Steve Bruce returned to haunt his old team at the Stadium of Light this afternoon as his Hull City side put a stop to the Black Cats recent run of fine form. The game began in calamitous fashion for Poyet's men: with only two minutes on the clock Phil Bardsley played a weak back pass in the general direction of the Sunderland goal, allowing Shane Long to pounce and race through one on one. Wes Brown made a desperate lunge to try and halt the striker's progress but the ageing defender only succeeded in bringing the Irishman down on the edge of the box, giving referee Mike Jones no option but to send him off. Poyet was forced to reshuffle his pack and decided to take off Borini, handing defender Santiago Vergini an earlier than expected debut. The decision to take off Borini was curious given his rich vein of form but Poyet must have hoped that Altidore would be able to hold the ball up to help relieve the inevitable pressure on his side. However, as the half wore on it became increasingly clear that Hull's defence were more than capable of coping with the woeful American striker. With no attacking outlet, the Black Cat's fell deeper and deeper and the Tigers began to grow in confidence and create opportunities. Rosenoir and Elmohamady in particular enjoyed success down the right flank, with Alonso struggling for the first time in his short Sunderland career. The breakthrough came from one such raid, Rosenoir crossing for Livermore who saw his effort saved superbly by Mannone. From the resulting corner the ball was only partially cleared to Livermore again who scuffed a shot into the ground. The ball fortuitously bounced upwards and Shane Long was on hand to cleverly guide it home with his head. The Irish striker was a constant thorn in Sunderland's side and curled a wonderful effort against the post around the half hour mark. Poyet's men struggled to come to terms with the early dismissal and only an Adam Johnson volley on the stroke of half time gave them any hope of a second half turn around. Poyet had words with referee Jones as the teams left the pitch but he could have no complaints about Brown's scything tackle, a clear red card. The second half began just as poorly as the first for the Wearsiders. Figueroa took advantage of the extra space afforded by the Sunderland defence to drive towards Manonne's goal. His effort took a wicked deflection off the heels of the helpless Vergini and looped up into the air where Jelavic was on hand to direct a header into the top corner of the goal. This came minutes after the Croatian striker had received a yellow card for a rash challenge. On another day he could have been shown red but the former Everton man took advantage of his reprieve to end his run of nearly 16 hours without a goal. The goal crushed any hope of a Sunderland revival and the visitors pushed on in pursuit of a third. Poyet threw on Whickham and Gardner in hope of a consolation but both were ineffectual. The game petered out in the last quarter as Bruce's men looked to keep possesion. Hull supporters were cheered further in the closing moments by the return of Sone Aluko, the striker getting a run out in the last ten minutes after returning from a long injury lay off. No doubt the early red card was the biggest factor in the game's outcome but Hull played well enough to deserve their 2-0 win. Man Of The Match: Shane Long
