CHRIS LAKEY Post-match harmony was in short supply after Saturday's draw as the rival managers - once team-mates at Reading - begged to differ over the events of the closing minutes.

CHRIS LAKEY

Post-match harmony was in short supply after Saturday's draw as the rival managers - once team-mates at Reading - begged to differ over the events of the closing minutes.

When fourth official John Hayto held aloft the board announcing there would be four minutes of time added on, there was a collective query that went around nine tenths of Carrow Road, "four?"

Hull boss Phil Parkinson was sent to the stands soon after the Hull goal for failing to give the ball back to Norwich quickly after catching it on the touchline.

He explained afterwards that he had been punished for making a protest over the way the club's multi-ball system was working.

"I just thought the ball was coming back a little slower once Norwich had gone in front," he said. "To be fair to the referee he told me he had added on some time for that, which is why we had four extra minutes, but he didn't like the way I held onto the ball at the end.

"I had to watch the last few minutes from the stand but it was no big deal and I don't want to make a big issue of it."

Not surprisingly, that argument didn't sit comfortably with Peter Grant.

"I heard Phil Parkinson talking about the ref keeping the ball - it must have been when Phil Brown (Parkinson's assistant) kicked the ball away and when Parky kept the ball behind his back, that's what the ref must have put it on for," said Grant.

"It's alright for Phil to say that if it was 0-0, but Phil Brown smashed the ball back down the line again and Phil Parkinson held the ball behind his back when we were going to take quick throw, so ask Phil if that's hiding the ball or if that's time wasting.

"I can't believe he has even commented on that."

And while Grant said Hull were lucky to leave with a point, Parkinson saw it very differently.

"For me a point was the very least we deserved from the game," he said. "We switched off and conceded a very soft goal but I thought we responded to that in terrific fashion and we got our reward in the end.

"There is an honesty running through this group of players that I see on the training ground every day, and you saw that out on the pitch today. They never stopped battling and I couldn't be more pleased for them."