Hull City boss Steve Bruce has lamented the "elementary mistakes" which undermined his team's effort in the 3-2 defeat to Manchester United this afternoon.

Bruce's men raced into a 2-0 lead inside 13 minutes, with James Chester and David Meyler firing the Tigers in front early on.

However, the reigning champions hit back in style soon after through Chris Smalling and Wayne Rooney, before Chester went from hero to villain by inadvertently completing the comeback for United courtesy of an own goal.

Speaking to Sky Sports News, Bruce feels that his side were too generous in gifting the opposition opportunities to overturn the two-goal deficit.

He said: "We pride ourselves on not giving anything away and unfortunately today we made too many mistakes. We made elementary mistakes and then all of a sudden it isn't your day, when it could have been because we had the opportunities and attempts.

"We got off to a great start but we just needed then to keep the ball better. All credit, though, we stuck at it and on another day we might have got the result.

"We've had three or four opportunities to get the next goal in front and they are the defining moments in the game, and unfortunately they've gone down the other end and we've made a mistake and they've punished us."

Hull, who remain 12th in the Premier League table, host Fulham at the KC Stadium on Sunday.