• Midfielder moves to Turf Moor for £500,000
• 26-year-old agrees three-year contract

Burnley have signed the midfielder Dean Marney from Hull City for an undisclosed fee thought to be worth around £500,000.

Marney, 26, has agreed a three-year contract at Turf Moor and is manager Brian Laws’s first new signing of the summer.

Laws said: “It is a good way to start and I am delighted we have got Dean. Midfield is an area we wanted to strengthen and for a young age he has a lot of experience.”

Marney began his career at Tottenham Hotspur. During his time at White Hart Lane he had loan spells with Swindon Town, Queens Park Rangers, Gillingham and Norwich City. He joined Hull four years ago and made 102 league starts for the club, scoring nine goals. He played 17 times as Hull were relegated from the Premier League last season.

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Sir Alex Ferguson admits he is “clutching at straws” in the hope Manchester United can overtake Chelsea on the final bend of the season. He may have to lower those expectations should Vladimir Stojkovic stand between the Wigan posts and the destiny of the Premier League trophy at Stamford Bridge next Sunday.

The Serbian international goalkeeper produced, in the kindest terms, an erratic display in the absence of the injured Chris Kirkland as Hull City’s relegation was mathematically sealed in stoppage time at the DW Stadium. Despite needing a six point and 24 goal swing over West Ham United to avoid the drop before kick off, Iain Dowie’s team – plus a sizable travelling support – refused to go quietly and should have taken survival to the final day with a first away win since March 2009.

Headed goals by Will Atkinson and Mark Cullen, the first after an erroneous offside decision was overturned by referee Phil Dowd and the second from an offside position that wasn’t identified, placed Hull on the cusp of their first away win for 425 days until Steve Gohouri’s overhead kick salvaged a draw for Wigan and sparked a mass pitch invasion. The Latics’ late joy will not be shared by anyone of an Old Trafford persuasion, however, as Wigan and Stojkovic in particular offered little to suggest they can spoil the coronation of Carlo Ancelotti’s team in west London next weekend.

Robert Martinez’s men – who have beaten Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal at the DW this season and deserve more respect than they have received since the league leader’s win at Anfield yesterday – had suggested the opposite in a dominant start that brought a first Wigan goal for Victor Moses. The talented winger cut inside two Hull defenders and sent a measured finish in off Matt Duke’s far post after being sent clear down the left following a mistake by George Boateng. But it was Stojkovic’s errors that altered the course of the contest.

The Wigan keeper, who once had a trial with Everton abruptly halted after just one training session, had already spread unease through his defence when he needlessly punched a harmless Boateng cross into the path of Kevin Kilbane. Two Hull strikers were offside when Kilbane crossed into the area but Atkinson arrived from an onside position to head beyond the static Serb. Dowd correctly overruled his assistant who had disallowed the goal for offside.

Hull’s second was offside, but this time there was no flag as Cullen ghosted in behind Mario Melchiot to glance another Boateng cross past Stojkovic. The ironic cheers whenever the Wigan keeper caught a cross – from his own supporters – must have sounded like a death-knell to Ferguson.

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Jimmy Bullard does a brilliant impression of Roy Hodgson, which Fulham’s manager is said to struggle to see the funny side of. The pair always experienced a slightly uneasy relationship at Craven Cottage and Bullard duly delighted in, again, wiping the smile off his old boss’s face by converting the penalty that set Hull City on course for a potentially vital victory.

Another goal from Craig Fagan ensured Iain Dowie’s first home game in charge concluded with a win that not only ended Hull’s run of five straight defeats, but appreciably enhanced their chances of avoiding relegation.

It is fortunate Fulham are already tucked safely in mid-table because Hodgson’s on-going Europa League adventure appears to be taking its toll. This was their third defeat in the space of seven days.

Adam Pearson, Hull’s chairman, used his column in the match programme to explain why he had placed Phil Brown on ‘gardening leave’ – a way of avoiding making a hefty lump sum compensation pay out – and replace him with Dowie. It proved some deconstruction.

“I feel a big squad has sometimes hampered us this season,” said Pearson. “We seem to have had no consistency on selection, no established pairings in defence, midfield or attack, and no continuity on team shape or formation.

“Wolves have found their best team and stuck to it, with an unchanged squad now for a dozen games. Their squad is smaller, their wage bill is half the size of ours, but they have found their best team combinations and team unity at the right time. This is what we have asked Iain to do. A change had to come.” Ouch.

In opting to leave Geovanni, Hull’s most gifted individual, on the bench, Dowie’s first home selection raised a few eyebrows among KC regulars.

Such locals were mightily relived that Bullard was fit to start, but – mindful of the dangers posed by Fulham’s former playmaker – Hodgson handed his South African defensive midfielder, Kagisho Dikgacoi, the job of man marking Bullard at certain times.

Initially, at least, Dikgacoi succeeded in cramping his usually dynamic style, but, when Hull won an early penalty, Bullard stepped forward to direct it, right-footed, beyond Mark Schwarzer’s grasp.

Appropriately, the midfielder’s pass to Jozy Altidore had prefaced a spot-kick awarded when Chris Smalling wrestled Altidore to the ground inside the area. As Bullard’s strike flew into the roof of the net, Dowie looked on cloud nine, but Hull’s manager subsequently endured an anxious moment when George Boateng cleared a Zoltan Gera shot off the line after Brede Hangeland headed on a Bjorn Riise corner.

Excitement levels were rising and Schwarzer was stretched to the limit, pushing away a curling Bullard free-kick for a corner before, at the other end, Gera found himself denied again by a goalline clearance, this time by Steven Mouyokolo’s part.

The second half had barely begun when the excellent Fagan doubled Hull’s lead.

Fagan out-leapt Paul Konchesky to meet Dean Marney’s deep cross and his looping header completely eluded Schwarzer, who, mis-judging the ball’s flight, failed to react.

The keeper partly redeemed himself with a tremendous save from Altidore, but, by now, Fulham – without an unwell Bobby Zamora – were already beaten.

Dowie had kept his manifesto pledge to offer the people of Hull “smiley Saturdays”.

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