Hull City 2-0 Middlesbrough: Two late goals earn Hull long-awaited win
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Mallik Wilks scores Hull's second goal in injury time against Middlesbrough
Two late goals saw Hull City beat Middlesbrough at home and end a wait for a win that stretched back to the opening day of the Championship.
In a match short on chances and high quality, neither side could break the deadlock until the 81st minute, when Boro keeper Joe Lumley deflected the ball into his own net from a Keane-Lewis Potter volley.
Mallik Wilks then secured all three points for the Tigers in injury time.
Marcus Tavernier had a golden opportunity to clinch a goal for the visitors in the second half but sent his shot wide, while Paddy McNair was also denied by Hull keeper Matt Ingram.
Grant McCann made five changes to his Hull side that drew at Blackpool in the previous match, as he sought to end their statistic as the team across the four top English divisions on the longest spell without a win - their last coming away at Preston on 7 August.
Hull looked to be on top in the first 10 minutes, with Di'Shon Bernard forcing an early save from Lumley with a shot from just outside the box.
Duncan Watmore retaliated for Boro seconds later, but his low effort went wide while Marcus Tavernier then had a shot saved at close range.
The majority of the match was marked by a lack of quality in the final third and, midway through the second-half, both sides had recorded just one shot each on target.
Still, if anyone was going to score it seemed Middlesbrough were most likely.
Marc Bola was played in by Andraz Sporar but his shot was blocked, before Tavernier scuppered the best chance to break the deadlock after 66 minutes sending another effort wide.
Sporar then put the ball into the side netting in a one-on-one with Ingram.
Against the run of play, with nine minute to go, Potter volleyed towards the Boro goal, the ball came back off the post and hit Lumley on the shoulder to rebound in and give Hull the lead.
Wilks added their second in the final minute of stoppage time to secure all three points and a long-awaited victory that dragged Hull out of the Championship bottom three.
Grant McCann, Hull City manager told BBC Radio Humberside:
"It's a good win - a good win given the circumstances really. Obviously it's never easy playing against a Neil Warnock team, they had a good result against Sheffield United on Tuesday night.
"I thought we had to dig deep today, we rode our luck at times - of course we did - some tremendous saves from Matty, a shot from Sporer in the first half has just gone past the post.
But we had to stay strong defensively, we had to pick up first balls, second balls, the nasty, ugly side of the game, we had to do well today. And we did it.
"I said to the players at half-time, 'stick to the plan' the quality doesn't come unless you do that, and then the two bits of quality - Keane's strike, whether he gets that goal or not I'm not sure, and Mallik's obviously a tremendous bit of skill to win us the game."
Neil Warnock, Middlesbrough manager told BBC Radio Tees:
"I think it sums our day up really, the weather. We had opportunities to win the game twice over, but you've got to score goals and we couldn't get that goal in.
"And then it just summed it up, for them to score a goal like that coming off the back of the head of the goalkeeper just beggar's belief really.
"Dael Fry, you put that gently to get caught in the face. it's a forearm smash nearly. The fourth official is 10 yards away, but I don't know what you say to it. He puts his arm up a long time before the ball gets there, smashes his face and then Dael gets up to try and do something and stretches his groin so a double whammy.
"And Pelz (Lee Peltier) gets booked so he misses the next game, it's a bloody nightmare tonight really."
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