Hull City's disastrous form spilled on to the final day of the Premier League season as they suffered a disappointing 1-0 defeat against a severely weakened Manchester United side but poor results elsewhere meant that the Tigers managed to avoid relegation.

Hull needed to win their game against United with Newcastle just one point behind in the drop zone and the Tigers were given an early boost as Alex Ferguson fielded a number of young players with just Darren Fletcher and Gary Neville playing some role in the first team this season.

However they failed to take advantage of the inexperienced opponent and though they had the major share of the possession early in the game, lack of creativity meant that Tomasz Kuszczak spent a relatively comfortable time in the goal.

United went close to scoring through Nani and Lee Martin before Danny Welbeck wasted a golden chance as he headed wide of the target from close range. The visitors finally took the lead through a brilliant goal by Darren Gibson as the United midfielder smashed home a stinging volley from well outside the area with keeper Boaz Myhill badly out of position.

Federico Macheda then wasted another chance to double the lead as did Welbeck with Hull struggling to cope with the United attack. However Aston Villa's victory over Newcastle meant that Hull managed to hold on to their Premier League status even though they failed to provide a response late in the game.