The Tigers made it two games unbeaten at the start of the new Championship season
Oxford United boss Gary Rowett admits the quality of Oliver McBurnie showed when it mattered after the 29-year-old forward slotted in a dramatic late winner against his side.
McBurnie carved out the two City goals inside the first 20 minutes, before the provider turned finisher when he latched onto Ryan Giles’ perfect cutback to slam into the back of Jamie Cumming’s net three minutes into added time and seal victory.
City spent all summer tracking the former Sheffield United striker and thought their hopes were ended when they were slapped with a three-window transfer restriction, but the Tigers persevered and eventually landed their man ahead of the season opener last weekend.
“Well, I think what it shows is that if you can’t pay a transfer fee, if you can pay massive wages weekly, you can still sign very, very good players,” Rowett told Hull Live.
“I don’t think it would take a genius to work out that Ollie McBurnie would be on, I would imagine, a decent competitive Championship wage, for him to come here in the first place. That certainly gives you a huge advantage to be able to pick those players up that can make a big difference in the game.
“Certainly for us, you know, we haven’t got a transfer embargo, but we would still struggle to pay those sort of amounts, which I presume would be high-level Championship.
“If you can bring in that type of quality, of course, it’s going to make a difference in big moments in games, and we know that this division is about that, it’s about those little moments of quality, in a very competitive division. You have to have extra players to find it, you have to be able to bring players off your bench to find it, and you can win tight games, and Hull have done that in terms of the forward line that they had.”
Sky Sports discounted Premier League and EFL package
Sky has slashed the price of its Essential TV and Sky Sports bundle for the 2025/26 season, saving members £192 and offering more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more.
Sky will show at least 215 live Premier League games this season, an increase of up to 100 more.