Less than one minute into his full Hull City debut, George Boyd ran on to a sharp Robbie Brady pass and scored his first goal for his new club and the first of a most happy afternoon for the Tigers.
Boyd’s goal — he added another 30 minutes later — will have hurt more than Birmingham City’s sleepwalking defence and keeper Jack Butland. You can imagine what Alex McLeish thought of it.
It was Nottingham Forest’s failure to complete the Boyd transfer from Peterborough in January that sealed McLeish’s realisation that the City Ground was not for him. A Boyd vision disorder was alleged.
Quick start: Less than a minute into his Hull City debut George Boyd (right) scored - he later added a secondThis was one in the eye for that.
Boyd’s display may also have caused a pang at Selhurst Park and not just because Hull travel there Tuesday for a belter of a Championship match on a Champions League night.
'Bruce is a winner': Boyd is more than happy to have chosen Hull over his boyhood club Crystal PalaceBoyd grew up a Palace fan and they were Forest’s rivals for his signature. Boyd chose Forest because, as he explained on Saturday evening: ‘Forest are the bigger club.’
It is an opinion that will surely confirm another he offered of Tuesday night’s clash: ‘I think I’ll get abuse. It was either them or Forest. It was difficult, but it’s just football.’
Of the curious collapse of the Forest transfer, Boyd added: ‘It was annoying how it happened.
‘But I’ve come out of it better. It was their decision. Hull came in afterwards and I’d no hesitation. Steve Bruce is a winner.’
Bruce and Boyd were smiling.
Officially, Hull have borrowed Boyd from Peterborough for a £200,000 loan fee. But the 27-year-old is out of contract in June and Hull will produce a new contract then.
It is good business, if not for Peterborough.
A prosperous weekend for Hull began on Friday night when the club directly above them, Watford, conceded a last-minute equaliser at Wolves.
That gave Hull an opportunity to leapfrog Watford into second place.
Having lost 4-1 at Bolton the previous Saturday, Bruce’s players needed to take it. And they did, in style.
On returning to the Hull dressing room, they heard that the only other team above them — Cardiff City — had lost at Middlesbrough, while another promotion contender, Leicester City, lost at Ipswich. It was a tale of three cities and Hull’s was the only good one.
A test of Hull’s feelgood factor will come at Selhurst Park but even a defeat would not undermine the impression that Bruce and the club’s Egyptian owners are creating something of substance.
Those owners seem sound financially as well, in a sporting sense, not a phrase that can be applied to all foreign ownerships.
Birmingham had a day to forget — they were 5-0 down by the time of their two goals — and Hull’s performance must be seen in that context. But there was fluency, wit and speed in the players assembled by Bruce in his nine months in charge. ‘Players I would pay to watch,’ he purred.
In Brady, Stephen Quinn and Robert Koren, there were midfielders of touch and creativity.
Soaring Eagles: Boyd will travel to Selhurst Park for a crunch meeting with Crystal Palace on TuesdayBrady, signed from Manchester United permanently in January for £2million, was Saturday’s stand-out and he and Wilfried Zaha — going in the other direction, to United — will make for an intriguing comparison Tuesday.
Bruce also cemented the transfers of David Meyler and Ahmed Elmohamady and together with Boyd’s arrival they have given Hull a word that Boyd, who experienced three promotions with Peterborough, used: ‘Momentum. March is a big month. If you get on a run, it sets you up nicely.’
Last March — amazingly — Hull played nine league games. They won one, which in part was why Nick Barmby departed and Bruce came in. By season’s end Hull were two places outside the play-offs in the second and final year of their Premier League parachute payments.
On a budget: Not many people would have had Steve Bruce's Hull as promotion contenders at the start of the seasonHull finished with 68 points then; this morning they have 65 with 11 games to go. That is a significant improvement and Bruce spoke with modesty about exceeding expectations. Hull were 40-1 to win the division in August and few would be surprised if they were mid-table like Derby or Blackpool.
Money has been spent, but not vast sums. Jordan Rhodes cost Blackburn £6m. Hull’s record transfer remains Jimmy Bullard from Fulham four years ago for £5m.
And those were Hull’s Premier League days.
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