Rosenior toasts display as Hull win at Birmingham

Hull head coach Liam Rosenior hailed an “outstanding” away performance after a deserved 1-0 win against Birmingham at St. Andrew’s.

Oscar Estupinan scored the only goal in the 77th minute to put Hull five points clear of the Sky Bet Championship relegation zone and make it six games unbeaten on their travels.

The Colombia international’s 10th of the season was scant reward for a dominant display from the visitors.

Regan Slater, Ryan Longman, Sean McLoughlin and Greg Docherty all went close before Estupinan got ahead of Marc Roberts to stab home Cyrus Christie’s cross after Tyler Smith found the full-back on the overlap.

Hull also had the ball in the net in the 68th minute when Longman headed home Docherty’s cross only to be denied by the offside flag.

Rosenior was understandably delighted with his team’s performance.

Asked if it was the perfect away performance, he said: “It was. I’ve spoken before about the performances coming and I think we’ve been really consistent in my time here.

“I was delighted with the clean sheet and I thought we dominated from start to finish and some of our football was outstanding.

“What was just as pleasing was the determination of the group to win headers and tackles and block shots. That’s the benchmark for us and that has to continue.

“I thought Macca (Sean McLoughlin) and Alfie (Jones) were outstanding at the back, but the whole back four – Greavesy (Jacob Greaves) as well – and Matty (Ingram, goalkeeper) came and took things when he needed to.

“You need people willing to fight for each other and care for each other and I think we looked like a real team.”

Birmingham head coach John Eustace admitted his side were well below par.

“We were disappointing tonight but I thought we looked very leggy,” said Eustace.

“Tuesday’s game against Burnley took a lot out of us. The result wasn’t great (a 3-0 defeat) but the effort the lads put in resulted in top numbers all over the pitch.

“I think we fell short tonight on the physical side. We started the game slowly, we didn’t really play in their half at the right times at all and that came down to a bit of mental fatigue really.”

Eustace said the fact his team could have had a penalty for Greaves’ apparent push on Tahith Chong had no bearing on the outcome.

“You get decisions and you don’t get decisions but overall, we weren’t at the races and it’s something we’ve got to look at but we can’t dwell on it,” he added.

Blues also had 24 hours less to prepare but Eustace refused to use that as an excuse.

“One hundred per cent it is (unfair) but it’s something we’ve got to get on with and we can’t do anything about it,” he said.