Middlesbrough FC 1 Hull City 2: Liam Rosenior wins the game of chess to give Tigers an unlovely but invaluable win

Hull were having one of those nights where it was not quite clicking from them on a cold night by the Tees but Liam Rosenior shuffled his pack and found a way, coming from behind to win 2-1 with goals from Liam Delap and Ozan Tufan, one of five substitutes poured on in a 16-minute reorganisation.

Before the game Rosenior was preaching the value of performance over results but after back-to-back defeats, most of the Hull fans were delighted to see their team grind out rahter than finesse the three points. You could hear from their songs just how delighted.

That they did owed much to Rosenior winning his game of touchline chess with his like-minded opposite number Michael Carrick, who seemed to have nothing in return.

A Middlesbrough side who have now lost four matches out of five and three on the trot will be wondering how they let it slip after a first-half when they were comfortably the better side, but only had Emmanuel Latte Lath's strike to show for it.

Where the Teessiders started looking sharp and hungry, Hull's football was littered with the sloppy moments which had held them back against Queens Park Rangers.

It spoke volumes that only 20 minutes in the pocket of away fans were singing "We've got the ball!" in mock celebration.

It took just six minutes for Boro to take the lead and they should have gone in at half-time disappointed not to have added to it.

Leeds loanee Sam Greenwood had already tried his luck from distance - it was well and truly out - when Cyrus Christie gave them a gift they gleefully accepted.

There was a time when giving the ball to someone in a Middlesbrough shirt was part of the right-back's job description but not now. He lost it to Lukas Engel and it ended up with Isaiah Jones. When his shot was saved, Latte Lath snaffled the rebound.

The goalscorer would turn prime culprit as the chances kept coming.

Three minutes later Scott Twine, playing on the left of a Philogene-less 4-4-2, was tackled by Anfernee Dijksteel and after some keep ball with Jones, the latter picked out Latte Lath, who was denied by Ryan Allsop.

A loose Twine pass shortly after ought to have been punished too, but the real left-off came in the 18th minute. Jacob Greaves came out to win a header but played it straight to Greenwood, leaving Latte Lath in space to take his pass. With Lewie Coyle pushing up for offside Jones out to have buried the chance.

Greenwood curled a shot wide and when Jean Michael Seri played the ball to him, his pass gave Latte Lath too tight an angle to beat the onrushing Allsop. A later shot from the striker lacked power.

All Hull offered in resposne was a shot from Aaron Connolly which was straight at Seny Dieng.

They were better after the restart, but not enough to stop a triple substitution after an hour and wholsale changes which sae the team totally reshaped by the 76th minute.

Coyle swithced from left to right-back, Tyler Morton dropped in as the holding midfielder and the Tigers morphed into a 4-1-4-1.

By the time it had got there, Hull were level, Delap heading home from barely a yard.

it came in the 69th minute, Greaves flicking a near-post corner to him.

Boro had three chances to equalise in one 73rd-minute move, Allsop saving from Jones, then Greenwood's follow-up and dealing with Crooks' header when the ball came back in.

Substitute flashed a cross over in the 77th minute with his first touch. It was just begging for a touch but his team-mates were on their heels.

The frustrations around the Riverside were growing.

Hull punished them in a move three substitutes were instrumental in.

Ruben Vinagre ran down the left, Dan Barlaser failed to deal with his cross and when Greg Docherty touched the ball back Tufan thumped it in first time.

The Hull players leapt into each others arms when the final whistle went immediately after an Allsop save to deny Jones was followed by a Rav van den Berg effort deflected wide.

It was not the way Hull want to win football matches but in the real world, you take what you can get, and there was nobody in amber and black overlooking the value of a win which means Hull are only outside the play-off places on goal difference.

Middlesbrough: Dieng; Dijksteel, Fry, van den Berg, Engel; Howson, Barlaser; Jones, Crooks,Greenwood (Rogers 76); Latte Lath.

Unused substitutes: Glover, Clarke, Gilbert, Silvera, Coulson, Bangura, Nkrumah, McCabe.

Hull City: Allsop, Christie (Vinagre 60), Jones, Greaves, Coyle; Slater (Docherty 69), Morton, Seri (Tufan 60), Twine (Traore 60); Delap (McLoughlin 76), Connolly.

Unused substitutes: Ingram, Vaughan, Smith, Sellars-Fleming.

Referee: O Langford (West Midlands)