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Hull City breathed life into their campaign and the tenure of manager Phil Brown when coming from behind to beat Stoke City 2-1 at the KC Stadium.

Tigers chairman Adam Pearson said on Sunday morning that Brown would remain in charge if his side beat Stoke. He will now have to be true to his word as Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink fired home an injury-time winner.

Matthew Etherington seized on a defensive lapse to fire Stoke ahead on 29 minutes, but Hull kept plugging away and Seyi Olofinjana curled home a beauty to restore parity.

Stoke lost Abdoulaye Faye to a needless second yellow card with three minutes remaining and Hull cashed in with Vennegoor of Hesselink's winner.

The win lifts Hull out of the drop zone and it may well revive their season.

Hull did not approach the game like a side mired in trouble as they called the tune early on - with Jimmy Bullard, making his home debut some 11 months after joining the club, orchestrating play.

The former Fulham man sliced over the top with his first sight of goal and got far closer shortly afterwards, his wicked drive from 25 yards flashing a yard wide.

Jozy Altidore does not look like a player capable of firing Hull out of trouble and his shooting boots were sadly awry after he had worked space for himself on the edge of the box.

Hull were working the ball well on both flanks and it took a timely tackle from Robert Huth to halt Richard Garcia, while the same player headed weakly at Thomas Sorensen following an excellent cross from Stephen Hunt.

For all Hull's positive play, there is the fear that they will shoot themselves in the foot and so it proved on 29 minutes as Stoke were gifted an opener.

Stoke's threat in the opening half hour came from set-pieces but there was no free kick in sight as Bernard Mendy and Kamil Zayatte went for the same ball allowing Etherington to run free.

The winger had plenty still to do when collecting the ball 35 yards from goal but he got his head down and drove forward before smashing a shot past the exposed Matt Duke.

Hull did not let their heads drops and should have levelled things before half time but Olofinjana squandered a superb position when rolling the ball across the box to no-one when the crowd were baying for him to shoot.

The Tigers did not launch the onslaught that was expected at the start of the second half and Stoke fashioned a couple of chances to extend their lead.

Hull failed to deal with a long throw from Rory Delap and the ball fell to Ryan Shawcross, but Duke dashed off his line to smother.

Stoke continued to threaten and a superb cross from Etherington forced Anthony Gardner to turn the ball towards his own goal, but Duke somehow pushed the ball round the post.

It was a quite stunning save which had a touch of fortune to it, but Hull have been lacking luck for some time now and ten minutes later they drew level.

Olofinjana was lambasted for failing to take a shooting chance in the first half, but he more than made up for it with his equaliser on 61 minutes.

The Nigerian picked up the ball 25 yards out and a pirouette earned him a yard of space. It was all he required as he executed a perfect curler that beat the outstretched arm of Sorensen.

Hull had the bit between their teeth and Craig Fagan spurned a decent chance to hand his side the lead as he got in a tangle after a long ball had caused panic in the Stoke box.

Faye was booked for preventing Barmby from taking a throw and it proved a costly caution as a foul on the same player three minutes from time saw referee Mike Dean produce a red card.

Hull sensed a chance and they took it with both hands. Bullard, who drove his side on throughout, fired a speculative effort from 25 yards that Sorensen parried straight to Vennegoor of Hesselink who stabbed home to spark wild scenes of celebration at the KC.

Eurosport