Fulham stroll to victory over limited Hull

Fulham 2 Hull 0. Roy Hodgson's west Londoners breezed to an ultimately simple victory against a Hull side that will surely remain in the relegation zone all season judging by this desperately limited performance. Even with the returning Jimmy Bullard, who returned last night after nine months out injured against his former employers, the options open to Phil Brown seem too few to stave off a return to the Championship come May next year.

Although Fulham started the livelier of the two sides, there wasn't much beautiful football on show for the first half hour as the visitors set out their stall to defend as resolutely as they could, rarely crossing into the Fulham half save to chase down a long goal punt from keeper Boaz Myhill. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink was a lonely figure up front for Hull, as Brown opted to keep ten men behind the ball whenever Fulham attacked.

Hodgson's men began to display more endeavour as the half wore on, with the tireless Bobby Zamora unlucky not to connect cleanly with a cross from Diomansy Kamara that looked goalbound. But Zamora finally got on the scoresheet - and equalled his Premier League goal tally for last season (two) in just his seventh game this time round - when he headed home Damian Duff's parried shot.

The second half saw a brief flurry of Hull activity as they pressed the notoriously slow starters of Craven Cottage in the first ten minutes of the second half, but it was the introduction of Bullard on the hour mark which seemed to give the crowd and his former team-mates the greatest lift. Within seconds of his coming on, to jeers of "One greedy bastard", Kamara had clattered Bullard to the ground, and two minutes after his introduction Zamora squared for his fellow striker to bury Fulham's second.

The home side continued to press for more goals, and Clint Dempsey had two attempts on goal that went wide when it seemed that to bury them was the easiest option. At the back, Fulham's defence began to look more like the mean machine that turned the Cottage into a fortress last season and the game ended with home boss Hodgson in high spirits. "We managed to tie two knots together tonight and came away with the points and a performance that I was happy with. The mood changed with the goal just before half-time." ·