A “disappointed” referee hit the ground running after the “crazy” incident.

Hull City sealed their place in the Sky Bet Championship play-offs with a 4-2 win at home to Derby County.

Hull moved into the top six with an upset win at Derby

Second-half goals from John Egan and Lewis Koumas earned the Tigers a vital three points after losing their last two league games.

Hull took the lead after nine minutes when Callum Elder scored his first goal against his former club. Craig Forsyth equalized after seven minutes for Derby, only for Oli McBurnie to score his 13th goal of the campaign after another Elder gaffe.

Sammie Szmodics restored parity for the Rams three minutes before the break, before Egan and Koumas handed John Eustace’s men back-to-back defeats.

Despite their slight deficit, the Tigers started well and deserved their early lead. Ryan Giles and Liam Millar were the scorers for the opener after the former tried to catch Josh Vickers unawares in his near post following a clever overlap.

Amir Hadziahmetovic headed in a corner from the left, which was aimed at McBurnie at the back post, but the ball deflected off Elder and into the net.

Hull have been hoping for their chances at this stage, with Giles and Millar a constant nuisance. But Derby were yet to play their trump card by exploiting a clear weakness down Hull’s right.

And they exploited that deficit in almost their first attacking minute of the game. Szmodics initially did well to win a deep corner before passing it to Lewis Travis, who burst into the penalty area before slotting home the goal.

Ivor Pandur responded to the danger, to a degree, but could only curl the ball into the path of Forsyth, who couldn’t miss.

The visitors almost made it 2-1 five minutes later when Patrick Agyemang’s curling run down the right ended with the USA international hitting the crossbar.

There followed a lull from the earlier suffocation until, in the middle of the play, McBurnie found the Elder’s crying buck. Elder, who was substituted at half-time, was again at fault as his cross-field ball was easily intercepted by Joe Gelhardt.

Gelhardt then passed to the onrushing McBurnie, who got away from Forsyth before beating Vickers cleanly. However, you always felt that Derby would score again before the restart.

And so it proved in the same conditions as that of their first goal. This time Agyemang drove into the box from the left before shooting towards the goal. Pandur again failed to pack the ball into safety and Szmodics did the rest in midfield.

The second half was tame in nature, by comparison, although Bobby Clark should have done better against Pandur.

Derby were punished for that miss after Egan made it 3-2 when he turned to fire after McBurnie was fouled after 75 minutes.

Koumas then put the game out of reach after 84 minutes with a superb chest and volley behind the Derby back line.

Reporter Leigh Curtis of The Derby Telegraph was one of the many to criticize the performance of referee Adam Herczeg after the strange incident which led to Lewie Coyle and Joe Ward being shown yellow cards.

Ben Brereton Diaz was brought down by Coyle, who was booked for a foul, before Regan Slater took on Lewis Travis, the only player booked for Derby’s Joe Ward.

It wasn’t just the Rams who were upset by Herczeg’s display, with Baz Cooper of The Hull Daily Mail also baffled by the refereeing decisions throughout the night, particularly the volume of fouls.

28 were made fat at night, 19 of them against the troops.