City are effectively seeking to avoid just two relegation places now, as bottom club Portsmouth have today entered administration. This carries an automatic deduction of nine points from their already meagre total – their new tally will be just seven points, leaving them seventeen adrift of 17th-placed City and certain to be relegated.

Sad new for Portsmouth fans, though it does at least keep the club alive in the short term. From a City perspective, it’s hard to avoid the fact that one of the relegation places already settled is no bad thing. Portsmouth travel to Burnley tomorrow, a match most of the bottom clubs will suddenly be keen for them to win.

Hull City has confirmed that skipper Anthony Gardner did not break his leg during Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at West Ham United.

However, they have yet to receive the results of an MRI scan which is expected to reveal ligament damage.

Gardner, who has been injury-prone all his career but had managed to play 21 times in the Tigers defence this season, fell awkwardly after challenging Matthew Upson for a header during the horror show at the Boleyn Ground. He was stretchered off in agony, with the whole stadium applauding him, and left City with just nine men on the pitch as all three substitutes had been deployed and Craig Fagan had been sent off.

Phil Brown expressed worries about tibia and fibula damage in the post-match press rounds, but that initial fear has been allayed. News of the actual damage should emerge later today or tomorrow, although it seems certain that the ex-England defender won’t be fit when City return to action at Everton on March 7th.

Gardner’s absence would smooth a path back into the back four for the popular Kamil Zayatte, while the captain’s armband is likely to go to midfielder George Boateng.

Former Hull City manager Peter Taylor has returned to the scene of one of his greatest triumphs with the Tigers by becoming the new manager of League Two strugglers Bradford City.

Taylor has been appointed until the end of the season to revive a club in the lower reaches of the lowest division, with a view to a longer deal in the summer. He replaces Stuart McCall, whose status as a playing legend for Bradford prevented him from being castigated by the fans and sacked by the board long ago, but who eventually quit last week after accepting he was out of his depth.

City fans will fondly recall the trip to Valley Parade in 2005 when, under baking Sunday lunchtime sunshine, the Tiger Nation took over half of the ground and Taylor’s team tore apart their rapidly-declining hosts (including Dean Windass) to win 2-0, courtesy of goals from Stuart Elliott and Nick Barmby. To many, that was the day when promotion to the Championship became a certainty.

It does seem a little odd to wish Bradford City well, albeit indirectly, but Taylor gave a generation of City fans hope after a decade of incompetence, underachievement and spite from both boardroom and dugout, and only a spectacular churl of limited brain capacity would not offer him the best of luck in his new job.

George Boateng has won his appeal against the straight red card foolishly branded his way at Blackburn Rovers on Wednesday night and will consequently not now be banned for three matches.

The veteran City midfielder, who has been in inspired form of late, was sent off by referee Lee Probert at Ewood Park for an offence that seemed to involve, at initial sighting, little more than an accidental clash of heads in mid-air with Blackburn’s Morten Gamst Pedersen.

Boateng received his marching orders after lengthy treatment on the pitch, and both managers publicly disagreed with Probert’s decision afterwards. Television pictures after the game, which City lost 1-0, showed that Boateng did have his arms raised but only connected with Pedersen with his forehead, and therefore a yellow card may have been justifiable. It completed a hectic few days for Boateng, who had scored his first goal for the Tigers in spectacular style against Manchester City at the weekend.

Notwithstanding any confirmed rearrangement of City’s game with Boateng’s old club Aston Villa, the games he was due to miss were trips to West Ham United and Everton, followed by the visit of Arsenal to the KC. He is now eligible for all three. News of Probert’s inevitable demotion to be fourth official at all of Hall Road Rangers’ remaining games has yet to filter through, but it’s the least he deserves for one of the most witless, impetuous decisions by any referee this season which played a big part in City’s defeat.

In a busy day off the field for the Tigers, the club has announced that it has settled out of court with former chairman Paul Duffen following the issue of legal action relating to his alleged conduct while in charge of Hull City.

The club opted to issue proceedings against Duffen, who “resigned” as executive chairman in October, after uncovering evidence of payments to his other private ventures from club funds and also details of possible financial inducements from an agency to use their services in the purchasing and selling of players. Duffen denied the claims in a preliminary hearing and had certain valuable assets frozen by the court as inquiries continued.

However, it was mooted last week that an amicable solution was on the cards and the club confirmed today it had indeed settled the matter and would not be taking it further. This does not rule out possible further proceedings against Duffen by the FA.

Meanwhile, the multi-player brawl at Arsenal on December 19th, prompted by a stamp by Samir Nasri on Richard Garcia as Arsenal waited to take a free kick, has landed City with a £40,000 fine – bafflingly double the amount the hosts will have to pay after today’s ruling by an FA Regulatory Commission.

The assault by Nasri, later confirmed by television pictures, prompted a set-to involving players from both sides, with Nick Barmby and Stephen Hunt especially agitated by the incident as Garcia lay hurt on the turf. However,  when things calmed down, Nasri only received a yellow card for blatant violent conduct, the same punishment issued to Hunt for merely reacting in an angry manner.

It would appear that just as Arsenal avoided the greater punishment during the game – losing a man to a red card – they have done so once again, and it would be appreciated (but improbable) if the Commission responsible for today’s decision would care to explain why they felt the Tigers’ conduct as the “wronged” side was somehow worth twice as much in financial penalty as that of the obvious aggressors.