Hull City boss Mike Phelan was undefrstandably frustrated after his side's 1-0 defeat to Middlesbrough.

A Gaston Ramirez strike an hour into the contest sealed the Tigers' fate as they continue to look limp in front of goal, having now scored just five in their last Premier League seven games.

Phelan insists his side need more firepower

After the match, Phelan expressed his desire to see more in the attacking third in any way possible.

"The performance was definitely short from an attacking point of view," Phelan told the Sky Sports cameras.

"In the first half, we repelled a lot of their advances towards our goal but we stood pretty firm and you have to do that at certain times.

"When we tried to play the ball forward, we gave the ball away and we had very few targets to hit to get up the field and that resulted in the 0-0 at half-time.

Phelan disappointed with Boro goal but impressed with Bowen

A change was needed and Jarrod Bowen was brought on as fresh legs were necessary if there was to be any semblance of an attack and Phelan admitted he was impressed with the substitute.

He said that from a "Middlesbrough point of view", "very few chances happened" and the decision to bring Bowen on was in order to "change it" and "get some fresh legs" on.

He added that Bowen "did really well when he came on" but added: "What really disappoints me is that we concede a goal when we don't really have to as a set-piece and we all have jobs to do."

The manager continued that they "go through them day in, day out" and that in a game when they "switch off a bit and don't do that responsibility well enough" then they will "get punished."

"Hard times ahead", says Hull boss

Despite the loss, Phelan says the squad isn't in any worse shape in the table as they were before the match, but expects more from his side.

He said: "We've got to do more and we've got to do better and we've got to stay focused on what our job is.

"We're in no worse of a spot than we were in at the start of the game but we know it's going to be a hard and difficult season."

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John Lupo
I am a writer and photographer. I have two Instagrams: @lupojohn1 is my personal account while @dslr_transit_photos is my photography account as I do transit photography in my hometown of New York City.