Hull City boss Liam Rosenior has reasons to be cheerful after Millwall stalemate

The game-changing moment arrived in the 37th minute when Hull forward Oscar Estupinan was dismissed for a high foot on Leeds United loanee Charlie Cresswell.

But the visitors did not falter and held out for a clean sheet against play-off chasing Millwall who had won each of their previous four matches at The Den.

“Coming here where Millwall have won seven games out of nine at home, second-best record in the league and everybody said to me it couldn’t be a tougher game for your first-ever permanent manager’s job,” said Rosenior, who was only appointed on Thursday.

“I don’t disagree with that, so to see the application, I’ve had two real working days with the players in terms of sessions so for them to take on the tactical information and to give the energy, passion and commitment, that has to be the base of a successful team.

“If we keep those levels of commitment and application, we can climb up the table.”

Of top scorer Estupinan, he said: “I don’t think he’s even tried to win the ball, he can’t see the player so it’s not a challenge, he’s tried to take the ball down so it was more of a collision.

“I can see why the referee’s given it in terms of what it looks like. I feel sorry for Oscar because he’s saying sorry to me and all the lads in there.

“He was magnificent for the first half-hour in terms of the energy he brought. The biggest thing for me is to understand why it was given, I just hope it’s not seen as dangerous or reckless play because he has tried to take the ball down, it’s just an unfortunate incident.”

Lions boss Gary Rowett, meanwhile, was left to lament his side’s lack of creativity, as they failed to score for the third game running.

And though he sympathised with Colombian Estupinan, he felt referee John Busby made the right decision.

“The game is pretty even up to the point when they have a man sent off, there was little space on the pitch,” he said.

“In my opinion, it is reckless even though he hasn’t meant to do it – he catches Cressy in the face and he needed a lot of stitches at half-time.

“After that you just know what is going to happen – that they are going to drop in, they are going to test our patience and make it hard for us to play through them. They did. They defended brilliantly."

Millwall: Long, McNamara (Evans 86), Cresswell, Cooper, Malone, Mitchell (Shackleton 86), Saville (Voglsammer 65), Honeyman (Styles 65), Flemming, Burey (Bennett 65), Bradshaw. Unused substitutes: Olaofe, Bialkowski.

Hull City: Baxter, Christie, Tobias Figueiredo, Alfie Jones, Greaves, Woods (Coyle 73), Seri, Slater (McLoughlin 81), Pelkas (Docherty 53), Longman (Smith 80), Estupinan. Unused substitutes: Ingram, Tufan, Sinik.

Referee: John Busby (Oxfordshire).