MASSIVE! ROSENIOR DELIGHT AT TIGER WIN
HULL City head coach Liam Rose- nior hailed a “massive win” at a crucial stage of the season after his side’s comfortable triumph over Cardiff.
The Tigers returned to winning ways after six games without a victory thanks to two goals by on-loan Liverpool striker Fabio Carvalho and Jaden Philogene’s second-half strike against his former team.
The win sees Hull climb one place to ninth and remain six points off the play-off places.
Rosenior said: “At this stage of the season this is a massive win. The pressure was on after recent results and we’ve been written off by some but we dominated this game.
“It was a really professional performance with the way we managed the game and took our goals but what was really pleasing was the way the players responded to them scoring.
“The goal came out of the blue but the effort, spirit and quality the players showed was excellent.
“We could have probably scored more. The pleasing thing is that we’re always creating chances but I told the players at half-time that we’ve been in that position before and this time we needed to see it out.”
Cardiff had some success on the left but, as so often this season, lacked a cutting edge.
Jamilu Collins shot straight at former Cardiff keeper Ryan Allsop, Karlan Grant’s work needed a stronger touch by Joe Ralls while Josh Bowler’s burst went unfinished.
Hull were far from faultless but looked far sharper in attack with Abdulkadir Omur twice forcing saves from Ethan Horvath.
It was a corner from the second of those efforts that brought the opener when Carvalho pounced on a lax clearance to volley home after 32 minutes.
The striker barely broke his stride with the shot that went through a crowd and left Horvath unsighted.
It was a similar story 12 minutes later when Carvalho was played through on goal by a crisp Hull attack. Three passes cut Cardiff apart as Omur and Ozan Tufan combined to tee up Carvalho for his second just before half-time.
Cardiff pressed for a way back at the start of the second half but top-scorer Perry Ng headed straight at Allsop before Grant’s solo effort. Little appeared on when he gathered the ball on the edge of the box, only to turn inside Regan Slater and squeeze his shot inside the near post.
Erol Bulut immediately threw on Aaron Ramsey and Manchester City loanee Josh Wilson-Esbrand for a second but also distracted his defender Nathaniel Phillips with instructions that gift-wrapped Hull a third.
Former Bluebird Philogene pounced on the lapse in concentration, sprinting through before smashing home past the helpless Horvath.
Omur went close to a fourth when he hit a post with a curling effort and Philogene should have doubled his tally in added time but blazed over.