Hull City 0 Luton Town 1

Hatters' Howard leads way

It is predominantly rugby league country north of the Humber, but for a football club peeking out from the shadows of the Challenge Cup holders and Hull KR, City are doing very nicely. Four years ago they were staring oblivion in the face when a winding-up order was going through the courts; today, after successive promotions, they are one rung below the Premiership.

Yesterday there were 19,184 fans in the KC, which suggests that while the oval ball is king, the round one is a prince with aspirations. And if Hull could just lose the stigma of being the biggest city in Europe not to have hosted a top-division team, there could even be parity of rank.

Pity then that this result suggested Hull are more likely to be searching for consolidation this season than staring at the top. Against the team who beat them to the League One title last season, they were pipped again yesterday, losing out to Steve Howard's goal seven minutes from the end.

"We made a lot of chances, but they made too many too. I was concerned by how many saves Bo Myhill had to make," Peter Taylor, the Hull manager, said. "We seemed to be asleep for their goal. We were all over the place."

Local wisdom is that Hull would be higher in the table if they could only put the ball in the net, and it did not take long to see that there is nothing wrong with Yorkshire's sages. Ryan France squandered two opportunities within 30 seconds when he had a shot blocked and then headed wide in the 14th minute and his profligacy was matched by Stuart Green and Chris Brown. Nick Barmby (remember him?) had the ball in the net after 37 minutes, but as he was standing on the line at the time, it was not a shock when he was adjudged offside.

As a consequence, Luton, who lost this fixture 3-0 last season but still finished 12 points ahead of their promotion rivals, were able to gain momentum and were the better team for the last hour. Dean Morgan and Carlos Edwards were thwarted by Myhill's saves and Ahmet Brkovic, like Barmby, put the ball in the net only to be thwarted by the linesman's flag.

Howard hit the post for Luton two minutes after the interval and France was denied by Marlon Beresford and, with both goalkeepers in commanding form, the match appeared to be heading for a 0-0 draw until Morgan flicked on a cross from the right and Howard thumped his volley into the roof of the net.

"Steve has goals in him," Mike Newell, the Luton manager, said, "so if we put the ball in the right positions, he'll score. He showed a lot of composure and a good finish for the goal, but he needed to beat their goalkeeper."