Millwall boss Gary Rowett: Star duo’s exit made Championship challenge so much harder for Hull City

Gary Rowett reckons a lot of Hull City’s struggles can be put down to the January sales of Kamil Grosicki and Jarrod Bowen.

Millwall head to the KCOM Stadium on Saturday knowing they need a victory to keep any lingering Championship play-off hopes alive.

And the Tigers dropped into the relegation zone in midweek after a loss at Bristol City.

West Ham paid more than £20million for Bowen at the end of the winter window. West Brom paid an undisclosed fee for Grosicki, who scored when City drew 1-1 at Millwall earlier in the season.

Lions boss Rowett said: “It’s been a difficult period for Hull. Grant McCann has gone in and done a really, really good job until the January window when for whatever reason, and I’m not privy to those reasons, they sold their two best players in Grosicki and Bowen.

“Everyone knows how big a miss both of those would be to any side.

“Results have not been as good since then and they are still in there fighting. They beat Middlesbrough and have been in every game. We have got to go there and perform, if we don’t do that we’ll give them a chance of winning the game.

“You can see with ourselves when we are short of a few options what a massive effect that can have. Ourselves and teams like Hull rely on one or two players to be firing and in form.

“The fact Hull lost those players made it a very difficult job to stay up.”