Hull City 5- 2 Birmingham City

Written By: The Bluenose Bible

It was a full debut to remember for George Boyd as a first half brace helped guide The Tigers into the automatic promotion places along with a brace a from Gedo to end Birmingham’s impressive away run.

The on- loan attacking midfielder couldn’t have wished for a better start to his home debut. With just 40 seconds on the clock Robbie Brady played a defence splitting pass into Boyd’s path, leaving the loanee with just Jack Butland to beat before stroking the ball home for his first of the game.

Another goal for the hosts followed ten minutes later. David Meyler hit a long ball over The Blues’ defence and Gedo managed to out muscle Steven Caldwell to get onto the loose ball en route to scoring his fourth for the club since arriving in January.

A third Hull goal followed not long after half an hour. George Boyd found space in the Birmingham box and a deflection off Caldwell gave him a yard to get a shot away that could only be parried into the bottom corner by Butland.

Hull’s fourth came early in the second half as Robert Koren found plenty of space and smashed home a long range effort from 30 yards for the captain’s eighth of the season.

The two Egyptians combined for the fifth as Ahmed Elmohamady crossed for Gedo to convert his second of the match.

However, the travelling Bluenoses didn’t go home too disheartened as Chris Burke and Peter Lovenkrands scored late on from goals outside the box and it was only their first away defeat of 2013.

Hull boss Steve Bruce:

“If there has been a better home debut, I haven’t seen one for a long time. He [George Boyd] was terrific from first to the last.

“He’s a good player. You can talk about tactics, formations and systems but this kid oozes ability.

“He can play with anybody. He’s a clever footballer. He’s made the difference today at an important time.”

Birmingham boss Lee Clark:

“It is a tough place to come and when you are 30 seconds in and 1-0 down to quite a simple goal it is a tough one.

“From there it went from bad to worse and we were 3-0 down in half an hour. They were not great goals from our point of view – awful in fact.

“The first two are just down-the-middle goals, basic defending. We knew we would come under the cosh against them, they play high tempo, I don’t think it was down to our system or tactics.”

Man of the match: George Boyd