Liam Rosenior lamented two dropped points after Hull were pegged back in an entertaining 2-2 draw with Millwall.
Joe Bryan’s first Lions goal secured a point for the hosts but Hull were excellent in the first half, and led 2-1 at the break thanks to goals from Jaden Philogene and Adama Traore.
Duncan Watmore had put Millwall ahead in the eighth minute and the hosts had chances to win it late on, leaving Hull manager Rosenior relieved to hear the full-time whistle – despite bossing much of the match and failing to convert several chances.
“It feels like two points dropped, absolutely,” he said.
“So many aspects of our play are so good. What we need to improve on is killing games whilst we’re on top. We haven’t done that this season and we should have more points as a result.
“The one benefit is I’ve got a great young group here and they’re learning. We made young mistakes in and out of possession. That’s the risk you have when you’ve got young players.
“They need to learn quickly and I need to learn and analyse quickly in terms of how to help them.
“I think everybody in the stadium can see the potential in this team today. The frustrating thing for me is we’ve come such a long way and we should have won this game.
“My first game was here and we had to dog it out with 10 men. The team’s evolving, we’re getting better.
“The next part of that evolution is killing that game off. I promise you we will win a lot of games playing this way this season. They threw the kitchen sink at us, but we need to be braver to play.”
Hull have lost just one of their last 10 matches, and that came at high-flying Ipswich in midweek, while Millwall sit just two points behind them in a congested table.
The Lions’ home form has been uncharacteristically patchy, winning just two of their last seven, and manager Gary Rowett admits it was a game of two halves but praised Millwall’s spirit for bouncing back.
“We responded really well to going behind. We have to make the changes tactically, formation-wise and personnel-wise and that did the trick second half,” he said.
“We needed a bit more composure and maybe we could have got the third. I didn’t think we had amazing chances, but we had one or two where maybe we could have won the game.
“I’m really pleased with the response. We didn’t cope with the two goals very well again and I spoke to the players about that at half-time.
“Hull are a really good side, Liam’s done a great job. They’re really hard to play against. When you press then they just bounce it round you.
“We were too passive. We went a goal up and their two goals were two very poor moments from us. The first one we let a runner go between two players unopposed and the second one was a mix up.
“All you can do then is respond. We didn’t want another home defeat because I think that would have been really damaging.”