Hull City 1 Portsmouth 0: Tigers on a roll and looking ready to mount challenge

After all, their four victories this season have all been by a 1-0 margin.

Yet any Tigers fan at the KC Stadium on Saturday will have gained great encouragement from this result for it was as comprehensive a 1-0 as they could have wished to see.

Only the finishing touch was missing and that will surely come if they continue to create the amount of chances that were set up against a poor Portsmouth side, who were indebted to some fine goalkeeping from Jamie Ashdown for keeping the score down.

For the first time under Nigel Pearson, Hull made it three wins in a row and with their defence in such resolute mood they may not need to score too many goals.

Central defender James Chester, however, hopes the strikers will improve their conversion rate.

Though constantly having to be on their toes against experienced striker Benjani, Chester and Jack Hobbs virtually gave goalkeeper Adriano Basso a day off and full-backs Liam Rosenoir and Joe Dudgeon ensured there was no side entrance for the visitors to break through either.

The win took Hull, after an indifferent start, to within touching distance of the top six and Chester said: “It’s never won at 1-0 so you can’t take your foot off the gas as a defender but the team are really pleased with the performance. We seemed to be on the front foot from the moment we kicked off and we put them under a lot of pressure.

“We also performed well in the games we were beaten but if we are keeping clean sheets it gives the strikers a good basis to nick a goal.

“I was always confident with the players we have got that we are a squad who can challenge.

“A lot of people seemed to write us off after the first three or four games which, considering how long the season is, is ridiculous really. It only spurs the players on to show what we are capable of.

“We have always been confident that we are a good team and if you put a little run together then you can shoot up the table.

“I think if we started scoring a few more goals it would definitely make our job a little bit easier and take the pressure off to keep clean sheets but today we created chances to score more goals.

“If we had scored three or four today it would not have flattered us at all. If we continue to play like this, it is only a matter of time before we give someone a good hiding.”

With Matty Fryatt eager to re-establish himself as the club’s first-choice striker and with experienced back-up in the shape of Nicky Barmby and Dele Adebola, the pressure is on Aaron Mclean and Martyn Waghorn to deliver but there was no doubting their effort on Saturday.

Mclean did his normal harrying job on the Pompey back line, while England Under-21 striker Waghorn was a potent threat, particularly when he cut in from the left.

Sunderland product Waghorn is at Hull until January, having been unable to make an impression on Leicester manager Sven Goran Eriksson, after scoring 12 goals in 29 starts under Tigers chief Nigel Pearson when he was in charge of the Foxes.

“I just want to get that enjoyment factor back, get my name on the scoresheet and be involved in a team that’s doing well,” said Waghorn, a scorer on his last two recent appearances for the Under-21s. “I’m confident I can achieve all three of those things in a Hull City shirt.”

In the end, Hull had to settle for an 11th-minute strike from Robert Koren for claiming the three points. The former Slovenia captain celebrated not only the birth of his third child, a daughter, in midweek but tomorrow’s 31st birthday by producing a great right-foot strike from outside the area after latching on to Tom Cairney’s header from midfield to beat Ashdown inside his right-hand post.

With Pearson starting with his flank players on their ‘wrong’ wings, Koren had already curled a shot against the bar after cutting in from the left and only a disputed offside decision chalked out Waghorn’s follow-up tap-in, which would have helped him celebrate his home debut in style.

Koren had a quieter second half but Pompey then found themselves in trouble from the other flank against Manchester United loanee Robbie Brady, who produced the save of the game from Ashdown, arching in the air to tip over the youngster’s shot from outside the area.

Any hope Pompey had of a comeback were ended when Luke Varney unfortunately went in studs up at full stretch against Chester and was a shade harshly shown a straight red in the 79th minute.

Varney had been the one Pompey player to start giving lone striker Benjani any semblance of support and perhaps a factor behind this was how Hull’s central midfield duo of Cairney and Paul McKenna had eclipsed the visiting trio of Joel Ward, Hayden Mullins and David Norris.

With trips to strugglers Bristol City and Doncaster up next, Hull fans will be confident their side can break into that top six for the first time under Pearson.