Ruben Selles praises ‘ruthless’ Hull after win at Blackburn

Hull head coach Ruben Selles praised his side’s “ruthlessness” in both boxes as they beat Blackburn 1-0 to climb out of the Championship relegation zone.

Substitute Ryan Longman sealed the win 13 minutes from time with a composed finish to cap a flowing Tigers move and secure consecutive league wins at Ewood Park for the first time in Hull’s history.

The woodwork denied Hull’s Gustavo Puerta the chance to make the game safe late on, but Selles was pleased with how his side defended to limit Blackburn’s chances and notch a first clean sheet in 127 days.

After a second win in three, Selles said his team were “ruthless” at both ends of the pitch.

He said: “We are happy of course. It’s always a very difficult place to come. They were in good form, maybe not in the last couple of games, but overall, in very good form.

“We know it’s a really intense team, especially when they win those balls in the middle of the pitch and go quick in the transition. I think the application for our boys was good, growing in the game, staying in the game and at half time, we adjusted a couple of things.

“Then when we made three substitutions, we really made that step forward and started to create chances to score. The way that we finished the game was massive. I think we demand many times to be ruthless in the box, not only attacking, but defending also, and I think that we saw that today.

“We performed as good as our opponent and took our chances. We’ve proved we can compete against any team in the league.”

Blackburn’s best opportunity was squandered by Todd Cantwell and while John Eustace said his team needed to be more clinical, he stressed the team has been “magnificent.”

He said: “It’s a disappointing result. I thought it was a really difficult game. We created a couple of really good chances and we needed to be more clinical. It was never going to be pretty and obviously we needed to defend the box better in that second half.

“Everyone’s disappointed to lose the game but overall the lads kept going. The attitude was good and we move onto the next one.

“I thought we created two or three golden chances that we needed to put away which we didn’t. Hull are a really good team. They’ve got some really good individuals and if you don’t defend the box better, which we didn’t, they’re going to score.

“It’s important we don’t get too disappointed. The boys have been magnificent this year. They go into the new year in the top six, which is really exciting.”