West Ham United

Phil Brown may ponder how much more joyous life on the Humber would feel if Jimmy Bullard had only kept his knee uninjured seconds into his debut last January and not been eliminated from the Hull manager's plans until last month. Even then the midfielder's return stalled before Bullard's second coming a fortnight ago preceded a late, late free-kick that forced an invaluable winner here against Stoke.

Bullard and his always-intriguing hair flowed all over the field to illustrate why Brown may have made a shrewd move indeed in acquiring the 31-year-old for £5m, plus his £45,000-a-week wages. Bullard's first-half performance, in particular, offered the home crowd an exhilarating reminder of why they love the old game, and their manager became a local hero when taking over in December 2006.

Yet after 13 minutes the reverse emotion threatened to swamp the KC Stadium as Hull fell two behind. At that juncture Brown may have wished Adam Pearson, the new chairman, had placed the scotch and revolver under his place on the bench for the moment when he could no longer ignore the fact that the time had arrived for him to do the honourable thing.

Within five minutes, Guillermo Franco, a 33-year-old Mexican striker acquired on a free, headed home for the visitors. Their second arrived when Franco punted a diagonal ball from the left that plopped on to Jack Collison's head and looped over a stranded Matt Duke.Cue Brown hoping to disguise deep concern over his immediate career prospects by offering a nonchalant puff of the cheeks, while surely wondering why he had bothered with all the training-ground drills concerning the fundamental need to attack the first ball. Gianfranco Zola, meanwhile, whose team had woken a place and point behind their hosts, confessed that it had been hard for him to envisage City stemming the slick, smooth play which had given them such ascendancy.

"I could not see them coming back at all because we were playing so well," the Italian reflected on what was about to unfold. Bullard took charge, insisting Hull's play should be constantly threaded through him, and on 26 minutes he had yanked them back into proceedings.

The former Fulham playmaker stepped up to blast a free-kick from the left of the area which hit an onrushing Scott Parker before the ball skidded in off Carlton Cole's head. Then, a Stephen Hunt free-kick was volleyed cleanly beyond Robert Green by a lurking Kamil Zayatte, a minute before the break.

When Faubert pulled Craig Fagan down, Bullard – who else? – finished to make it 3-2, and that was a vintage half closed. "It was definitely not a penalty but referees make mistakes and we can't do anything about it," Zola said, before offering a tribute to his troops' effort in producing their own comeback: "Our reaction was excellent and I'm pleased. It was a good point from a strange game."

Bernard Mendy received a red card for levelling Scott Parker, before West Ham's equaliser arrived from Manuel Da Costa – Matthew Upson emerging from a melee to knock the ball on for the Portuguese defender. How, then, had Brown digested it all? "Very entertaining, fantastic. If I was sat with a pie and Bovril at half-time there would have been lots to talk about." On Bullard he added: "He's infectious, bubbly, he's here to play football."

In Bullard, Brown may just have found the way to keep his winter warm.

This is not a news report and may contain views expressed by the author which are not supported by GNM.

Phil Brown may ponder how much more joyous life on the Humber would feel if Jimmy Bullard had only kept his knee uninjured seconds into his debut last January and not been eliminated from the Hull manager's plans until last month. Even then the midfielder's return stalled before Bullard's second coming a fortnight ago preceded a late, late free-kick that forced an invaluable winner here against Stoke.

Bullard and his always-intriguing hair flowed all over the field to illustrate why Brown may have made a shrewd move indeed in acquiring the 31-year-old for £5m, plus his £45,000-a-week wages. Bullard's first-half performance, in particular, offered the home crowd an exhilarating reminder of why they love the old game, and their manager became a local hero when taking over in December 2006.

Yet after 13 minutes the reverse emotion threatened to swamp the KC Stadium as Hull fell two behind. At that juncture Brown may have wished Adam Pearson, the new chairman, had placed the scotch and revolver under his place on the bench for the moment when he could no longer ignore the fact that the time had arrived for him to do the honourable thing.

Within five minutes, Guillermo Franco, a 33-year-old Mexican striker acquired on a free, headed home for the visitors. Their second arrived when Franco punted a diagonal ball from the left that plopped on to Jack Collison's head and looped over a stranded Matt Duke.Cue Brown hoping to disguise deep concern over his immediate career prospects by offering a nonchalant puff of the cheeks, while surely wondering why he had bothered with all the training-ground drills concerning the fundamental need to attack the first ball. Gianfranco Zola, meanwhile, whose team had woken a place and point behind their hosts, confessed that it had been hard for him to envisage City stemming the slick, smooth play which had given them such ascendancy.

"I could not see them coming back at all because we were playing so well," the Italian reflected on what was about to unfold. Bullard took charge, insisting Hull's play should be constantly threaded through him, and on 26 minutes he had yanked them back into proceedings.

The former Fulham playmaker stepped up to blast a free-kick from the left of the area which hit an onrushing Scott Parker before the ball skidded in off Carlton Cole's head. Then, a Stephen Hunt free-kick was volleyed cleanly beyond Robert Green by a lurking Kamil Zayatte, a minute before the break.

When Faubert pulled Craig Fagan down, Bullard – who else? – finished to make it 3-2, and that was a vintage half closed. "It was definitely not a penalty but referees make mistakes and we can't do anything about it," Zola said, before offering a tribute to his troops' effort in producing their own comeback: "Our reaction was excellent and I'm pleased. It was a good point from a strange game."

Bernard Mendy received a red card for levelling Scott Parker, before West Ham's equaliser arrived from Manuel Da Costa – Matthew Upson emerging from a melee to knock the ball on for the Portuguese defender. How, then, had Brown digested it all? "Very entertaining, fantastic. If I was sat with a pie and Bovril at half-time there would have been lots to talk about." On Bullard he added: "He's infectious, bubbly, he's here to play football."

In Bullard, Brown may just have found the way to keep his winter warm.

This is not a news report and may contain views expressed by the author which are not supported by GNM.