Hull City offer promising signs against Millwall to dispel Liam Rosenior's 'nerves'

There was a feelgood factor around the club after a successful transfer window saw the likes of Fabio Carvalho, Ryan Giles and Anass Zaroury arrive at the MKM Stadium.

Rosenior was keen to keep momentum going and the Tigers did just that, securing a second consecutive victory courtesy of fit-again winger Jaden Philogene’s fifth-minute strike.

“It was a really pleasing day because I was fearful before the game that there had been so much positive news surrounding the club,” said Rosenior.

“As a manager, sometimes, that makes you a little bit nervous; I didn’t want us to be complacent and all of the noise we needed to filter out.

“Some of our football in the first half was excellent and it’s great to be able to say we can improve after winning a game of football.”

Rosenior handed Giles and Zaroury their debuts following their loan moves from Luton and Burnley respectively.

“In terms of the first-half performance, other than really having teeth and finishing off Millwall, there were some really good signs – for Anass, his first game, Ryan Giles, his debut, and Jaden’s first game back in two months,” he added. “I wanted the second goal because I felt our energy levels would tail off naturally.

“Overall, delighted to win the game and a lot of positive signs in the way we want to play – the understanding, the connection between the players.”

Millwall improved after the break and Zian Flemming and Tom Bradshaw almost nicked a point.

Lions boss Joe Edwards bemoaned his side’s first-half display.

“Very much a game of two halves in terms of our performance,” said Edwards. “We didn’t play well in the first half.

“Second half we were a lot sharper in what we were doing, we were cleaner on the ball.

“In that final 20 minutes we were a lot clearer of what our idea was supposed to be, using our wing-back and switching play, and we had more about us.”

Hull City: Allsop, L Coyle, Jones, Greaves, Giles, Morton, Slater, Philogene-Bidace, Carvalho (Docherty 90), Zaroury (Ohio 74), Tufan (Jacob 88). Unused substitutes: Ashbee, Pandur, Omur, Sharp, McLoughlin, Sellars-Fleming.

Millwall: Sarkic, Tanganga, Harding, Cooper, Norton-Cuffy (McNamara 66), De Norre, Saville (Honeyman 59), Wallace (Bryan 59), Watmore (Esse 67), Flemming, Obafemi (Bradshaw 46). Unused substitutes: Hutchinson, Mitchell, Campbell, Bialkowski.

Referee: Anthony Backhouse (Cumbria).