Hull boss: My team were too nice at The Den – Millwall beat us with their physicality

Shota Arveladze reckoned his Hull City side were too “nice” in their 2-1 defeat against Millwall on Easter Monday and added they lost the game “physically”.

The Lions moved level on points with sixth-placed Sheffield United after the victory over the Tigers with three games remaining of the Championship season.

The Blades were a 5.30pm kick-off this evening at Bristol City.

Hull boss Arveladze said: “That’s football and sometimes you cannot be soft – you can play nice but you can’t be nice.

“We have that positive attitude of not give up, play again until the last minute – this is all positive which is great but we have to work on not being nice.

“[We have to] get the second ball and don’t let the ball bounce when the goalkeeper is kicking and it bounces just in front of you.

“These are the kind of things that cost us games. It needs a bit of experience also to do it. There are boys that learn things quicker – we can see every week with things we work on and it happens.

“In the first half when you keep them without the ball the crowd was quiet and then when you give them more possibilities to beat you, it’s going to wake them.

“We had the chance to score just a minute before we get a goal back. But that’s football – second half we give them more of the ball, all the rebounds comes to them not because you let it but you stay wrong. You give half a yard, late reactions and it bounces to them.

“They’re chasing the play-offs, we were not worse than them but physically we lost.”