Hull City 0 Rotherham United 0: Both sides missing important ingredients but Millers are celebrating

Rotherham United can provide plenty of graft but particularly without Ben Wiles and Ollie Rathbone, not much glitter.

The end result was a 0-0 draw. If only the Millers could swap a bit of their grit for a pinch of the Tigers' guile.

Where the 2,018 Rotherham fans sang with pride at half-time, the feeling in the rest of the stadium was one of disappointment for Hull's biggest crowd since the last time the ground hosted a Premier League game – 23,432.

They had seen their side play well... but. You can take that once or twice, but they have won one in nine now.

Rotherham have at least stopped the rot that looked to be setting in when the international break came to their aid.

They were down to 10 men in the 80th minute when Domingos Quina was sent off for a professional foul. He had only been on 11 minutes, brought on to make the sort of impact Ozan Tufan did.

Tufan played so well in his 37-minute cameo, the away fans might have been wondering what on earth he was doing as a substitute but those who see him on a weekly basis would be able to explained.

The Tukey international was signed to be the personification of Acun Ilicali's Hull City and unfortunately he is – raising your hopes one minutes, dashing them the next.

Tufan hit the crossbar when the game was still 11 v 11, far less than his or his team's performance deserved.

In the fourth added minute Hull worked the ball back beautifully for centre-back Alfie Jones to arrive onto but he finished like a central defender. It was not a surprise – you just felt like a goal was never going to come for the Tigers.

Still, it could have been worse, Conor Washington dragging a Rotherham shot wide at the other end seconds later.

For the Millers this was the type of take-what-you-can-get point they needed on a cold, dank day away from home to edge closer to the safety mark at the wrong end of the Championship.

The first half was goalless and low on quality.

In the early stages it was all Rotherham could do to keep the game, constantly turning over possession as soon as they got a glimpse of it, often with aimless balls in behind the Tigers' backline.

But Hull were toothless too. it was tempting to say they were badly missing centre-forwards Oscar Estupinan, Benjamin Tetteh and Aaron Connolly although stand-in Ryan Longman was one of their best players, dropping deep to link the ball well.

After a quarter of an hour, Rotherham passes were starting to find their target and the visitors began to have a spell of pressure but it was broken when Hull got the ball to Adama Traore, who found Regan Slater to put the first chance of note wide as he cut in on his right foot.

Longman was at the heart of the best chance of the first half, again picking the ball up deeper and swapping passes with Trarore but when he opened up his body to try to curl the ball around Viktor Johansson, the goalkeeper saved well with his legs.

The 28th-minute effort was the only first-half shot on goal from either side.

Lovely skill by first Jean Michael Serri to find space, then release Traore, and for the latter to turn Cameron Humphreys' who hacked him down for a booking, showed what Hull have in them when they click but such moments were all too rare.

Tufan's introduction effectively as a split striker with Traore pushed up from the hole at least improved things in that regard.

Within minutes he was juggling the ball with his back to goal before overhead kicking over.

His nice touch released Allayhar Sayyadmanesh, only to then lay off a simple pass when the ball came back to him.

It was Tufan who spread the ball out to Ebiowei in the 63rd minute. Lewie Coyle's cross deflected to Tufan, whose shot hammered the woodwork.

And it was the Turk who sprang the 79th-minute breakaway which ended with Quina's professional foul on Traore.

Rotherham had no choice from there on to park the bus, and Hull did not have the necessary to get past them.

Hull City: Darlow; Coyle, A Jones, McLoughlin, Greaves; Seri, Slater; Ebiowei, Traore, Sayyadmanesh; Longman (Tufan 53).

Unused substitutes: Ingram, Elder, Docherty, Vaughan, Woods, Simons.

Rotherham United: Johansson; Peltier (Harding 69), Wright, Humphreys, Bramall; Lindsay (Odoffin 90), Coventry, Fosu; Ogbene (Washington 90), Hugill (Hjelde 84), Ferguson (Quina 69).

Unused substitutes: Kelly, Vickers.

Referee: D Webb (County Durham).