AFTER suffering from vertigo in the early days of the season, Hull City now have a sinking feeling in their stomach.

The statistics, once so positive, are looking bleaker week by midwinter week. One win in 13 in all competitions, four successive defeats. Yesterday, Hull bore only a passing resemblance to the fearless, buoyant newcomers who proudly sat third in the league in October.

Nobody could fault Hull for effort. But one header over the bar in the first five minutes and a volley, also way over the bar, in stoppage time was the sum total of their attempts on the Everton goal. No matter how hard manager Phil Brown tried to manufacture a coherent strike force — at the end he had Craig Fagan, Marlon King and Daniel Cousin on the field — Hull lacked any sort of cutting edge.

Geovanni, the chief creator and scorer in the happy days, was long gone, removed from a match of heavy industry that simply passed him by, Nick Barmby, returning to an old haunt to predictable jeers, was anonymous and Ian Ashbee, the talisman of Hull’s rise through the leagues, is starting to look like the journeyman everyone presumed him to be. Even the usually impertubable centre-back, Michael Turner, is starting to feel the pace, worked to the limit of his patience by Tim Cahill, Everton’s makeshift centre-forward.

It did not help Hull’s cause or Brown’s temper that the first goal, a header by Marouane Fellaini, was clearly offside. “Our challenge on the Premier League has been unhinged by a series of official’s decisions,” said the manager forlornly. “The defenders were doing exactly what I asked them to do and he (Fellaini) still gets it in an offside position. Our game plan was to make ourselves difficult to beat, so the first goal kills us.”

Admittedly, Everton are the last team to be playing when the goals have dried up and confidence is low. Hull tried to match up their opponents in midfield and fight for every scrap. But they were outmatched, outrun and comprehensively outscrapped in every part of the field by the masters of the art. Everton have not conceded a goal now in 450 minutes of Premier League football and, though none of their play is exactly pretty, no one could argue with their workrate or the screaming free kick by Mikel Arteta, inset, which effectively finished the contest just before half-time.

Hull will spend the rest of the season looking over their shoulders, thankful for the points harvested when the sun was shining. Instead of looking at the fixtures with relish, their supporters, who were wonderfully raucous to the end, will be desperately searching for a glimpse of another point.

The visit of Arsenal to the KC Stadium, hardly a fortress in recent weeks, will prompt only a sense of nostalgia.

For the neutral, Hull’s inability to emulate Reading and Wigan as champion of the newly promoted clubs is no less of a shame for being inevitable. Hull’s early season prosperity was based on aggression, organisation, and surprise attack. While Stoke chose the low road to survival, Hull usurped the moral high ground, pushing forward with abandon and frightening the life out of bigger teams. Victory at the Emirates, three goals in gallant defeat at Old Trafford, 2-0 ahead at Anfield; Hull symbolised the ambitions of every team that cared nothing for reputations or tomorrow.

Brown has divided the season into three phases: the first was successful, the second less so and the third began yesterday. “We’ve been given more respect by sides, which is why we’re not winning the second batch of games.”

The problem is that Hull did not know what they were trying to do yesterday. Mostly, they had forsaken their early-season passing and movement for a longer ball game, but with two holding midfielders and minimal width, King was too often left without support at the front. Hull’s tactical confusion was summed up by poor Bernard Mendy, who played right midfield and as a striker before ending up at right back. By the end, Hill looked bereft of ideas or energy. Five yellow cards summed up their frustration and the erratic refereeing of Martin Atkinson, who pleased neither manager.

Brown now has to make a decision based as much on philosophy as reality. Does he go back to the bravado of the autumn or string five across midfield and hope for the best? The transfer window brings a glimmer of hope. Kevin Kilbane is reported to be one of two players on his way to the east coast, which would add experience and balance to the ranks.

Everton, playing without a recognised centre-forward, are starting to feel invincible and in Arteta have a ballplayer of sublime skill. The Spaniard’s strike for Everton’s second goal was a class apart, a telling reminder of the sort of goals Hull used to score in their heyday. David Moyes, Everton’s manager, thought his side controlled the whole game. “Hull made it a right scrap for 15 or 20 minutes, but we were strong enough,” he said. “We weren’t worried too much by Hull.” Talk about damning with faint praise.

Star man: Mikel Arteta

Yellow cards: Everton: Fellaini, Cahill Hull City: Zayatte, Ricketts, Mendy, Cousin, Fagan

Referee: M Atkinson

Attendance: 37,527

EVERTON: Howard 6; Hibbert 5, Jagielka 6, Lescott 6, Baines 7, Osman 6, Neville 5, Fellaini 7, Arteta 8 (Rodwell 90min), Pienaar 6, Cahill 7 (Anichebe 73min)
HULL CITY: Myhill 5; McShane 4 (Halmosi 79min), Zayatte 5, Turner 5, Ricketts 6, Mendy 5, Ashbee 5, Geovanni 5 (Cousin 66min), Marney 4(Fagan 54min, 5), Barmby 5, King 6