Hull City 1-3 Sheffield United: Billy Sharp and John Egan goals see off struggling Hull
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Billy Sharp scored his 114th goal for Sheffield United to give them the lead against Hull City
Billy Sharp scored and missed a penalty on his 300th appearance for Sheffield United as struggling Hull were easily beaten at the MKM Stadium.
Sharp finished off a sweet move by heading in Morgan Gibbs-White's perfect right-wing cross to put the Blades in front.
Although Hull goalkeeper Matt Ingram superbly saved Sharp's spot-kick just before half-time, the visitors took control after the break.
Two John Egan headers - both from corners - killed off any hope of a Hull comeback despite Keane Lewis-Potter's consolation, their first goal in more than 10 hours.
The win extends Slavisa Jokanovic's side's unbeaten run to five games, while the Tigers slipped into the relegation zone.
Without a win and a goal since the opening day of the season, Hull created little in the way of clear-cut chances in the first half with Matt Smith sweeping high over the bar from the edge of the box and Di'Shon Bernard nodding a header into the side-netting from a George Moncur corner.
By contrast, Sheffield United, with eight goals in their previous two games, consistently looked more dangerous as Ingram smartly stopped a shot from just inside the box from the the effervescent Gibbs-White before denying Rhian Brewster from distance.
He had no chance with Sharp's opener though as the striker rose in between two defenders to head home Gibbs-White's sumptuous cross on 17 minutes.
Ingram did exact some revenge on Sharp two minutes before half-time when he threw himself low to his right to parry away Sharp's well-struck effort after the striker had been brought down from behind in the box by Jacob Greaves.
But the Blades shook off that disappointment in the second half and doubled their lead on 50 minutes when Republic of Ireland defender Egan headed in firmly from compatriot Conor Hourihane's corner as Egan cleverly span away from Mallik Wilks on the penalty spot to find space.
Egan's intelligence was again evident at a set-piece as Hourihane picked out his near-post run with Egan squeezing in his effort from a tight angle under pressure from Wilks and Richard Smallwood.
The Tigers did their best to rally with Moncur's close-range effort well blocked by Ben Davies' boot before 20-year-old academy graduate Lewis-Potter swept in Tyler Smith's excellent low cross at the far post for his third goal of the season.
Smith then had a late strike chalked off for offside but at least Hull avoided a club record seventh league game without a goal.
Hull City manager Grant McCann told BBC Humberside:
"I'm disappointed - we came up against a very good side who will only get better and better but we can't keep coming in and saying we had good spells and our play was good, we need to be better it's as simple as that.
"Billy Sharp's got a hold of Mallik and let Egan run round the back. It's good play from them but disappointing from us. We understand there are not many penalties or free-kicks given for that and we have to get better - we can't let anybody block us.
"We're not at the level yet and it's showing in results - we need to start winning games and we'll continue to work hard at doing that."
Sheffield United striker Billy Sharp told BBC Radio Sheffield:
"I'm delighted to get on the score sheet because I feel like I've been playing well. It was a great ball from Morgan and I couldn't really miss.
"It was disappointing to miss the penalty but it hasn't cost us, we got the three points.
"The manager wants us to believe in ourselves and we're starting to do that now. He's said our set-pieces haven't been good enough so he'll be delighted with that."