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Two Stephen Ireland goals were not enough to earn Manchester City a win at Hull City as the sides drew 2-2 in the Premier League.

Geovanni earned the home side a share of the spoils with a deflected second-half free-kick after Ireland's heroics had put City in control.

Daniel Cousin gave Hull the lead at the KC Stadium following a dreadful Tal Ben Haim error, before an equally serious blunder from Kamil Zayette allowed Ireland to equalise, and the midfielder put City in front with a peach of a strike just before half-time .

Between them, the two sides had picked up none of the previous 18 Premier League points available, and both managers will probably be satisfied with a draw just to stop their recent rot.

The teams' poor form had put them under pressure, and that told twice in the first half as those terrible defensive mistakes led to the first two goals.

City centre-back Ben Haim underhit his backpass to Joe Hart woefully on 12 minutes, allowing Cousin to sneak in and prod the ball into the net.

To compound City's misery, Hart was injured in attempting to save the shot and had to be replaced by Kasper Schmeichel after damaging ankle ligaments.

The 21-year-old will almost certainly miss England's friendly international against Germany on Wednesday, the latest among a clutch of players to pull out of Fabio Capello's squad.

With Richard Dunne suspended and Dietmar Hamann on the bench, City's captain's armband passed to record signing Robinho.

It was a curious decision by Mark Hughes, considering the Brazilian's limited acquaintance with the English language, and he did little to gee up his troops in the injury-enforced break following the opening goal.

The visitors struggled to assert themselves following a sequence of one win from seven Premier League games, but were handed a lifeline eight minutes before half-time.

Zayette intercepted a poor Robinho pass but, under no pressure, took a catastrophically heavy touch and let in Ireland, who slotted into the empty net with his left foot.

If Ireland's first goal was lucky, his second was a beauty. He collected a low lateral pass from the left from Javier Garrido and, unmarked, bent a superb shot inside the far corner from the edge of the box to send City into half-time in front.

Geovanni fired over from 35 yards with an ambitious free-kick early in the second half, but had more success when a second set-piece was awarded 25 yards out for a soft foul on Marlon King by Micah Richards.

The Brazilian's effort deflected off Vincent Kompany in the wall, wrong-footing Schmeichel and looping into the right side of the Manchester City net.

Hull looked the more likely to snatch victory, not least from a thrice-taken Geovanni free-kick.

Twice the Brazilian's effort was blocked, but referee Phil Dowd adjudged that the wall broke early and booked Shaun Wright-Phillips and Ireland.

At the third attempt the shot was deflected for a corner, with Dowd ignoring Darius Vassell who once again advanced too soon to charge the ball down.

Vassell had City's best chance in the final minute of the 90, but saw a close-range volley blocked superbly by Boaz Myhill.

Alex Chick / Eurosport