Rovers remain in the bottom three, while the Tigers go into the top three
Blackburn Rovers’ Sean McLoughlin is booked after Hull City’s winner(Image: Lee Parker – CameraSport via Getty Images)
Valerien Ismael admits he could not criticise the effort of his Blackburn Rovers players after Hull City continued their promotion surge with a late 1-0 win at Ewood Park.
Substitute Lewis Koumas came off the bench to mark his debut with a well-taken goal nine minutes from time to seal a fourth straight league win for the Tigers, who moved up to third in the Championship.
It was the third game this season where City struggled to fashion chances against Rovers, before Koumas slammed in the winner to spark wil scenes of celebration in the away end.
The Frenchman rued his side’s inability to take the chances created, particularly the headers in the second half from Yuki Ohashi and Mathias Jorgensen as they slipped to a fourth defeat in six to remain in the bottom three.
“I don’t know why it’s so complicated. It’s not about the performance today, not about the desire, the mentality,” the under-pressure boss said.
“What we have to complain about is we have to take our chances. At some point, you have to take the chance. When you dominate the game like this, you are on the front foot on top of your subject, you have to get the reward and to make sure you score the goal.
“All of a sudden in the second half, from nothing, we concede that goal. After that, late in the game, it’s tough for the players because they are trying to give everything. We see completely another Rovers than we saw maybe a couple of weeks ago due to the injuries we had.
“The power is there, the willingness is there, so any reason why we’re not winning at home, why it’s so complicated this season? So now we have to keep that performance, to make sure that when we get the chance, we take our chance.”
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