Hull head coach Sergej Jakirovic hailed the “big potential” of Lewis Koumas after he scored the winner less than 24 hours after signing on loan to secure a 1-0 victory at Blackburn.
The forward came off the bench with neither side looking like breaking the deadlock and produced a clinical finish less than five minutes after his introduction to slot home in the 81st minute.
It gave Hull fans a taste of the difference he could make to their season. Having won eight of their last 10, the Tigers could yet gatecrash the top two in the Championship.
And Jakirovic, who explained he wanted to sign his matchwinner in the summer, is delighted the move has finally happened.
He said: “He’s Liverpool school, he’s a Liverpool winger, when I saw him in the summer, he was my wish but he chose Birmingham.
“This is normal, in that situation you can choose a club in a better situation. But there is no ego from my side, I respect every player’s decision but now when we had the opportunity to take him I said immediately we must take him.
“He’s so young, such big potential with a lot of experience in this league and especially in the January transfer period, there is no adaptation and I think he helps us.
“I think he can help us a lot. He’s a young player but he played in Stoke, now in Birmingham and this is the reason we took him immediately. I think he can improve this group a lot.”
Jakirovic was most pleased that his side “stuck together” when under Blackburn pressure, adding: “When sometimes when we struggled, we were fighting for each other. We were very pragmatic.
“If the game had finished 0-0, I would be also happy but we used our one chance and we are really happy with these three points.”
Valerien Ismael could not criticise the effort of his players but rued their inability to take the chances created, particularly the headers in the second half from Yuki Ohashi and Mathias Jorgensen as they slipped to a fourth defeat in six to remain in the bottom three.
He said: “I don’t know why it’s so complicated. It’s not about the performance today, not about the desire, the mentality.
“What we have to complain about is we have to take our chances. At some point you have to take the chance. When you dominate the game like this, you are on the front foot on the top of your subject, you have to get the reward and to make sure you score the goal.
“All of a sudden in the second half, from nothing, we concede that goal. After that, late in the game, it’s tough for the players because they are trying to give everything. We see completely another Rovers than we saw maybe a couple of weeks ago due to the injuries we had.
“The power is there, the willingness is there, so any reason why we’re not winning at home, why it’s so complicated this season? So now we have to keep that performance, to make sure that when we get the chance, we take our chance.”
