Hull City 2-0 Aston Villa
- Published
Jelavic grabs seventh goal of season
N'Doye scores on full Hull debut
Villa without a win in 10 matches
Villa drop into bottom three in Premier League
Striker Dame N'Doye marked his first start for Hull with a goal and an assist as they moved above Aston Villa in the table.
Nikica Jelavic scored a deflected opener from N'Doye's through ball.
The Senegal international made it 2-0 with a close-range finish after Brad Guzan saved his initial effort following Gaston Ramirez's header down.
Victory lifted Hull to 15th in the Premier League table and left Villa in the bottom three.
Paul Lambert's Villa have now gone 10 Premier League matches without a win, they have not scored an away goal in almost eight and a half hours, and a banner reading 'Lambert Out' was unfurled by some visiting supporters at half-time.
The lively N'Doye, a £3m signing from Lokomotiv Moscow on transfer deadline day, opened the scoring despite Villa enjoying plenty of early possession.
N'Doye controlled Allan McGregor's goal-kick and found Jelavic, whose shot looped off Villa defender Ciaran Clark and over goalkeeper Guzan for his seventh goal of the season.
Hull, who had won only twice at home in the league this season before this game, gained confidence from the goal and N'Doye should have made it 2-0 when he headed wide from Ahmed Elmohamady's clipped cross.
Although Hull defender Alex Bruce was required to block Aly Cissokho's second-half shot following an exchange of passes with Gabriel Agbonlahor, the hosts remained a threat on the counter-attack.
Substitute Ramirez nodded down Elmohamady's cross to find N'Doye, who scored from inside the six-yard box at the second attempt.
Hull could have added to their tally in stoppage time when substitute Abel Hernandez chose to shoot from 20 yards when passing to a team-mate looked a better option.
The closest Villa came to ending their goal drought away from home was when Hull keeper McGregor pushed away Ashley Westwood's 25-yard drive and then kept out substitute Christian Benteke's follow-up.
Hull City manager Steve Bruce: "We took a bit of confidence from the weekend. It was nice to beat a team that was in and around us.
"Psychologically it's good for everybody. That was more like what I've been used to seeing for the last two and a half years. We've given ourselves a good chance."
"You don't want to be anywhere near that bottom three. The aim now is to give ourselves a cushion."
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