Liam Rosenior described Hull’s performance in their 2-1 victory over Southampton as the culmination of his work as Tigers boss.

Anass Zaroury bagged his first goal for the club since arriving on loan from Burnley before Liverpool loanee Fabio Carvalho put the visitors in control for their fourth straight away win – and first at Southampton since 1951.

Rosenior, whose side made it three wins in a row for the first time since he took over in November 2022 and moved into the play-off places, said: “We’ve come away to an outstanding team, with outstanding players and an outstanding manager, and we had to be brave.

“That first-half performance is exactly what I’ve been working so hard to bring to the club. I have bored all the supporters talking about the process but seeing that first-half performance was top.

“I am so proud of the lads but I don’t want to get carried away. I just see it as the next step for this team.

“From the outside it is a big step but inside I don’t take any notice of runs or what we can and can’t achieve.

“This is a young team that will make mistakes, and we’ll make more mistakes along the way, but when it comes off it is a delight to watch.”

The Tigers struck in the 11th minute when a long ball from goalkeeper Ryan Allsop caught Saints off-guard. Ryan Giles carried before the ball found its way to Jaden Philogene, and Gavin Bazunu parried the winger’s powerful shot into the path of Zaroury to tap in his first goal in five days short of a year.

Philogene then nabbed the ball off Joe Rothwell on the edge of the Saints box before releasing Carvalho for his second goal since arriving from Anfield.

Joe Aribo grabbed an 88th-minute consolation for Saints but their manager Russell Martin was left furious at the first-half horror show.

Saints ended an 11-game winning run at St Mary’s to drop to fourth and Martin said: “First half was rubbish, the second half was very good but that doesn’t matter very much when you’re 2-0 down.

“No one cares if you play well in the second half when you aren’t good in the first half and are behind.

“Hull were good, we knew that from the first game (a last-minute 2-1 win for Saints in October). We had a good chance with Rothwell before they can get into the game, we don’t take it, and somehow that doesn’t spur us on to go more aggressive.

“Their goal is something we worked on in training yesterday as we’ve seen them do it a lot, so to allow that to happen is a nonsense.

“Last week’s defeat (their first after 25 games unbeaten, against Bristol City) was down to a lack of aggression, this week it was a lack of courage. The two things you need is courage and aggression.”

Anass Zaroury bagged his first goal for Hull as the Tigers stunned Southampton 2-1 for a fourth straight away win in the Sky Bet Championship.

Burnley loanee Zaroury tapped in before Fabio Carvalho, borrowed from Liverpool, thrashed in Hull’s second to lift them into the play-off places.

Joe Aribo pulled one back for Saints but it was their first home defeat in 12 matches, with their automatic promotion push derailed by back-to-back Tuesday defeats as they slipped down to fourth in the table.

Southampton’s first half peaked in the eighth minute when Joe Rothwell was denied by Ryan Allsop when through one-on-one.

From then on Hull tore the hosts apart with attacking flair, although Saints also brought about their own downfall with some loose passing in midfield and defence.

The Tigers broke the deadlock in the 11th minute when a long ball from Allsop caught Saints off guard. Ryan Giles carried before the ball found its way to Jaden Philogene. The winger’s powerful shot was parried by Gavin Bazunu into the path of Zaroury, who tapped in his first goal in five days short of a year.

Philogene had an effort battered away at the near post and Abdulkadir Omur stabbed wide after Carvalho had scampered down the left as the visitors looked to double their advantage.

Southampton did not learn from Bazunu’s poor pass to Rothwell which allowed Jean Michael Seri to shoot, as 35 seconds later they were two down after Rothwell had stumbled on the ball on the edge of his own area. Philogene plucked the ball off him before allowing Carvalho to sweetly score past Bazunu.

Having not shipped two goals in a match since October, Saints had conceded a double in three of their last four games.

The Tigers tore the disorientated hosts apart in the last 10 minutes of the half. Zaroury lobbed Bazunu but the ball bounced wide, and then the Moroccan swung a shot just wide.

A clearly irate Russell Martin swung the axe on Rothwell, Sekou Mara and Adam Armstrong at half-time – which had been greeted by boos from the home support.

The fresh legs of David Brooks, Che Adams and Joe Aribo saw a slight uptick in performance as Will Smallbone sliced wide following a good move before Ryan Manning aimed for the bottom corner but missed.

Brooks lifted an effort onto the roof of the net but they had to wait until the 88th minute to have a goalscoring chance in the second half. Aribo took it, the Nigeria international squirting in after being teed up by Adams, but it did not prevent a first home loss since September 19.

Hull boss Liam Rosenior admitted he felt nervous before the 1-0 Sky Bet Championship win over Millwall.

There was a feelgood factor around the club after a successful transfer window saw the likes of Fabio Carvalho, Ryan Giles and Anass Zaroury arrive at the MKM Stadium.

Rosenior was keen to keep momentum going and the Tigers did just that, securing a second consecutive victory courtesy of fit-again winger Jaden Philogene’s fifth-minute strike.

“It was a really pleasing day because I was fearful before the game that there had been so much positive news surrounding the club,” Rosenior told the club’s official website.

“As a manager, sometimes, that makes you a little bit nervous; I didn’t want us to be complacent and all of the noise we needed to filter out.

“Some of our football in the first half was excellent and it’s great to be able to say we can improve after winning a game of football.”

Rosenior handed Giles and Zaroury their debuts following their loan moves from Luton and Burnley respectively.

“In terms of the first-half performance, other than really having teeth and finishing off Millwall, there were some really good signs – for Anass, his first game, Ryan Giles, his debut, and Jaden’s first game back in two months,” he added.

“I wanted the second goal because I felt our energy levels would tail off naturally.

“Overall, delighted to win the game and a lot of positive signs in the way we want to play – the understanding, the connection between the players.”

Millwall improved after the break and Zian Flemming and Tom Bradshaw almost nicked a point.

Lions boss Joe Edwards bemoaned his side’s first-half display.

Edwards told the club’s official website: “Very much a game of two halves in terms of our performance. We didn’t play well in the first half.

“They get a dream start after four minutes, albeit a sloppy error from us around the box, but someone hits an absolute rocket against the bar and it rebounds to their player and he finishes really well.

“They really grew in confidence and they are a team that loves to drift around the pitch and play good possession.

“They are a good footballing team. That is why they are up that end of the division, and we respect that.

“But we had our moments to take the sting out the game, as we have done in other games in recent weeks, but we didn’t do it and we were a bit sloppy.

“Second half we were a lot sharper in what we were doing, we were cleaner on the ball.

“In that final 20 minutes we were a lot clearer of what our idea was supposed to be, using our wing-back and switching play, and we had more about us.”