Hull City 1 Newcastle United 1

Last updated : 14 March 2009 By Footymad Previewer
Both Hull City and Newcastle United moved one point closer to Premier League safety after a closely contested affair at the KC Stadium.

Hull opened the scoring on nine minutes through a close-range Geovanni header, but Newcastle were level minutes before half-time thanks to neat effort from Steven Taylor.

The Tigers took the lead early on as Craig Fagan raced down the left to deliver a curling left footed cross onto the head of Geovanni, who rose at the back post to nod into the back of the net from five yards.

Obafemi Martins then had a chance to level it for the visitors but his right-footed shot from the centre of the box saw the ball fly high and wide over the Hull crossbar.

The home side were gifted an opportunity to double their lead on the half-hour mark as Geremi brought down Geovanni just outside the box.

The Brazilian took the free-kick himself and came within inches of getting his second of the game as his curling right-footed effort whistled just past the right-hand post.

Newcastle were level seven minutes before the break as Nicky Butt whipped in a cross from the right towards Steven Taylor, who managed to loop his first-time shot past outstretched keeper Matt Duke and into the right-hand corner of the net from six yards.

Fagan tried his luck with an overhead kick on the stroke of half time but his speculative effort from from 12 yards floated well over the Newcastle crossbar.

Hull substitute Manucho created a decent chance for himself on the hour-mark but his turn and shot inside the box was comfortably saved by keeper Steve Harper.

Jonas Gutierrez then had an opportunity to put his Newcastle side into the lead as Martins found the Argentine an with space on right side of the box, but the frontman's right-footed shot saw the ball curl up and over the Hull bar.

Martins then created a chance of his own after latching onto a deep cross from Michael Owen, but the Nigeria international struggled to get any power on his shot which trickled wide of the mark from close range.

Hull then went on the counter-attack with Fagan finding Bernard Mendy down the right via a neat through ball.

Manucho was seemingly unmarked inside the box but the ex-PSG man wasted the opportunity for the home side with a lacklustre cross into the arms of Harper.