Bold style puts Brown in fashion

Before singing their praises, it must be said that we cannot praise all of their singing. Hull City's fans are responsible for one of the Premier League's naffest chants, in which they raise their hands like paws while singing about the opposition being "mauled by the Tigers".

Their otherwise brilliant repertoire, including "Silverware? We don't care, we'll follow Hull City anywhere" and the more agricultural "We are 'ull" is just one measure of the wonderful and liberating way that the club have embraced top-flight football and all that goes with it. They travel to grounds in Eddie Brown coaches, founded by Yorkshireman Eddie and wife Gwen 60 years ago (though a corporate operation now), Premier League headquarters adores them and they have a manager who – despite wearing the league's most striking earpiece and never seeming to use it – is original, open, engaging and – a rare quality at the top of the game – does not take himself too seriously.

"Did we really score three?" Phil Brown said, grinning and uttering an expletive he asked not to be quoted. He was right to be incredulous. Hull were battered all over Old Trafford and will know they can perform much better. But Brown's force of personality makes the impossible possible. "As a player, I was never really encouraged to play," he revealed on Saturday night. "I was encouraged to try and get a challenge into a striker as early as possible and that probably restricted me in my career, but we encourage them to pass the ball here and I know we're capable of that." You also wished you had been down there in the dressing room at half-time with him.

Brown's captain, George Boateng, who was there, revealed that the Hull manager went for a more attacking option after the break. "We changed the formation and went one-on-one against them so we could ask them the question, 'Let's see how good you are.'" Nothing more than fragile, was the answer. Boateng's analysis was a slight overstatement – United should have had six goals before Hull got their second – but the champions lost their way, just like they did after David Moyes' half-time team talk at Goodison Park the previous weekend.

Dimitar Berbatov's most outstanding performance in a United shirt provides some succour. The Bulgarian operates on his own mental plane, impervious to the sound and fury around him. His telepathic understanding with Cristiano Ronaldo delivered two goals.

Wayne Rooney was on his own mental plane too, ending the match booked and in that familiar, rampaging state he sometimes shows. Would Brown handle him differently? "That anger channelled in a controlled fashion makes him a great player and you can't take that out of him," he said. "We need to look at that and maybe instil that kind of anger, that desire to win, in our players." Every word worth hearing and further reason why the team Sir Alex Ferguson described as "the success the story of the decade" have become so many neutrals' favourite. Though most of them will stop short of pretending to be tigers.

Goals: Ronaldo (3) 1-0; Cousin (23) 1-1; Carrick (29) 2-1; Ronaldo (44) 3-1; Vidic (57) 4-1; Mendy (69) 4-2; Geovanni pen (82) 4-3.

Manchester United (4-4-2): Van der Sar; Neville, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra; Ronaldo, Anderson (O'Shea, 88) Carrick (Giggs, 72), Nani (Tevez, 64); Berbatov, Rooney. Substitutes not used: Foster (GK), Park, R Da Silva, Fletcher

Hull City (4-4-2): Myhill; McShane, Turner, Zayatte, Dawson; Marney, Boateng (Folan, 87), Geovanni, Hughes (Mendy, 59); King (Halmosi, 64), Cousin. Substitutes not used: Duke (gk), Barmby, Garcia, Ricketts.

Referee: M Dean (Wirral).

Booked: Manchester United Rooney, Tevez; Hull City Turner, Mendy.

Man of the match: Berbatov.

Attendance: 75,398