Irvine’s heroics were quickly overshadowed when he picked up a second yellow five minutes after scoring the equaliser on 33 minutes.

The dismissal of the Australian with the game poised at 1-1 prompted a second half collapse by the visitors.

Kamil Grosicki put the home side back in front on 51 minutes.

But the match belonged to Uruguayan Abel Hernandez who scored a hat-trick to give Leonid Slutsky his first win as Hull manager

Hernandez opened the score on four minutes before adding two more (54’, 68’) to make it a horrow start to the new campaign for the Brewers with two from two losses. Hull sit in 5th with a win and a draw.

Brewers coach Nigel Clough pointed to the send-off as the turning point with both yellow cards for Irvine coming within10 minutes of each other.

Clough said post match: "It was very encouraging how we played in the first half up to the sending-off.

"The second one was not a booking, I thought it was harsh.

"The first booking was petulant and I have told (Irvine)."