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Hull City 3-0 Liverpool: Brady, Koren, Simpson scored
Liverpool suffered a comprehensive 3-0 friendly defeat to Hull City at the KC Stadium as Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson made their first appearance for the club.
Goals from Robert Brady, Robert Koren and Jay Simpson gave the Championship side a deserved victory against Kenny Dalglish's side, who made 11 changes at half-time.
Kenny Dalglish started with a second-string XI, with Brazilian goalkeeper Doni making his first outing since his summer switch from Roma.
The midfield had plenty to prove, with major question marks hanging over the Anfield futures of Joe Cole, Alberto Aquilani and Christian Poulsen.
The Liverpool fringe players failed to grasp the nettle, however, and hardly created a meaningful chance in the first half.
David Ngog found himself isolated up front, while the touch of Cole in particular was as mystifyingly absent as it was during his first season at the club.
Aaron McLean fired an early sighter for Hull in front of a sizeable crowd, narrowly clearing the bar from 25 yards.
Brady went one better on 21 minutes, as Martin Kelly backed off the on-loan Manchester United man, who cut inside and fired past Doni via a deflection.
McLean went close to doubling the lead when he met a Koren free-kick with a glancing header, but again his effort whistled over the bar.
But Koren made it two after 34 minutes, sidefooting into the net left-footed from 25 yards. Although his placement was accurate, the shot was not the most powerful and Doni might wonder why he was unable to scramble across in time.
Liverpool's best response came from Ngog, whose low shot was spilled by Pete Gulacsi but Cole blazed the rebound over.
On came the cavalry, with Downing and Henderson joined by Dirk Kuyt, Andy Carroll and Charlie Adam amongst others.
Downing made an immediate impact, forcing a superb save from goalkeeper Adriano Basso with a right-foot shot.
Henderson, Adam, and Kuyt provided good support for the lone striker Carroll, and it looked like a reduction in the arrears was imminent when Hull hit the visitors with a sucker punch.
Dele Adebola chested a Kevin Kilbane cross into the path of Simpson, who poked the ball past Brad Jones from close range, narrowly staying onside.
The third goal robbed Liverpool of their momentum, and despite winning a succession of corners - whipped pacily in by Adam - they rarely looked like scoring.
Henderson did have the ball in the net after turning in a Downing cross, but he was http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifrightly flagged offside.
Kuyt had a chance to restore some pride in stoppage time when Carroll knocked the ball down to him, but the Dutchman's shot was straight at Basso.
It was Liverpool's first pre-season defeat, but more worryingly for Dalglish they have conceded nine goals in their three summer outings.
Alex Chick / Eurosport
Source: uk.eurosport.yahoo.com
Team Line-up:
HULL CITY: Gulacsi, Dudgeon, Chester, McShane, Rosenior, Brady, Cairney, Evans, Koren, McLean, Fryatt
LIVERPOOL: Doni, Robinson, Carragher, Ayala, Kelly, Maxi, Aquilani, Poulsen, Coady, Cole, Ngog.
In the bench:
Hull City: Basso, Adebola, McKenna, Harper, Devitt, Kilbane, Simpson, Barmby, Bradley, East, Emerton
Liverpool: Jones, Hansen, Flanagan, Degen, Insua, Carroll, Henderson, Kyrgiakos, Kuyt, Downing, Spearing, Wisdom, Wilson, Adam.
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