Liam Rosenior felt Hull’s 1-0 home defeat to Swansea was deserved after they dropped out of the Sky Bet Championship’s top six.
Liam Cullen scored after 10 minutes as the Swans pulled further away from the relegation zone by beating a Hull side who lacked the final pass to open up their opponents.
Rosenior admitted: “We didn’t deserve anything today. One of the few times I can say that since I’ve been here.
“When you do that, you give the opposition momentum. Credit to Swansea, we gave them a leg up and they won the game.”
Swansea benefited from Cullen’s free run into the area and Rosenior admitted his players needed to be more astute in that kind of situation.
He said: “If we mark the player properly we don’t get blocked. That’s the things we work on in training.
“One, our performance wasn’t good enough by our standards, and two, we’ve cost ourselves a point.
“We gave the ball away cheaply and when you do that you give the opposition energy, you give them oxygen.
“I told (the players) what we have to improve on. We have to bounce back from the setbacks. We need to learn on the job.”
Cullen got the only goal of the game when he ran into the Hull area to meet a low corner with a pinpoint shot which nestled in the bottom-left corner of the goal.
Hull looked short of the ideas which could have unlocked the determined defending of Swansea and their best chance fell to second-half substitute Billy Sharp.
The forward got on the end of a long pass from Ozan Turfan and prodded the ball past onrushing goalkeeper Carl Rushworth, only to see Nathan Wood race back to clear short of the goal-line.
Turfan had headed straight at Rushworth when the ball fell to him unmarked in the Swansea area in a first half where the Tigers lacked the nous to unlock the visitors’ defence.
Cullen could have doubled his tally in the second half only to shoot wide when well-placed.
Luke Williams felt his side deserved to take the win and also praised the work of assistant Alan Sheehan on set-pieces after Swansea claimed the winner from a well-worked corner routine.
Williams said: “I think the players deserved that, a fantastic performance and even more fantastic result.
“There are quite a few things, the openings that we made were very deliberate.
“I loved the work-of-art set-piece, and the players delivered on that and scored.
“When you watch Alan go to work on a set-piece and then see the players deliver on that it’s a privilege.
“We scored a goal away from home against a very good team and the back-line led us well, they kept us aggressive.”
Williams praised Cullen for the way he had come into the team in place of Jerry Yates to score the only goal.
“Liam has come in said ‘I need to do the same level of work that Jerry has done and take my chance’.
“We have lovely competition between these two players, it’s good to develop this kind of rivalry within the team.
“I really felt a strong positive energy in the changing room going into this game and we played like we believed.”
Hurtig the hero after late goal sends Arsenal into Champions League quarters
Lina Hurtig's 89th minute winner ensured Arsenal progressed to the quarter-finals of the Women's Champions League after edging Juventus 1-0 on Thursday.
After being frustrated for large parts of the encounter, Hurtig bundled home from close range after Martina Lenzini's poor clearance to book the Gunners' place in the last eight.
Despite Arsenal dominating the early exchanges, it was Juventus who had the first sight of goal, though Eva Schatzer's effort was easy for Daphne van Domselaar to gather.
In a first half that saw just two shots on target, both coming from the visitors, Renee Slegers' substitutes proved to be the difference for Arsenal.
Slegers introduced Beth Mead, Stina Blackstenius and Hurtig late on, with the latter somehow putting Kim Little's cross over the bar from five yards out.
However, the Swede would atone for her earlier error, combining with fellow substitute Blackstenius to net against her former club and send them out of the competition with two group games remaining.
Meanwhile, in Group D, Barcelona edged closer to the quarter-finals of the competition with a convincing 4-1 victory over St. Polten at the Generali Arena.
The reigning champions are still three points behind Manchester City following their 2-1 win over Hammarby, and know a win against the Swedes next month will see them progress.
Kika Nazareth opened the scoring in the 20th minute after capitalising on a mistake by Kamila Dubcova, notching her second nine minutes later from close range.
Barca found themselves three goals up at the break when Vicky Lopez netted her first goal in the competition to put the result beyond doubt.
There was also a landmark moment for Alexia Putellas, who netted her 200th goal for the club with a well-taken effort into the far corner.
Valentina Madl took some of the shine off an otherwise impressive display from the visitors, who have now taken their tally to 20 goals from their four matches in the competition.
Guardiola agrees two-year contract extension with Man City
Pep Guardiola will be Manchester City manager for at least two more seasons after 2024-25, after he signed a two-year contract extension on Thursday.
The 53-year-old was coming to the end of his City deal, which was due to expire at the end of the current campaign, but he has opted to remain at the Etihad Stadium.
The deal itself will take Guardiola's tenure at the club to over a decade, making him City's longest-serving manager since Les McDowall in 1963.
There had been suggestions that he may leave at the end of the season following the announcement that director of football Txiki Begiristain was on his way out.
Guardiola was strongly linked with the England job after Gareth Southgate resigned in the wake of their Euro 2024 final defeat, but the Football Association appointed Thomas Tuchel last month.
“Manchester City means so much to me," Guardiola said. “This is my ninth season here; we have experienced so many amazing times together. I have a really special feeling for this football club.
“That is why I am so happy to be staying for another two more seasons.
“Thank you to everyone for continuing to trust and support me – The Owner, The Chairman Khaldoon, Ferran, Txiki, the players and, of course, the fans… everyone connected to Manchester City. It has always been an honour, a pleasure and a privilege to be here.
“I have said this many times before, but I have everything a manager could ever wish for, and I appreciate that so much.
“Hopefully, now we can add more trophies to the ones we have already won. That will be my focus.”
Having been appointed in 2016, Guardiola is by some distance Manchester City's most successful manager of all time, having won 18 major trophies during his time at the club.
That list includes their first-ever Champions League triumph in 2023 and six Premier League titles, including an unprecedented four on the spin.
He also boasts a 72.04% win percentage across all competitions, which is unsurprisingly the highest of any full-time City manager in history.
Shaw at the double as Man City progress in Champions League
Khadija Shaw scored twice as Manchester City beat Hammarby 2-1 to seal their place in the Women's Champions League quarter-finals.
Gareth Taylor's team entered Thursday's game with a perfect record in Group D, and their fourth win in as many European matches ensured they finished in the top two.
Shaw—the leading scorer in the Women's Super League this season with eight goals—put them ahead in the 31st minute, driving into the area after taking in Yui Hasegawa's pass before seeing her shot deflect into the top corner.
Shaw was booked for celebrating in front of the home fans despite appearing to have objects thrown at her from the stands, and Hammarby should have levelled when Julia Blakstad fired wide 10 minutes later.
The hosts did draw level three minutes into the second half as Ellen Wangerheim tapped home while City's Laura Blindkilde Brown was down appealing for a free-kick.
That parity was short-lived, though, as Shaw blasted into the top corner from 25 yards out, taking her overall tally for this season to 12 goals in all competitions.
In Group C, meanwhile, Bayern Munich lost their perfect record as they played out a 1-1 draw with Valerenga, boosting Arsenal's hopes of topping the pile.
Jovana Damnjanovic came off the bench to put Bayern ahead 15 minutes from time in Norway, but Elise Thorsnes headed home following an 88th-minute corner to snatch a point for the hosts.
Arsenal could now move within a point of Bayern when they face Juventus in Group C's other match later on Thursday.
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