Hull City ended their three match losing run when they were held to a 2-2 draw by Manchester City at the KC Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

Daniel Cousin gave the Tigers an early lead before a double from Stephen Ireland turned the game around by half time.

But Geovanni's deflected free kick in the second half saw the Tigers take a point.

Phil Brown was forced to make one change to his starting line up.

Andy Dawson failed to recover from an achilles problem in time and he was replaced at left back by Sam Ricketts, who made his 100th appearance for the Club.

That meant a space on the bench became free and that was taken by Nathan Doyle.

Meanwhile Stelios Giannakopoulos was named in the squad for the first time, taking the place of fellow former Bolton Wanders midfielder Bernard Mendy amongst the substitutes.

Manchester City - dubbed the World's richest club following their recent takeover - included £32million British record signing Robinho and Shaun Wright-Phillips in their starting line-up with the Brazilian taking the captain's armband.

Elano and Jo started on the bench while Tal Ben-Haim replaced the suspended Richard Dunne in the middle of defence.

The unusual kick-off time of 4.00pm was due to a Tigers game being televised on Sky Sports showcase Super Sunday programme for the first time.

A full house greeted the players and Geovanni was given a wonderful reception from both sets of fans as the teams were announced.

The visitors were the first to threaten when awarded a free kick in the third minute, but Robinho's effort from 30 yards was well wide.

Ian Ashbee was presented with a good shooting opportunity by Dean Marney in the tenth minute, but the City captain failed to connect properly and the ball rolled wide of the target.

Ben-Haim was booked a minute later for bringing Geovanni down in full flight,

The Tigers took the lead on 14 minutes.

Ben-Haim's back-pass fell short, allowing Daniel Cousin to nip in and finish past the advancing Joe Hart for his first goal at the KC Stadium.

Hart was injured in his attempts to stop the goal and needed treatment before the game could restart.

After a delay of three minutes, the keeper was able to carry on.

But after picking up the ball again, it was clear he wouldn't be able to continue and he was replaced by Kasper Schmeichel in the 19th minute.

Paul McShane was booked on 25 minutes for a challenge on Javier Garrido, although in fairness to the right back, a loose pass meant the ball was there to be won.

The Tigers were hurrying their opponents into every pass, causing the men from Eastlands to make plenty of mistakes.

Manchester City levelled on 37 minutes following a catalogue of errors from the Tigers.

Firstly, Cousin needlessly gave away possession in midfield, allowing Robinho to break forward.

Then, when the Brazilian misplaced his attempted through ball, a break-down in communication between Kamil Zayatte and Boaz Myhill saw the defender give the ball to Stephen Ireland, who had the simple task of firing home into an empty net.

Ireland scored again just a minute before half time.

He was brilliantly picked out on the edge of the box before curling a wonderful shot past Myhill.

Half Time: Tigers 1-2 Man City

The visitors started the second half brightly, winning two corners in quick succession although they were both dealt with well by the home defence.

At the other end, Geovanni's acrobatic effort from Marlon King's right-wing cross went just over.

King was the next to try his luck, but his low shot lacked power and was saved by Schemeichel.

The Tigers levelled on 61 minutes when they were awarded a free kick in a central position 30 yards out after a foul on King.

Geovanni stepped up to take it and he saw his effort take a wicked deflection of Vincent Kompany in the wall before ending up in the back of the net.

The goal lifted the home side and King saw his header saved before Geovanni fired a low effort wide moments later.

Good pressure from Cousin on Ben-Haim won a corner for the Tigers on 67 minutes but Dean Marney's low ball in was cleared.

Although the home side looked good going forward, they had an escape at the back when Robinho was given too much room to drive an effort across the face of goal.

The ball rebounded off Zayatte into the path of Darius Vassell, but he hit a 'fresh air' shot before his follow-up effort was blocked.

Brown made his first change on 76 minutes with Nick Barmby replacing Cousin.

At the same time, Jo came on for Benjani for the visitors.

A foul on Ian Ashbee gave the Tigers a free kick 20 yards out on 83 minutes.

It took three attempts for the kick to be taken with first Wright-Phillips and then Ireland booked for encroachment.

When the set-piece was finally taken legally, Geovanni's effort was deflected wide before Peter Halmosi replaced George Boateng.

Marney was booked for a silly foul on Robinho with two minutes to go.

The Tigers were almost caught on the counter attack in the final minute, but Boaz Myhill produced a great save to deny Vassell after he'd been played in by Ireland's flick.

Four minutes of time were added, during which both sides looked to win the game.

But neither could create the chance they needed at the game ended all square.

Tigers (4-3-1-2) Boaz Myhill; Paul McShane, Michael Turner, Kamil Zayatte, Sam Ricketts; Dean Marney, Ian Ashbee [captain], George Boateng (Halmosi 85); Geovanni; Daniel Cousin (Barmby 76), Marlon King.

Subs: Matt Duke, Nathan Doyle, Stelios Giannakopoulos, Peter Halmosi, Richard Garcia, Nick Barmby, Caleb Folan.

Bookings: McShane 25, Marney 88

Manchester City (4-3-2-1) Joe Hart (Schmeichel 19; Pablo Zabaleta, Tal Ben-Haim, Micah Richards, Javier Garrido; Shaun Wright-Phillips, Vincent Kompany, Stephen Ireland ; Darius Vassell, Robinho [captain]; Benjani Mwaruwari (Jo 76).

Subs: Kasper Schmeichel, Michael Ball, Nedum Onuoha, Elano, Jo, Dietmar Hamann, Ched Evans.

Bookings: Ben-Haim 11, Wright-Phillips 83, Ireland 84.