FOR very different reasons the end of the Premier League season cannot come quickly enough for Manchester United and Hull City.
While one is desperate for the last rites to be read on a wretched campaign, the other eagerly awaits the arrival of the FA Cup final.
Few would have predicted that it is City who still have much to plan for this month, a measure of their wonderful success this year, but the closing weeks of the season are sounding only flat notes.
With Premier League survival sewn up and a place in Europe bagged, human nature has decreed that the Tigers have lifted their foot off the accelerator to free-wheel back to Wembley.
Evidence of that came again at Old Trafford last night.
Against an under-strength host, City only ever showed flashes of the application that has dug the foundations on their greatest ever season.
Two goals from teenage debutant James Wilson were followed up by a late third from Robin Van Persie to make it nine defeats in a row against United, a sequence dating all the way back to 1975.
Only substitute Matty Fryatt, scorer of an excellent finish from distance, offered any hope of manager Steve Bruce avoiding another defeat against his one-time employers as a poor run of form continued in the weeks leading up to the FA Cup final.
There is now a very real chance City will head to Wembley without a win since they were last there for the semi-finals.
Four Premier League games have since returned a solitary point and unless fifth-placed Everton can be beaten at the KC Stadium on Sunday, the Tigers will face Arsenal without the assistance of momentum. Hardly cause for panic but certainly not ideal.
The final home game of a Manchester United season have become occasions for celebration and silverware yet there was only a small pocket of Old Trafford with those ambitions intact.
City's FA Cup final against Arsenal in 10 days encouraged Bruce to make five changes from the side that lost 3-1 at Aston Villa on Saturday.
Alex Bruce, Stephen Quinn, George Boyd and Robert Koren all came into the side, while surprisingly there was also a Premier League debut for goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic.
Bruce had been true to his promise of rotation but Giggs sprang a series of surprises.
Eight changes included debuts for teenagers Wilson and Tom Lawrence in a starting XI stripped of its household names.
The affects were predictable enough. A contest bereft of intensity never felt capable of quickening pulses and felt as much like a testimonial for departing stalwart Nemanja Vidic as a Premier League game. United hogged possession but lacked the ideas to open up the visitors' five-man defence.
A timely block from Alex Bruce prevented Wilson from getting his shot off inside the six-yard box before Maynor Figueroa's crude tackle on Adnan Januzaj went unpunished inside the penalty area.
Lawrence had a shot from the edge of the box deflected narrowly over the bar by Figueroa but City were barely troubled inside the opening half hour.
Albeit without threatening the United goal, City's start was promising. Then came the sort of flimsy defending that had brought about their demise at Villa Park four days earlier.
An innocuous free-kick from the right side was floated to the back post, where Marouane Fellaini out-jumped Curtis Davies.
The nod down was there to be cleared but Wilson was quickest to react with a crashing finish past Jakupovic.
The keeper, whose last game came on loan at Leyton Orient in front of 3,500 fans, had no chance.
City could feel disappointed at the nature of falling behind but a lack of adventure on their part offered little hope of a comeback at the break. As good as it got was a break down the right flank through Ahmed Elmohamady, only for his cross to be cleared by Vidic in front of a lurking Shane Long.
The 1,200 travelling fans were enjoying their night, taunting their counterparts with their plans for Europe next season, but there was frustration a makeshift United team was not being tested. Not a single shot had been fired on David De Gea's goal.
Bruce responded by introducing both Matty Fryatt and Yannick Sagbo as half-time substitutes but it was still United who produced all the threats.
The dangerous Januzaj brought the first real save from Jakupovic with a shot from the edge of the box but United would not be kept at bay for long.
On the hour mark the home side doubled their advantage. Januzaj's break down the right teed up Fellaini to shoot at Jakupovic from eight yards out and Wilson was on hand to turn in the loose ball to complete a fairytale brace.
That appeared to be that but that theory looked beyond Fryatt. Collecting the ball inside the United half and skipping inside the challenge of Michael Carrick to unleash a fine finish past De Gea from 25 yards out.
United's two-goal cushion had lasted just two minutes.
Much like their belated awakening at Fulham 11 days earlier, City suddenly mounted a response. David Meyler forced a solid save from De Gea with a left-foot shot from the edge of the box as a tepid game warmed up.
City threatened a first point at Old Trafford for 90 years with Sagbo's physicality causing problems but their race was run with three minutes remaining.
Giggs, on as a late sub, fed Van Persie on the edge of the box and although Davies blocked the first shot, the loose ball was dispatched low past the helpless Jakupovic.
There was still time for City's keeper to deny Giggs a swansong when keeping out a well-struck free-kick but there was no question it had been United's night.
