Liam Millar's late goal at fellow promoted side Coventry City ensured Hull maintained a 100% record on their return to the Premier League.

It proved to be a cruel outcome for Frank Lampard's Coventry, who exhibited plenty of endeavour and were largely in the ascendency during a contest that generally lacked attacking quality.

That was until Canada winger Millar was played through on goal by Mohamed Belloumi in the 82nd minute, firing a decisive finish past home goalkeeper Carl Rushworth.

Until that point Taiwo Awoniyi, a summer signing from Nottingham Forest, went closest to breaking the deadlock for the Sky Blues but his close-range first-half effort was palmed away by Konstantinos Tzolakis in the visitors' goal.

Having shocked Manchester United on the opening weekend, this may feel like an even more important result for Sergej Jakirovic's side, who are now six points clear of opponents tipped to feature with them in a potential relegation fight.

Whether that materialises now for the Tigers, given their perfect start to the new campaign, remains to be seen.

While Hull are one of only three clubs to have suffered relegation from the Premier League after winning their opening two games (2016-17), they are now level on points with Manchester City at the top of the table.

And moreover they are likely to be brimming with confidence when Aston Villa arrive at the MKM Stadium next weekend.

Hull had their moments against Manchester United a week ago, particularly from set-pieces and crosses, but for most of this encounter they offered very little going forward.

Instead they appeared content to allow Coventry to monopolise possession before opportunistically capitalising with the final whistle in sight.

However, one theme that runs through both performances is that Jakirovic appears to have a well-drilled team that is bursting with tenacity.

While Coventry have failed to score since being promoted, Hull are yet to concede in over 180 minutes of football.

And Nobel Mendy, John Egan and Semi Ajayi all performed admirably at the heart of a five-man defence, while goalkeeper Tzolakis, looks worth every penny of the £20m fee it took to prise him away from Olympiakos this summer.

The Greek international was competent dealing with high balls into the penalty area and is the first goalkeeper to keep a clean sheet in a promoted side's opening two games of a Premier League season since David Raya in 2021-22 for Brentford.

Defender Ethan Pinnock was the latest player to arrive at Coventry earlier this week in a recruitment drive that has amounted to more than £100m on 10 players.

On this evidence more investment may be required, particularly at the top end of the pitch, if they are to ensure that this season is not only a brief sojourn in the Premier League after a 25-year absence.

While they huffed and puffed against Hull and Awoniyi led the attacking line well, they rarely threatened to score against a well-organised visiting defence.

Only three of their 11 efforts on goal found the target and the best of those, from Awoniyi, lacked power, with the ball being directed towards goal off the Nigerian international's thigh.

And in the later stages of the game they also showed vulnerability in defence as they pressed for their first win in the division since April 2001.

Having failed to heed an earlier warning when Millar dragged an effort wide instead of playing in Belloumi, they paid the ultimate price when roles were reversed and the Algerian winger picked out the right pass.