Ipswich Town moved up to fourth in the Championship as goals from Marcelino Nunez and Chuba Akpom at Hull City secured a third successive away win.

Chile midfielder Nunez headed home Jaden Philogene's cross, as the Tractor Boys lifted their game following a first half at the MKM Stadium in which they failed to produce a shot on target.

Hull were looking to extend an unbeaten run at home to seven games, but their hopes of doing so were ended when substitute Akpom added the second just four minutes later.

The closest the Tigers came to a goal was a first-half shot against the post by Joel Ndala and defeat dropped them two places to eighth in the table, with Ipswich climbing four and moving into the play-off places.

Hull went into the game without suspended Matt Crooks, while full-back Lewis Coyle made his 200th appearance for the club.

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna, meanwhile, rotated almost his entire midfield and attack, making six changes to the starting line-up from their goalless draw with Wrexham at the weekend.

After a fairly nondescript opening 10 minutes, Hull's Joe Gelhardt demonstrated the confidence of a player with six goals in his previous seven games by trying his luck from just beyond the centre circle, but although the ball cleared keeper Christian Walton it drifted wide.

Ipswich had plenty of possession around the home side's box without producing anything resembling an incisive pass, and it was Hull who almost went in front when Coyle's cross was only headed out as far as Ndala, whose shot was fingertipped on to the upright by the diving Walton.

Kyle Joseph dragged a shot wide, when he had time and space to do better, after Regan Slater won the ball in midfield, while the best Ipswich could offer in reply was a 20-yarder from Kasey McAteer which flew over the bar.

Town sent out Jack Taylor for the second half, replacing Jens Cajuste, who had picked up a knock, and they finally drew a save from Ivor Pandur with a volley from Nunez, though the keeper was not seriously discomfited, before McAteer was again too high with a near-post header from a free-kick.

They eventually took the lead when Philogene was given far too much time and space on the left and his perfectly weighted cross enabled Nunez to run in-between two defenders and give Pandur no chance.

The second followed from a corner as the Hull keeper blocked the initial header but Taylor laid it to Akpom - who had a loan spell at Hull in 2015-16 - to sidefoot in his first Ipswich goal from three yards as the home side appealed in vain for offside.

It could have been three when Philogene shot against the post with his left foot, but victory extended Ipswich's unbeaten run to six games going into Friday evening's trip to Oxford United, while Hull will next be in action on Saturday, away to Stoke City.

Hull head coach Sergej Jakirovic told BBC Radio Humberside:

"I can split this game in two parts - until 70 minutes we were almost perfect because we controlled everything, even though Ipswich, in this league, maybe have the best possession.

"First half they didn't have any shots towards our goal, so this was good. But on 70 minutes it was a crucial moment for me because we made one mistake which they immediately punished, but this was the quality of Ipswich.

"We tried to take more risks but unfortunately we immediately conceded a second goal - I don't know if it was offside.

"The first was a very poor goal because we had a full defence, the cross was not so sharp that you cannot defend it. If not, maybe it would have stayed zero-zero or we would have scored a late goal."

Ipswich boss Kieran McKenna told BBC Radio Suffolk:

"It was a tough game and I thought we showed the things you need to show in the Championship on tough midweek nights when you're not playing on a perfect pitch.

"Our intensity was good, our defending was really good, the only chances we gave away were from a couple of turnovers - our press was good and made it hard for a good footballing team to get any sort of moves going.

"We didn't have as much control of the ball as we'd have liked in the first half but you have to have that base of hard work, intensity, organisation and resilience that we showed, and if you do that, then you know the goals can come.

"We scored a really good first goal and you could see the difference that made to the game, confidence comes into the group, the opposition open up some more spaces and stop working so hard to stop us, and we looked a big threat in the last 25 minutes."