FA Cup Hull City 0-1 Crawley Town

There were, Steve Evans said, no great celebrations after Crawley Town advanced to the fifth round of the FA Cup for the second consecutive season. His League Two promotion contenders arrived here expecting nothing less and, if anything, were disappointed not to have won by more than the second-half goal by their prolific leading scorer Matt Tubbs.

Evans has never been a man afraid of blowing his own trumpet, but, on this occasion, he spoke nothing but the truth. His team looked as though they knew exactly what they were doing from the opening whistle and the extent to which they dominated was remarkable.

"Since the draw was made, we did our homework, watching reserve games as well as the first team, and we played some great stuff," Evans said. Having hoped to get another chance against Manchester United, where they lost in the fifth round last season, he acknowledged he would be happy to draw Liverpool or Chelsea this time around.

Nick Barmby, who made seven changes to the Hull side who beat Reading in their last Championship outing, was gracious in defeat. "All credit to Crawley, they played well and we were beaten by the better team," said the former England international. "We didn't get the ball down and pass, but I don't want to take anything away from Crawley – they wouldn't let us."

The first 40 minutes was something of an embarrassment for the home supporters, who saw Crawley dominate possession. Tubbs, with an overhead kick, Tyrone Barnett and Sanchez Watt all went close, while only once did Hull seriously threaten, Robbie Brady's shot just before half-time drawing a diving save from Scott Shearer.

Barmby made changes at half-time, sending on a second out-and-out striker, Aaron McLean, and Tom Cairney immediately went close with a curling shot, but Crawley continued to attack and, on 57 minutes, got the goal that had been coming. Pablo Mills had already forced Vito Mannone to make a diving save when Tubbs beat the offside trap to run on to a long ball from Dannie Bulman down the left, cut into the penalty area and squeezed a sidefooted shot under the City keeper.

Hull almost levelled within two minutes, Shearer flinging himself to his left to palm Richard Garcia's slightly scuffed effort off the line, but Crawley continued to look the stronger side. They almost made the game safe, but Tyrone Barnett saw Joe Dudgeon block his effort on the line and Watt, following up, shot against the outside of the post. Only in the final few minutes did Hull exert any sustained pressure and, even then, Crawley, superbly marshalled by their experienced centre-back pairing of Mills and Claude Davis, never really looked like conceding.

The only negative for Crawley was the dismissal of their assistant manager, Paul Raynor, sent to the stands along with Hull fitness coach Sean Rush after a second-half altercation.

"We said to the boys at half-time, keep your concentration and focus, and a goal will come, and, in the end, it could have been three or four," Evans said. "That's not being condescending to Hull, because this is a Premier League club in the way it's set up. But we had some tremendous passages of football. Players like Tubbs and Kyle McFadzean should be playing at this level and they showed that today."