Hull City 0 Millwall 1: Tigers boss Pearson has no excuses

Jamie Devitt was brought into the right side of the Tigers midfield after Tom Cairney was hit by illness and Jack Smith replaced the suspended Alan Dunne in the Millwall defence.

The Tigers were looking to avenge a 4-0 defeat in their first away match of the season at the New Den.

A tepid first half was brought to life in the 33rd minute when Liam Trotter played the ball down the left channel and Wales striker Steve Morison spotted Brad Guzan off his line and immediately lobbed the Hull goalkeeper from outside the area for the opening goal.

Jay Simpson was given a free role behind the strikers in place of Devitt at the start of the second half but Millwall were well-marshalled defensively and posed a threat on the break.

Tijani Belaid also replaced Tigers’ central midfield man James Harper in the 66th minute, shortly before a curling free-kick from Millwall’s Andros Townsend went narrowly wide.

Morison and Guzan were both booked for a clash in the Hull area but there was little action at the other end and David Forde had still to be seriously tested as the game went into stoppage time.

Hull have not managed a win at home since February 12 and boss Nigel Pearson made no excuses for a below-par display.

“It’s very disappointing and we never showed enough craft, but they will be delighted with that as it was a very good away performance,” said Pearson.

“We started the game very well, but it was a very poor goal to concede in a half where we were very much in control.

“They’ve not created much today, but we didn’t move the ball quickly enough and our service to the front two was not good enough.

“I didn’t think we played with the type of tempo we wanted and we didn’t create enough opportunities even though we had enough creative players on the pitch.

“It’s a missed opportunity again; they have beaten us twice this season, but are they better than us? The results would say so.

“I’m not going to offer excuses. The harsh reality is that we did not find the answers during the 90 minutes.

“I would never question the effort of the players, and they always give everything, but the margin of error has become very, very small in recent weeks.

“Today we were just found a little bit wanting against a team that sat very deep and produced a very good away performance, and we didn’t have enough quality to break them down.”