Liam Rosenior was left fuming with the second-half penalty decision that cost his Hull side a point at Bristol City.

Robins substitute Nahki Wells drilled home a 70th-minute spot-kick after Cyrus Christie had been judged by referee Sam Barrott to have blocked Anis Mehmeti’s driven cross with an arm.

The 1-0 victory stretched the home side’s unbeaten run to 12 games but, while former Robins player Rosenior was full of praise for his old team, he had no doubts that Hull were hard done by.

“It was not a penalty. There is no way Cyrus could have got out of the way because the ball was driven at him,” he said.

Hull City manager Liam Rosenior left frustrated by defeat at Bristol City (Picture: Gareth Copley/Getty Images)

“He never went to deliberately handle the ball and you just want common sense in that situation.

“But it was not the reason we lost. Our team performance was very much below par.

“We reacted well to falling behind, but I want that sort of performance from the start of games.

“It is no good playing well for 25 minutes out of the 90. We were fortunate to go in at the break with game goalless.

“The second half was better and we hit a post, but you have to make your own luck in the Championship and we didn’t deserve any today.

“I want to see the reaction we showed to going behind from the first whistle. We didn’t have that today and I find that bitterly disappointing.

“Nigel Pearson is doing a great job at my old club and they have some excellent young players.

“I can accept losing because that is part of football, but I cannot accept our first-half performance.

“Our two centre-backs were magnificent, but I don’t want to watch last-ditch defending. I want to see us 30 yards up the pitch dealing with opposition attacks.”

Bristol City: O'Leary, Tanner (Cornick 71), Vyner, Kalas, Pring, James, Williams, Sykes, Scott (Weimann 80), Mehmeti (Dasilva 80), Bell (Wells 62). Unused substitutes: King, Haikin, Taylor-Clarke.

Hull City: Darlow, Christie, A Jones, McLoughlin, Greaves, Docherty (Traore 78), Simons, Tufan (Longman 46), Slater (Coyle 65), Ebiowei (Tetteh 55), Estupinan. Unused substitutes: Elder, Figueiredo, Lo-Tutala.

Referee: S Barrott (West Yorkshire).

Liam Rosenior anger over Bristol City penalty but it does mask Hull City's shortcomings