Hull City 1 Peterborough 0: Barmby has special praise for Koren as Hull end losing run

Koren rifled home a superb half-volley from 25 yards to give Hull the lead after Peterborough had dominated the early exchanges.

After Koren’s opener, the visitors were unlucky not to be awarded a penalty when Hull goalkeeper Vito Mannone appeared to bring down Daniel Kearns, but the hosts then controlled the second half to end Peterborough’s five-match unbeaten run.

“We rode our luck in the first half hour and maybe they should have had a penalty,” sad Barmby, who was last week appointed as full-time manager after a temporary stint.

“If it had happened to us we would have been disappointed not to get a penalty. But we have had a few penalty shouts go against us recently, so maybe it evened itself out.

“Then in the second half I thought the shape of the team was a lot better.

“All credit to the lads as they worked it out what they should be doing and we showed what we can do. We could have scored a lot more goals than we did.

“Peterborough are no mugs and to nil a team like that is an achievement.”

Barmby also praised Koren, who hobbled off in the second half with a dead leg.

“He’s scored quite a few from outside the box this season,” Barmby said.

“We are fortunate to have Robert Koren in our side, and it was a great goal, but I thought everyone was fantastic.

“We created a lot of chances in the second half and the work rate and commitment of the players was tremendous.”

Peterborough manager Darren Ferguson was left bemused by the failure of referee Andrew Madley to award a spot-kick.

“The penalty incident is such a bad decision,” Ferguson said.

“When we asked the referee at half-time why he didn’t give it, he said that the goalkeeper made an attempt to win the ball but didn’t win it. So he was basically saying it was a penalty.

“The boy (Kearns) has got a six-inch gash in his leg. But what can you do?”

Hull’s goal came against the run of play after 27 minutes. Former Peterborough striker Aaron Mclean fed the ball in from the right flank, and Koren beat Joe Lewis with a magnificent strike from distance.

Hull City: Mannone, Rosenior, Chester, Hobbs, Dawson, McKenna, Evans, Mclean, Koren (Dudgeon 63), Stewart (Cairney 81), Fryatt (Brady 63). Unused substitutes: Carson, Cooper.

Peterborough: Lewis,Little,Bennett,Zakuani,Alcock,Tunnicliffe, Newell (Taylor 56),Kearns (Wootton 73),Boyd,Tomlin, Sinclair (Ajose 85). Unused substitutes: Jones, Ntlhe.

Referee: Andy Madley (West Yorkshire).