Hull City Vs Derby County: Hull win 4-2 as late Egan and Koumas strikes lift Tigers into fourth
Hull’s 4-2 victory over Derby ended a three-game league winless run and kept the promotion chase alive in hull city vs derby county, with late goals from John Egan and Lewis Koumas proving decisive.
Hull City Vs Derby County — late goals seal 4-2 win
Hull recovered from a four-goal first half to secure a 4-2 win, with Callum Elder’s own goal and Ollie McBurnie’s finish giving the hosts the lead twice, only for Craig Forsyth and Sammie Szmodics to level for Derby in the opening 45 minutes; the match remained balanced until the 75th minute when John Egan — his first goal since September — finished a well-worked passing move to restore Hull’s lead, and Lewis Koumas sealed the victory two minutes after coming on as a substitute.
Egan and Koumas change the game late on
Amir Hadziahmetovic’s swinging corner rebounded off Elder for the opening goal, Forsyth levelled with a cool side-footed finish after 17 minutes, and McBurnie produced a brilliant finish inside the box to put Hull back ahead before half-time; Patrick Agyemang’s cross from the right set up Szmodics for Derby’s second equaliser, and it was Egan’s late strike and Koumas’ breakaway finish that secured three points for Sergej Jakirovic’s side.
Eustace calls for a collective response after Watford loss
Derby head coach John Eustace urged a collective response after his side’s 2-0 defeat at Vicarage Road on Saturday and said the squad trained on Monday ahead of the trip to the MKM Stadium; he described the Watford display as out of character, said the group must take responsibility, that a couple of players returned to training but their fitness was still being assessed, and warned against rushing Carlton back after giving him 30 minutes at the weekend.
Pre-match picture and confirmed absences from the preview
A pre-match preview dated 22 Feb 2026 20: 56 stated Hull sat fifth in the Championship after 32 matches with 54 points from 16 wins, six draws and 10 defeats and were on a three-game winless run following a 3-1 defeat at Queens Park Rangers; Derby arrived having lost 2-0 to Watford and were described as three points behind sixth-placed Wrexham in that preview.
Injury lists, form runs and a likely XI
Hull were listed as still without Semi Ajayi, Darko Gyabi, Eliot Matazo, Matt Crooks, Toby Collyer and Mohamed Belloumi, with Yu Hirakawa withdrawn in the second half of the QPR defeat after going down with an injury; Derby were said to be without Sondre Langas and Max Johnston with hamstring problems. The preview included a possible Hull XI: Pandur; Giles, McNair, Egan, Coyle; Hadziahmetovic, Slater; Dowell, Gelhardt, Millar; McBurnie.
What the result did to the table and what came before
Hull’s victory lifted them above Millwall into fourth place, kept them six points behind Middlesbrough in the top two, and ended a run of three winless league matches for the Tigers; Derby have lost three of their last four games and were moved to six points outside the play-off positions after the defeat. A match report carrying the update was last updated 24th February 2026 at 22: 12, with all times noted as UK.
Other context from the coverage: Hull had been winless in six league games versus Derby (D1 L5) since a 2-0 win in October 2019; Derby had won each of their last two away league visits to Hull by 1-0 and had aimed to make it three in a row, while Derby had also gone unbeaten in 11 midweek league fixtures (W7 D4), conceding just five goals in that run since a 1-0 loss to Sunderland in January 2025. Carlton Morris had been on the bench on Saturday and was mentioned alongside Patrick Agyemang as one of Derby’s leading scorers, with Morris having scored in the reverse fixture earlier in the campaign.
The immediate next steps are recovery operations and league preparations: Hull moved on to their next fixture after the win, and Derby’s coaching staff planned to assess returning players after the Monday training session to finalise selections for upcoming matches.
