Hull City 0-1 Blackburn: Rovers back up to second after victory seals fourth win in a row
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Sammie Szmodics capped a fine move to put Blackburn in front against Hull City
Blackburn Rovers moved back into second place in the Championship after a controlled display against Hull City secured a fourth win in a row.
Sammie Szmodic's classy finish early in the first half proved enough as Rovers comfortably kept a disappointing Tigers team at bay.
Top scorer Ben Brereton Diaz and Sam Gallagher were denied further goals after the break by smart stops from Nathan Baxter.
Hull never threatened to repeat their win over Rovers in last season's corresponding fixture in January - after owner Acun Ilicali had completed his takeover - failing to produce an effort on target all afternoon as Jacob Greaves and Dimitrios Pelkas missed with free headers.
Rovers' 11th win of the season takes them back to second, three points clear of Queens Park Rangers, and two points behind leaders Burnley.
In-form Rovers began brightly with Szmodics - back in the side after missing last Saturday's win over Birmingham - epitomising their confidence in possession and he finished a sweet move to put the visitors ahead.
Receiving a perfectly-weighted pass from Adam Wharton beyond the Hull defensive line, Szmodics found the bottom left hand corner of the net with a right-footed effort for his fourth goal of the season.
The Tigers were chasing a third straight victory and consecutive league wins over Blackburn for the first time since 1970, but posed only an occasional threat in the first half with Thomas Kaminski pawing away Ryan Longman's early cross and Greaves curling an effort wide in their best moments.
They were fortunate not to fall further behind just before half time when Baxter pushed out Brereton Diaz's shot from 12 yards following some poor defending.
Interim boss Andy Dawson made a double substitution at the break in a bid to pep-up Hull's lacklustre showing and it seemed to have an effect, only for Greaves from a corner and a diving Pelkas to waste good chances with wayward headers.
Baxter then had to be at his agile best to stop Rovers extending their lead - repelling Brereton Diaz's effort from 12 yards before denying Gallagher in a one-on-one after he had been found by the Chile forward.
Hull enjoyed more possession as the match wore on but suffered a first defeat in three games after finding Rovers in no mood to let their narrow advantage slip.
Hull interim boss Andy Dawson told BBC Radio Humberside:
"I was disappointed with the first half - we showed them too much respect, we certainly weren't aggressive enough.
"I think the one thing we've done really impressively recently is keep the ball and I think we turned it over too cheaply. That's the last thing you want to be doing against a possession-based team.
"We had a real good go second half and we created a couple of brilliant chances but they're the small margins - we came up against a really a good team today."
Blackburn Rovers head coach Jon Dahl Tomasson told BBC Radio Lancashire:
"I think it was well deserved - big credit to the players.
"We got the tactics right in the first half, controlled the game and scored a great goal - we should've scored more and killed the game before half-time.
"It was a great win and a good performance."