Hull City v Sunderland: Scott Twine is smiles better despite Tigers making Liam Rosenior scowl

That the Burnley loanee was being regularly picked from a competitive squad showed coach Liam Rosenior was happy with his performances, but it was important to finally get his first Hull goal at home to Rotherham United in late November, followed days later by another against Watford, then his maiden free-kick goal at Cardiff City.

Friday's 3-2 defeat at Bristol City was a setback for the Tigers but a Twine assist means he goes into the Championship Boxing Day game at home to Sunderland feeling good about himself and his game.

"I don't set myself targets with free-kick goals but every time I take one I want to score it and I expect to score," said a player who built a reputation for his dead-ball work at Milton Keynes Dons and Burnley.

"It wasn't good not scoring from all them attempts before but to finally get one, I was really happy with it."

He followed a pretty decent role model when he was learning to take free-kicks in his childhood.

"When I was younger it was (Cristiano) Ronaldo and I was obsessed with the knuckle-ball wobble," he admits. "There was one he took against Spain in the (2018) World Cup where he scored a hat-trick and he changed his technique slightly. I tried it and adjusted a few things and that's where it's from really."

His improved output has been reflected in his demeanour, and Rosenior puts a high premium on happy footballers, admitting he did not enjoy his own career enough.

"He's now got three goals in six games – that was always going to come for him because his technical quality on free-kicks is top, his arrivals in box positions are really good and he fits in completely with the culture of the group, the group absolutely adore him," said Rosenior.

"He seems happy at the moment. I like to see players enjoying themselves and I've got a group who enjoy themselves on the pitch and enjoy each other's company off the pitch as well.

"If you don't enjoy yourself you don't maximise your potential.

"It's my job to relax them at the right moments and demand from them at the right moments.

"I loved being a professional footballer, it's the best job in the world, and my biggest regret is that I didn't enjoy it enough, I was too serious. I want these players to enjoy every moment of enjoying something they love every day. If you do that, you end up performing better."

Hull will be waiting to see how Ryan Allsop's back is after the goalkeeper was forced off injured at Ashton Gate. It was a crucial moment as not only could he not keep out Anis Mehmeti’s equaliser but his replacement Matt Ingram made an error – along with Jason Lokilo –which allowed Jason Knight to score the winner.

Sixth-place Hull are an excellent team on their day, but Friday was another example of how error-prone they can be.

"We should have more points but it's self-inflicted," complained Rosenior. "There's so many good elements to our performances but the end result is crucial.

"Ryan hurt his back going down for the second goal. That's just elements of luck involved in that, but still, it's a really frustrating and difficult one to take.

"For long periods of that game, we looked like a top Championship team playing away from home and for us to walk away with nothing in our pocket, hopefully again, is a learning experience and spurs the players on to respond in a really good way against Sunderland."