Hull City: Brown -Defeat was self-inflicted.

HULL City manager Phil Brown admitted his side's defeat at West Ham had been 'self-inflicted' as the Tigers were totally outplayed on a costly day as they went down 3-0 at Upton Park.

Speaking after seeing his side crash to defeat in a game described as a 'six-pointer' in the battle for survival, Brown, who took almost an hour before speaking to the press, said: "The defeat was entirely self-inflicted.

"What we did in the first couple of minutes, to give a goal away like we did, was inexplicable"

Asked whether his club's survival fight would go to the wire, he said:"Iif we play the way we did today it will."

Brown saw his men totally outplayed by one of City's relegation rivals on a bitterly disappointing afternoon which also saw captain Anthony Gardner carried off in the dying stages.

And adding to the woes for City is the concern that the former Totenham man may have suffered a broken leg.

City trailed as early as the fifth minute as they failed to get into the game and poor play handed the hosts the lead.

Andy Dawson played a poor ball to an under pressure Tom Cairney, who lost possession to Valon Behrami.

The resulting play saw Bahrami fire beyond Boaz Myhill to give Gianfranco Zola's men the perfect start.

City were always second best and were fortunate to go into the break only 1-0 down and still in the contest.

But any hopes of a fightback were all but killed when Craig Fagan received his second yellow card early in the second half for a second foul on the Hammers star man Alessandro Diamanti.

Carlton Cole slotted a second past Boaz Myhill to virtually end the game as a contest as he latched onto Julien Faubert's superly weighted pass, before Faubert himself finished off a convincing victory in the dying stages with a powerful right foot drive beyond Myhill.

The result moved the Hammers up to 13th in the table, delighting Zola, who described his sides performance as an 'excellent team display'.

But it left City looking over their shoulders with no game for the next two weeks - by which time they could find themselves back in the drop zone.

The Tigers sit just a point above the relegation zone, but Bolton in 18th and Burnley in 19th, now have two games in hand on Brown's men.

City have also played one more game than Wolves, who also sit on 24 points, and two games more than Wigan who are 15th, on 25 points.

*The Mail apologies for temporary losses of connection during our Big Match Live coverage, due to circumstances beyond our control.