Liam Rosenior defends Hull City treatment of Coventry City's Viktor Gyokeres after Mark Robins criticism

Coventry manager Mark Robins demanded more protection for his star striker and was left frustrated by Hull’s approach to the game. Oscar Estupinan opened the scoring for the visitors with a stunning effort but it was Gyokeres who provided a seventh assist of the season for Godden, driving to the byline before cutting back for his strike partner to slot between the legs of Karl Darlow in the Hull goal.

“They have come and done a job,” claimed Robins. “They’ve fouled off the ball. Viktor should get a bit more by the way of protection because he is getting smashed off the ball all the time.

“Because it is when the ball is in the other half, the officials are not seeing it. It’s not being picked up by officials. He’s getting hit.

“It’s something he has got to learn to avoid, move away, but they are hitting him, there is no doubt, and it’s having an impact on him.”

Hull manager Liam Rosenior made no apology for his side’s treatment of Swedish striker Gyokeres, who he worked with during a spell as assistant coach of Brighton’s under-23 team.

In response to Robins’ comments about the treatment of Gyokeres, Rosenior replied: “That makes me happy, I love Viktor, I worked with Viktor, I gave him a big hug after the game but I’m not going to tell my defenders to let him have the ball, let him turn and have a nice game.

“We showed respect to Viktor in the way we have to deal with him because you have to be physical with the best players. What I didn’t want my centre-halves to do was take two steps back because you can get turned and he can run at you, like he did for the goal.”

The Hull boss also praised his top scorer Oscar Estupinan who ended a run of eight games without a goal dating back to mid-January.

He added: “Great team move, great finish, Oscar’s capable of that. His energy levels have dipped and I had to just dip him out of the team but what he knows in the background of that is that I’ve got full faith and confidence in him. It was an outstanding finish from him.

“First half we found it tough, I said to the players at half-time we have to take care of the ball more.

“I’m waiting for us to have that second attacking transition, which we get but we don’t take advantage of and with players like Viktor Gyokeres if you are only 1-0 away at Coventry, it doesn’t matter how long is left in the game, you’re always at risk.”