half finally came to an end.

Thankfully the half time whistle went. And it seems even more mental that in between all this Sagbo almost had a second had it not been for a Phil Bardsley deflection, but Hull lead after forty-five batshit-mental minutes of football.

This all obviously called for a reshuffle at half time, and Poyet went with a double change of Wes Brown and Adam Johnson for Jozy Altidore and Fabio Borini in what looked like a sort of 4-2-1-1-come-3-4-1 formation.

Sunderland spent a fair amount of time adjusting to this while Hull enjoyed knocking the ball about with relative ease. Tom Huddlestone shot wide, as did George Boyd as they both went in search of their first Premier League goals for the Tigers.

Sunderland had cause for concern when Steven Fletcher went down for the second time in the game. Earlier he grasped his previously injured shoulder and looked uncomfortable and in the second half it was his back which took a knock. Very worrying indeed, but he was forced to play through it with all substitutes used.

Jake Livermore stung the palms of Vito Mannone as he was called into significant action for the first time, and did well to hold a strong shot towards the top corner.

It took until 63-minutes for Sunderland to fashion a chance of note, in which we actually got plenty men forward despite the numerical disadvantage, leading to Adam Johnson shooting high and wide into the travelling support.

Another chance came too as Phil Bardsley worked his way forward and was fouled around 25-yards from goal, allowing a chance for Seb Larsson to shoot once again. With chances few and far between we had to capitalise on these sorts of situations. Unfortunately his disguised effort to go low and around the wall came to nothing, and Steve Harper didn't have to break sweat.

Seb Larsson was given another half chance when he latched on to a loose ball and basically just belted it as hard as possible towards goal. Now it didn't test Harper at all, but it was equally as close as the home side had come to opening up us with just 15-minutes remaining.

In fact our defending in the second half by in large seemed to be alright. No nonsense, just boot it away. Hull even afforded themselves the luxury of bringing on three attacking players and going essentially with two at the back. Not much came from it as the rearguard stood firm.

Harper was forced into a big, big save as Adam Johnson squandered a real chance to level things with around ten minutes. Getting himself on the end of a long ball forward he was one-on-one with Harper who spread himself very well and got a knee to the ball.

Meanwhile at the other end Hull created their best chance as Jake Livermore struck the post with a strike from distance that had Mannone beaten.

Huddlestone cracked one towards goal which Mannone did very well to stop after it seemed to take a deflection on the way through, Robert Koren also fired one over the bar, more in desperation than anything else.

Robbie Brady could consider himself very lucky to not have been sent off for a very similar lunge into Adam Johnson as Lee Cattermole performed on Ahmed Elmohamady earlier. The fact the Irishman wasn't even given a yellow card was something of an insult.

A couple of half-chances presented themselves to Sunderland towards the end with Phil Bardsley shooting wide and a couple of freekicks lumped into the area we couldn't do anything with as the final whistle sounded.

We should never had had to battle so hard as we shouldn't have put ourselves in such a position. For ten minutes in the first half cost us the other eighty and robbed ourselves of some points.

Cattermole and Dossena should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. The other nine however should be quite proud. It was a good defensive stance under the circumstances, and we could have easily had a point. We probably would have without the two disgraceful challenges in the first half.

Credit for that, but ultimately the score will forever be Hull City 1-0 Sunderland, and another nail goes in our coffin.

There'll be more match reaction in our stream HERE later, so check it out.