Cardiff City 0-2 Hull City

The Championship match between Cardiff City and Hull City was hotly contested at times

Hull City produced a clinical performance to inflict a first defeat of the season on Cardiff City.

Mohamed Diame seized on sloppy Cardiff defending to fire Hull into an early lead.

The Bluebirds pressed for an equaliser but were frustrated by their opponents, who sealed victory with Abel Hernandez's late drilled effort.

Hull's win sees them climb to third in the Championship table, leapfrogging Cardiff, who slip to sixth.

Having guided his team to three straight wins, Cardiff manager Russell Slade named the same side for the fourth successive game.

But Hull were well prepared and their sturdy 5-3-2 formation stifled their in-form opponents.

Cardiff were close to taking a fortuitous lead in the fifth minute when Kagisho Dikgacoi's mishit cross floated over Hull goalkeeper Alan McGregor but was cleared at the back post.

An open start saw both sides attack at a high tempo, and there was an element of luck to Hull's opener.

Cardiff centre-backs Sean Morrison and Matt Connolly both failed to clear Sone Aluko's cross, leaving an unmarked Diame to blast in from close range.

Hull seemed content to protect their lead, the visitors' five-man defence repelling a flurry of free-kicks and corners from their opponents.

The second half followed a similar pattern, Steve Bruce's organised outfit dealing comfortably with Cardiff pressure, which was wholehearted but lacked cutting edge.

Dikgacoi headed wide from a Peter Whittingham free-kick and Bruno Ecuele Manga mishit a shot from the edge of the box as the home side struggled to create genuine scoring opportunities.

Cardiff's bluntness in attack was punished with nine minutes left as Diame's lofted pass found Hernandez, who chested the ball down and shot low beyond David Marshall into the bottom corner.

Hull City manager Steve Bruce told BBC Radio Humberside:

"As a manager you sometimes need a reaction from an awful performance like that aat the weekend and that's exactly what we've got.

"It's a bit more like it, a bit of of resilience, a bit of bottle and they threw a load of balls into our box and I thought the three defenders with three centre-backs were terrific in dealing with that.

"All round it was a really, really good performance and more like it showing that resilience that we need to win football matches away from home. It's got us up and running and lets hope it continues.

"We seem to settle straight back into it which was pleasing because we've got away from it and for one or two reasons so we reverted back to tight today and it paid off."