Whoever processes Hull’s ProZone statistics must feel like calling in the drug testers when faced with the unlikely results showing players putting in more miles in 90 minutes than Paula Radcliffe clocks up in a week, throwing themselves into more injury-defying tackles than Steven Gerrard and making more clearances than Tony Adams ever dreamed of.

Hull are clearly on the happy juice, though fortunately, it is the only legal drug allowed in sport. It is adrenalin on which Hull and their ecstatic fans have been overdosing since they made it to the top flight. And after the first week in the promised land, against all odds, they remain unbeaten in the Premier League.

Defeat will come soon enough, as it does to every club. But those sides who flirted uncomfortably with relegation last season can no longer feel so smugly confident that the three teams promoted are predestined to fill the bottom three spots.

Whether Hull’s players can keep on running all the way to next May may be questionable but they played over 50 games last season and were still fresh enough to win the Championship playoff final at Wembley. The purists might sniff at sides who rely on a rolled-up-sleeves approach but managing a club whose motto isArte Et Labore, Blackburn’s Paul Ince is the last man to throw any derogatory remarks Hull’s way. “They will do well and I am pleased for Phil Brown [Hull manager],” he said. “They may not be able to compete with some of the top teams on skill but last year, in the Championship, they looked fitter than most Premier League sides and they can certainly compete on that score.”

Blackburn were looking to open a season with two successive wins for the first time in 10 years. But after last week’s impressive victory at Everton, they could not quite rediscover the midfield creativity. Ince blamed it on that old managerial favourite, the international break, plus an achilles problem that saw David Dunn end his 200th appearance in a familiar manner, substituted, at half-time.

Home fans were delighted, if not stunned, when Roque Santa Cruz signed a four-year contract last week but his only real opportunity came 15 minutes from time when he clipped a shot over from the edge of the box. A moment of individual genius was the only way Hull were going to be denied after equalising just two minutes after Blackburn had gone ahead.

Hull manager Phil Brown said: “We had chances to win it but I’m ecstatic with a point. All the players are still on a high from coming up and then when the fixtures came out, someone said that the first three game were easy, which is the biggest load of rubbish I’ve ever heard.” Even so, after this start, his team will be confident of gaining three points against Wigan next week.

Brown rightly claimed Blackburn’s goal was down to a defensive mix-up by his players, waiting for an offside flag while Jason Roberts waltzed through to collect Steven Reid’s through ball before thumping it into the net. The celebrations had hardly died down when Craig Fagan turned inside from his right-wing spot and delivered a 40-yard cross to the head of Richard Garcia, who somehow got the ball right across Paul Robinson and into the net off the far post.

BLACKBURN: Robinson 6, Oijer 6, Samba 7, Nelsen 6, Warnock 6, Reid 6, Mokoena 6 (Tugay 67min), Dunn 6 (Emerton ht, 6), Pedersen 7, Santa Cruz 5, Roberts 7 (McCarthy 81min)

HULL: Myhill 7, Ricketts 7, Turner 8, Gardner 7, Dawson 6 (Mendy 58min, 6), Fagan 7, Marney 6, Ashbee 6, Garcia 6 (Barmby 79min), Geovanni 6 (Folan 65min), King 5

Star man: Michael Turner (Hull)
Referee: S Attwell
Attendance: 23,439