Liam Millar and Oli McBurnie lead Hull to rout of play-off rivals Preston

Liam Millar scored against his former side before Oli McBurnie rounded off Hull’s thumping 3-0 win over Preston in style.

The 26-year-old Millar was on loan with the Lilywhites from Basel during the 2023-24 season and he opened the scoring with a 33rd-minute tap-in.

Defender Akin Famewo doubled the lead just before half-time with a well-taken second before McBurnie acrobatically put the icing on the cake, bagging his 10th league goal of the season in the 53rd minute.

A late red card for Milutin Osmajic, following a scuffle with John Lundstram, simply rubbed salt in the wounds for Paul Heckingbottom.

After a sluggish start, North End thought they had found their rhythm but they fell behind as a result of their own sloppiness, overcommitting on an experimental corner routine and allowing the counter to open up, with David Akintola blitzing down the field before squaring to Canada international Millar for a simple finish.

Preston looked for an instant reply and nearly got one as Jordan Storey acrobatically met a Ben Whiteman corner and Ivor Pandur did well to gather with Jordan Thompson trying to get a point-blank flick.

Their efforts were in vain, though, and Hull doubled their advantage in the 45th minute as Famewo thumped his first for the club past a host of bodies having been teed up by McBurnie with Preston failing to clear their lines from a corner.

Heckingbottom made three changes for the start of the second half with Jamal Lewis, Lewis Dobbin and Daniel Jebbison on for Pol Valentin, Thierry Small and Michael Smith, hoping to bridge the sizable gap.

But it was Yu Hirakawa, who came on minutes later for his Tigers debut, who made the quickest impact – pinging the ball to McBurnie with just his second touch for the former Sheffield United forward to engineer a bicycle kick from close range that Jack Walton got a strong hand to but failed to keep out.

Just after the hour, Millar nearly had his second but dragged agonisingly wide of the far post having taken Regan Slater’s slide-rule pass in his stride.

Alfie Devine registered a shot on goal for a now beleaguered looking home team with the effort from range taking a big deflection before looping into the arms of Pandur.

It was little more than a gesture as Sergej Jakirovic’s men smelled blood, with McBurnie and substitute Joe Gelhardt both forcing Walton into smart saves.

Osmajic received his marching orders in the 96th minute amid a scuffle between both groups of players, with North End’s first-team coach Peter Murphy also sent off as tempers flared on a bleak night for the play-off chasing hosts.