Hull City 0-3 Blackburn Rovers: FLW report as Rovers stun Tigers with first league success | OneFootball

FLW reports live from the MKM Stadium.

Blackburn Rovers recorded their maiden victory of the Championship campaign whilst ending Hull City's unbeaten start to league life under Sergej Jakirovic with a dominant 3-0 success at the MKM Stadium.

Valerien Ismael's men had suffered back-to-back defeats by a one-goal margin to West Bromwich Albion and Birmingham City, but accumulated their first three points of the season thanks to goals from Ryan Hedges, Yuki Ohashi and Todd Cantwell - all of whom were standout performers.

After seemingly breaking their curse in HU3 with a dramatic victory against Oxford United last time out, Hull's new head coach will have been left underwhelmed by his side's flat showing, regardless of losing the services of Charlie Hughes, Matt Crooks and Abu Kamara from his matchday squad due to injury and, in the winger's case, an expected temporary departure to Getafe.

Hull City 0-3 Blackburn Rovers

After a dull opening, the Tigers looked to assert their authority on home turf, with John Lundstram spraying an exquisite ball for Joel Ndala to chase before a neat passing exchange on the edge of the box fizzled out.

Balazs Toth was then called into action on three separate occasions, with the Hungarian initially thwarting an own-goal from Yuri Ribeiro before pulling two fine stops to deny Oli McBurnie his second goal in a week at the MKM and a curling Ndala effort, with Rovers eventually making Jakirovic's men pay.

Augustus Kargbo smartly retained possession after an episode of pinball on the edge of the box, eventually playing in Hedges, who was sent one-on-one with the onrushing Ivor Pandur, smartly lifting the ball over the onrushing Croatian.

With Hull looking slightly stunned amid the setback, Hedges was presented with yet another opportunity, although his header from Ryan Alebiosu's deep cross was always heading off-target.

City's efforts to mount a swift response came to no avail as an underwhelming Joe Gelhardt free-kick was recycled by Ryan Giles' improvisation, with Ndala seeing an eventual header rise high of the mark from close range.

Kargbo - who'd been a constant threat for Blackburn all half - went close to scoring his first for the Lancashire outfit with six minutes of the first half remaining after bursting down the right flank unopposed, with the final action of the half seeing Kasey Palmer fire a speculative effort from a narrow angle in the dying seconds.

Ismael's side would come out firing in the opening exchanges of the second 45, with Ohashi netting their second of the game after Cantwell spotted the unmarked Hedges following the awarding of a central free-kick, with the Japanese striker prodding the ball home from close range.

Rovers weren't done there, with the man who turned provider less than two minutes before - Cantwell - registering his second goal of the campaign as his right-footed drive flew underneath the City keeper, who only half-dealt with a low Alebiosu cross.

It nearly went from bad to even worse for Hull just 10 minutes into the half as ex-City defender, Sean McLoughlin, saw a powerful header crash off the crossbar.

Midway through the second-half, Kyle Joseph looked to pull one back for the home side after being played into a goalscoring position. However, the centre-forward's powerful strike was well marshalled by the experienced Dom Hyam, before the freshly-introduced Axel Henriksson failed to add further gloss to the scoreboard for Blackburn after more neat trickery from Cantwell.

Hull's second half was summed up moments later as a fizzing cross from Regan Slater evaded McBurnie and David Akintola, with the Nigerian and 20,000 supporters left frustrated at the loss of yet another chance to strike a consolation.

Hedges continued to cause the Tigers' defence problems in the latter stages of the game, with the 30-year-old inches away from a brace for the afternoon after latching onto Henriksson's low cross.

Blackburn continued to search for a fourth goal as they emerged victorious at the MKM for the second successive campaign, but were forced to settle for the three mustered by their energetic attacking trio earlier in the half as they got on the board for the campaign in terms of points.

FT: Hull City 0-3 Blackburn Rovers

Player Ratings

Hull City

Ivor Pandur - 5.5

Cody Drameh - 6

John Egan - 6.5

Cathal McCarthy - 6

Ryan Giles - 6

John Lundstram - 6.5

Regan Slater - 6 (Belloumi 85" - 6)

Joe Gelhardt - 6.5 (Williams 85" - 6)

Kasey Palmer - 6 (Joseph 55" - 6)

Joel Ndala - 6 (Akintola 68" - 6)

Oli McBurnie - 6.5

Unused Subs: Dillon Phillips, Stan Ashbee, Aidon Shehu, Pharrell Brown, Harry Vaughan

Blackburn Rovers

Balazs Toth - 7

Ryan Alebiosu - 7.5

Dom Hyam - 7.5

Sean McLoughlin - 6.5

Yuri Ribeiro - 7

Sondre Tronstad - 7

Sidnei Tavares - 6.5 (Montgomery 69" - 6)

Augustus Kargbo - 7 (Henriksson 70" - 6.5)

Todd Cantwell - 8.5

Ryan Hedges - 8.5 (De Neve 86" - 6)

Yuki Ohashi - 7.5 (Gueye 86" - 6)

Unused Subs: Felix Goddard, Harry Pickering, Lewis Miller, Scott Wharton, Igor Tyjon

Hull City vs Blackburn Rovers Attendance

The attendance at the MKM Stadium for this afternoon's Championship fixture was 20,518.

Sergej Jakirovic reacts as Hull City suffer 3-0 defeat to Blackburn Rovers

Speaking post-match after his first league defeat in charge of the East Yorkshire outfit, Jakirovic believed that disruptive preparations in the Tigers camp didn't do his side any favours.

"It's not the reality. When we have a full squad of players it would be a different story, because we had a lot of problems before the game with a virus," he stated. "Unfortunately, we miss some players.

"But, from the beginning of this game, I didn't feel good energy or intensity, Blackburn were better," Jakirovic added. "We had three good chances before conceding the first goal, but when we conceded it was very difficult.

"We were not good on the ball, off the ball, our first and second challenges were too far away from everything, so I can just congratulate Blackburn for the deserved win."

"Some of our players have had sickness for three days, so they didn't train but we are short in some positions, we didn't have so many options, for example in the midfield

"We were bad today, that is all that is important," Jakirovic concluded.

Addressing the media after his side's first three points of the campaign, Ismael stated: "When you win the first game it's really good, because you (fully) start the Championship season."

"We put a couple of difficult weeks behind us, but there was a reason for that. It was hectic and chaotic within, but I must congratulate the boys.

"To react like that after last week's disappointment, when we lost the game how we did, with another great performance, we took the positivity from last week's strong performance against Birmingham, but today we made it perfectly," the French boss added.

"The first 15 minutes, for sure, you have to be strong. They had some good chances because we lost the ball. But, after that, we stood strong, scored a lovely goal and, in the second half, we scored two goals straight away, and that gave us the confidence to win the game.

"Since I've been in charge, it was the best away performance we had," he stated.