Wednesday 21 October 2015 15:08, UK
Hull manager Steve Bruce believes his side's fine start to the Sky Bet Championship season has lifted the gloom which hung over the KC Stadium following last season's relegation from the Barclays Premier League.
Alex Bruce, Chuba Akpom and David Meyler scored the goals which earned the Tigers a 3-0 win over Ipswich to climb up to fourth in the table.
Bruce was impressed by his side's performance against a well-organised Ipswich outfit.
The only disappointing part was a first-half calf injury to Curtis Davies which will rule the central defender out of Saturday's home game against his former club Birmingham.
"We've lost two in 14 and we're unbeaten in seven," said Bruce.
"Slowly but surely we're starting to lift the doom and gloom.
"It was arguably our best performance. We came out winners in the end which is never easy against a Mick McCarthy team, that's for sure.
"We had good energy, we had good pace in wide areas. It was an all-round good performance and the players that we brought in did their jobs."
Bruce admitted Davies could be out for up to three weeks and would definitely miss the game with second-placed Birmingham on Saturday.
"He had to come off. He's got no chance for the weekend," Bruce said of Davies' injury.
In contrast to Bruce's side that of visiting manager McCarthy failed to show much in front of goal and only striker Daryl Murphy managed to test home goalkeeper Allan McGregor.
The defeat left the visitors 11th in the Championship table and McCarthy admitted Hull's second goal had forced him to change his game plan at half-time.
Ipswich had set up with five in midfield and had frustrated Hull in the opening stages before Alex Bruce broke the deadlock.
McCarthy was disappointed with the opening goal, particularly his defenders allowing Sam Clucas to cross for Bruce to score.
The Ipswich boss said of the first goal: "We let our guard down. It was a great cross and it was a great header. He shouldn't have been in the position to get that cross in if we did our jobs properly."
McCarthy was not happy with the defending for Hull's second goal either.
"That changed the dynamic of my mood, my team talk, my decisions at half-time," he said.
The Ipswich manager brought on Freddie Sears and Ainsley Maitland-Niles to start the second half but they had little effect on the outcome of the game.
McCarthy added: "The third goal puts the cherry on the cake for them to be honest.
"It was never going to be easy, of course, they are a good side. Until they scored I don 't think they were a great threat."
