Liam Rosenior calls for Hull City patience, Lewie Coyle for better concentration, after another defeat

There are reasons – injuries to Liam Delap and Jaden Philogene, the absence of Adama Traore and Jean Michael Seri on African Cup of Nations duty and a really poor performance by referee Andrew Kitchen in a 2-1 home loss Norwich City.

Kitchen somehow gave a free-kick against Aaron Connolly when Angus Gunn raced out of his area and clattered into the striker, concussing him, then only booking Dimitrious Giannoulis for swinging an elbow in Lewie Coyle's face.

A furious Liam Rosenior complained about Ashley Barnes’ foul in the build-up to Jonathan Rowe's opening goal, about bookings to Ozan Tufan and Regan Slater for diving, and about Kitchen "buying" Norwich's tactical fouls and not clamping down on time-wasting.

But modern coaches love to talk about controlling the controllables and all that notwithstanding, Hull had the time, dominance and chances to win regardless but once more lacked the ruthlessness to do it.

Rosenior had no answer on how refereeing standards can be improved, but preached patience over his own team's shortcomings.

"We should have 10, 15 more points from our performances so I believe if after 46 games you perform to a certain level you will get what you deserve in the end," he said. "We're a point outside the play-offs with 19 games to go. It's exciting.

"We're going to be absolutely fine. If we play our way and are consistent we'll be where we want to be."

After the Barnes foul Hull did not close Rowe down well enough before he skipped through, and they managed only five shots on target in the last half-hour (none before), yielding only a brilliant Tyler Morton goal after Christian Fassnacht secured the three points.

"You can be dominant for large parts of games and control them but if you're not quite on it in the key moments, they cost you – especially at this level," said Hull captain Coyle.

"Off the top of my head they maybe had three or four chances if that, and two are in the back of your net.

"It just shows if you're not on it all the time, it can be costly.

"It almost sounds too obvious but it is so important not to switch off in moments you maybe think aren't going to lead to anything and before you know it, they do.

"And at the other end we do need to be more clinical and ruthless but we defend as a team, we attack as a team.

"There'll never be any pointing fingers."