Bullard on the spot to frustrate City

Hull midfielder Jimmy Bullard hit a late penalty to leave Manchester City frustrated again as the Tigers snatched a 1-1 draw at Eastlands on Saturday.

Mark Hughes’ side have now drawn seven successive league matches and are in danger of falling behind in the race for a top-four finish.

City, who stay sixth in the Premier League, had taken the lead through Shaun Wright Phillips’ deflected strike on the stroke of half time.

But Bullard made no mistake from the spot in the 82nd minute and Hull’s players were able to celebrate by sitting down in the corner to recreate manager Phil Brown’s half-time team talk in last season’s 5-1 defeat here.

Robinho was back in the City side for the first time since picking up an ankle injury at the end of August.

And despite three months of speculation linking him with a move to Barcelona, the Brazilian quickly showed he was in the mood, swapping passes with Emmanuel Adebayor and forcing Hull to desperately clear for a corner.

Hughes was once again forced to deny Micah Richards could be on his way out of City in the build-up to the game but, having been recalled to the side, he almost allowed Hull to score with their first proper attack.

Richard Garcia lobbed a cross in from the right and Richards allowed the ball to come over his shoulder and was lucky to see Stephen Hunt’s shot blocked and hacked clear.

But it was all one-way traffic, with Kolo Toure picking out Richards and his cross finding Stephen Ireland, whose flick at goal just flew over the bar.

Robinho was on the top of his game, collecting a pass from Wright-Phillips and skipping past Paul McShane before producing a curling shot that just flew wide of Matt Duke’s post.

Duke was worked for the first time after Adebayor slid through for Tevez and the Argentinian’s stab at goal was blocked by the legs of the Tigers goalkeeper.

But Robinho was soon getting back in on the act when Nigel De Jong headed into the Hull area and the Brazilian lifted an over-head kick over the bar.

And soon it was Wright-Phillips that was passing up an opportunity with De Jong flicking into his path and the winger firing into the side netting.

Hull threatened again when Geovanni broke from his own half to force a low save from City goalkeeper Shay Given.

But City finally broke the deadlock in added time at the end of the first half.

Tevez burst into the Hull half and slipped the ball to Wright-Phillips and the little winger jinked inside Hunt’s challenge and his shot deflected off Anthony Gardner and inside the near post from more than 20 yards.

But Hull should have levelled just a minute after the restart when Jozy Altidore passed through for Garcia and his low shot beat Given but was cleared off the line by Joleon Lescott.

City still looked dangerous and were appealing for a penalty when Wright-Phillips went down after being tugged by Hunt in the area.

And shortly after that Tevez drilled just over the bar and Wright-Phillips thumped a low drive straight at Duke.

Robinho almost celebrated his return to the team with a goal when he beat the wall with a free-kick that flew just wide of Duke’s goal.

But with 10 minutes left, referee Lee Probert pointed to the spot after Toure tangled with Jan Venegoor of Hesselink.

Bullard swept in from the spot to provoke celebrations every bit as memorable as Brown’s ill-advised team-talk last season.