Quickfire double sees Hull past Rotherham
Hull scored twice in four second-half minutes to boost their Championship play-off hopes with a 2-1 win at rock-bottom Rotherham.
The Millers had taken a surprise lead when Christ Tiehi opened the scoring in the fourth minute, but that proved to be far too early for them.
Their goal had taken a battering, with goalkeeper Viktor Johansson staging a one-man defiance with a string of saves to keep the Tigers at bay.
It needed an own-goal from Cameron Humphreys to draw Hull level in the 71st minute and then Noah Ohio completed the turnaround four minutes later.
They moved into seventh position ahead of another batch of games on Wednesday and are firmly in the play-off picture with 15 games to go.
Rotherham look certain to be exiting the division at the other end, sitting 12 points adrift of safety and without a win since Boxing Day.
The hosts made a perfect start and went ahead in the fourth minute as Tiehi latched on to Seb Revan’s cross and saw his side-footed effort deflected into the corner.
The Millers should have doubled their lead three minutes later as Peter Kioso’s header from Sam Clucas’ cross was brilliantly clawed away by Ryan Allsop.
They could have done with that going in as the visitors launched an assault on the Rotherham goal for the remainder of the match.
Goalkeeper Johansson was in inspired form and kept his side in front.
The Sweden international palmed away Billy Sharp’s header and then produced a miraculous stop to shovel away another from Jacob Greaves before getting down well to save Anass Zaroury’s low effort at the near post.
The second half also saw Johansson in early action as he kept out Fabio Carvalho’s header with a flying save.
Rotherham needed to stem the tide and had a rare sighting of goal when Sam Nombe was left free from Kioso’s cross but he could not make sufficient contact with his header.
Hull’s attacking onslaught eventually paid dividends as they equalised in the 71st minute.
Former Millers loanee Ryan Giles thundered a shot off the underside of the crossbar and home midfielder Ollie Rathbone played a pass straight to Jaden Philogene, who twisted and turned and then sent in a rabona cross that flicked off Humphreys and into the far corner.
Four minutes later Hull took the lead as Giles fired in a low cross for Ohio to sweep into the bottom corner for his first goal for the club.
Rotherham have not come from behind to win since last April so that was game over, with Hull returning up the M18 with three points.