Hull City 2-1 Wolves

Steve Bruce

Jay Simpson's second-half goal sealed Hull City's fifth win in six matches as they moved up to fourth place in the Championship by beating Wolves.

The Tigers led through Sone Aluko's precise free-kick after 29 minutes, before Simpson doubled their advantage at the KC Stadium from an acute angle.

Wolves reduced the deficit through James Chesters' second-half own goal.

But the visitors could not find a second, and drop into the bottom half after their fifth match without a win.

Hull boss Steve Bruce, who applied for the Wolves manager's job in February only to be overlooked in favour of Terry Connor, has seen his team take 18 points from 24 in their eight home matches this season.

Following a slow start to the game, his side began to up the tempo and created the first chance when Ahmed Elmohamady's cross was headed wide by Liam Rosenior.

But it proved only a momentary reprieve for Stale Solbakken's side. Rosenior was fouled by Tongo Doumbia just outside the Wolves penalty area and Aluko stepped up to curl a 20-yard free-kick around a poorly positioned wall and into the bottom corner.

Wolves tried to respond quickly and were denied an equaliser when home goalkeeper Ben Amos raced off his line to block Dave Edwards's toe-poked shot.

Six minutes after the break, Simpson produced a moment of brilliance to score Hull's second. With Robert Koren's pass seeming likely to run out of play, Simpson kept the ball alive before steering a powerful shot across goal and in off the far post for his sixth goal of the campaign.

However, Wolves' prospects improved when Tigers defender Paul McShane allowed a weak cross through his legs and, after a scramble, the unfortunate Chester diverted into his own net.

The goal lifted the away side for the final quarter of the game, Bakary Sako's deflected free-kick flying over the bar and Kevin Doyle narrowly failing to connect with Stephen Ward's cross, but they failed to find an equaliser.

Hull boss Steve Bruce on whether beating Wolves was particularly sweet:

"Not really, it's football. At one time thought I was close [to going to Wolves], but it's gone, it's history, I'm just pleased we've got the result.

"We were so comfortable and made two mistakes really, one from the goalkeeper, and a miskick from Paul McShane. It made it a bit more nervy than it needed to be.

"Overall, with the quality of the two goals we scored, we probably deserved it."

Wolves manager Stale Solbakken:

"We were a little bit unlucky. They scored one brilliant goal, I don't know how the second one went in.

"We're having a bad spell at the moment, but we have to toughen up and don't feel sorry for ourselves and keep on playing.

"It's a crazy division at times and we're not doing well enough in it, we're not picking up enough points and we have to improve in that department."

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