" STEVE BRUCE'S OPINION "

Hull City rediscover 'Premier League quality' says Steve Bruce after Cardiff City win

Hull Daily Mail

Tuesday 15th September 2015

STEVE Bruce believes the "Premier League quality" of his Hull City side shone through as they ended a barren run on their travels with an assured 2-0 victory at Cardiff City.

City earned their first away win of the season on Tuesday night and only their second in all of 2015, as goals from Mohamed Diame and Abel Hernandez ended the Bluebirds' unbeaten start to the campaign.

Reverting back to a 3-5-2 system, the shape that won promotion out of the Championship in 2012-13, the Tigers rediscovered the winning formula to move up to fourth in the table.

"Our away form was a concern and we had to arrest it," said Bruce.

"Thankfully we've managed to put in a really good performance against a very good Cardiff side.

"I was disappointed with the way we were at Brighton and, to be fair, so were they. They had to respond and they've done it in the right way.

"They've been clinical when we had to and we looked as though we had Premier League quality again. It was an excellent all-round away performance.

"The three centre-halves did terrifically well. We looked a threat going forward and the old system seemed to suit us."

After back-to-back away defeats at Charlton and Brighton, City were sent on their way to a valuable win when Diame opened the scoring.

The Tigers had to withstand long periods of pressure for much of the fixture but sealed all three points as Hernandez fired in a magnificent volley late on.

Taking Diame's floated pass on his chest, the Uruguayan rifled home his third goal of the season to delight Bruce.

"It was a great finish and I'm pleased for him," said the City boss. "He's starting to adapt, like we always thought he could do.

"That's his third of the season now. It was a great take, a great finish and a terrific bit of quality.

"We all know he can finish and if he gets some confidence, like I'm sure he will, he'll be okay.

"He's accepted that he wants to play in England and make a fist of it. He could have gone away (back to Italy) but the signs are good. Long may it continue."

The most notable omission from Bruce's reshuffled starting XI was Ahmed Elmohamady. The Egyptian had only just celebrated a 100th consecutive league start at the weekend before he was last night dropped to the bench behind Moses Odubajo.

Premier league? He's having a laugh!!

Premier league? He's having a laugh!!

Arrogant twerp! I don't think they will go up if they can only park bus as tactical game? Other teams got better forwards than us and won't fail to score!

Premier league? He's having a laugh!!

Arrogant twerp! I don't think they will go up if they can only park bus as tactical game? Other teams got better forwards than us and won't fail to score!

Well that is what he had to do to get the best result for him.

Like him or not that is the managers job. The positive from this is that considering he still have premier quality in his squad he has to revert to such tactics that teams use to play against the likes of Man U or any of the other top teams. The more I look at this game the more I feel if we had that cutting edge up front we could have quite easily won that game. If we had got the first goal that would have forced Bruce to open up. It could have been a totally different game.

Sadly it was them that got the early goal which turned out to be the defining moment.

Premier league? He's having a laugh!!

Arrogant twerp! I don't think they will go up if they can only park bus as tactical game? Other teams got better forwards than us and won't fail to score!

Well that is what he had to do to get the best result for him.

Like him or not that is the managers job. The positive from this is that considering he still have premier quality in his squad he has to revert to such tactics that teams use to play against the likes of Man U or any of the other top teams. The more I look at this game the more I feel if we had that cutting edge up front we could have quite easily won that game. If we had got the first goal that would have forced Bruce to open up. It could have been a totally different game.

Sadly it was them that got the early goal which turned out to be the defining moment.

Agree that 1st goal did define the tactic's of hull! It reinforced the way they set up.

Premier league? He's having a laugh!!

Arrogant twerp! I don't think they will go up if they can only park bus as tactical game? Other teams got better forwards than us and won't fail to score!

Well that is what he had to do to get the best result for him.

Like him or not that is the managers job. The positive from this is that considering he still have premier quality in his squad he has to revert to such tactics that teams use to play against the likes of Man U or any of the other top teams. The more I look at this game the more I feel if we had that cutting edge up front we could have quite easily won that game. If we had got the first goal that would have forced Bruce to open up. It could have been a totally different game.

Sadly it was them that got the early goal which turned out to be the defining moment.

Agree that 1st goal did define the tactic's of hull! It reinforced the way they set up.

frustrating when its against you but genius when its for you.

This is where we needed that bit of quality up front to change things. We don't have that and I just feel we could just fall short because of this come the end of season..

Horrible man and not that good a manager in my view I do not dislike Hull but do now with him in charge

Of course what else is he going to say.