Millwall denied late at Hull in cagey first leg
Hull City's play-off semi-final with Millwall remains finely poised after the two Premier League hopefuls played out a 0-0 draw at MKM Stadium, with the visitors denied a late winner.
In a game of few chances, both sides hit the post while Ryan Leonard saw a late goal ruled out for a foul inside the box ahead of the second leg in three days' time.
Hull almost made the perfect start inside the first two minutes when Mohamed Belloumi picked up the ball on the left before dancing past Leonard and Tristan Crama, but his mazy run ended with his shot hitting the woodwork.
Thierno Ballo and Femi Azeez then fired wide at the other end before Belloumi tested Anthony Patterson as both sides struggled to create any clear-cut chances in the first half.
The pattern of the game continued after the break, but Millwall looked the more dangerous on the break, and almost hit the front through Camiel Neghli in the 69th minute, only to see his strike from the edge of the box clip off the right post.
Sergej Jakirovic turned to his bench and introduced both Kyle Joseph and Yu Hirakawa, the latter almost making an instant impact when his cross just 49 seconds after coming on was headed narrowly wide by Oliver McBurnie.
The visitors thought they were taking a one-goal lead back to The Den five minutes from time, but Leonard's volley from close range was ruled out by referee Gavin Ward after Crama was adjudged to have fouled Charlie Hughes in the box.
"I'd be interested to see what the referee's thoughts on the disallowed goal are because I thought it was quite harsh," Lions boss Alex Neil said on the denial of a goal for his side.
"I thought all in all you could see that that [performance] should give us confidence to try and win the game on Monday [Tuesday AEST].
"We didn't play as if we didn't want to lose, we played like we wanted to try and win the game.
"We need to remember that a lot of our lads haven't really played in this type of match before and the only chance of note they had was right at the start."
Hull boss Sergej Jakirovic was more definitive in his comments on the disallowed goal.
"It's a clear foul. I saw that immediately. If you take with the two hands and spin the player around it is a foul," he said.
