Hull City manager Steve Bruce says he will take positives out of the defeat to Manchester City after his fighting Tigers fought back from 2-0 down to rattle the champions.
An Eliaquim Mangala own-goal and an Abel Hernandez penalty hauled the home side back into a game that looked to be running away from them when the Blues scored twice inside the first 11 minutes through Sergio Aguero and Edin Dzeko.
Manchester City were at their clinical best, but Hull City showed typical spirit to stage an unlikely turnaround and threatened to snatch at least a point until second-half strikes from Dzeko, on 68 minutes, and Frank Lampard in the closing stages, ended their challenge.
And Bruce said he was pleased with the attitude shown by his players.
"I was delighted with the attitude after an awful start. We very nearly turned it around," he said. "Up until their third goal we were right in it.
"Unfortunately, we weren't quite good enough on the day."
Defeat means City drop to 14th in the Premier League and, with just one win this season, Bruce will target three points from next weekend's home clash with Crystal Palace, before tough trips to Arsenal and Liverpool.
Scoring twice against the champions offers hope of better times ahead, but the City boss knows his side must rediscover their defensive form.
"We're going to have to make sure we're better defensively," he said. "We found it very difficult to start with. (Manchester) City were playing with huge confidence and we showed them probably too much respect.
"We'll have to look at finding a system and a way of playing because we have had some huge changes. But I still believe we're better. We scored two goals against the champions. We scored two last week and two the week before. We just have to get the balance right.
"We took them on, which for me is always the best way. If you sit back against them, they will punish you."
