Hull manager Shota Arveladze said his side owe their supporters a strong home performance after making it five unbeaten on the road with a 2-0 win over Coventry.

Richie Smallwood set the Tigers on their way before Ryan Longman doubled the advantage, thumping home a half volley from inside the box.

The Georgian said: “We know we owe our supporters a good game at home and this performance will give a good message to them to come back and be around us.

“Our home performances are not as good as our away performances but I don’t think it is about the character of the team.

“Probably we have a little bit more pressure at home to dominate more and we need time for that.”

The win opened up a 13-point gap to the bottom three, all but securing Hull’s position in the second tier for a second term following promotion from League One last season.

Arveladze added: “thirteen points clear of bottom three – when you win, it is easy to not look down and not ask what others have done.

“The games get less and if you have a gap, it is to your advantage. Teams have to win three or four games to catch up.

“It was a good game to watch. We only had one day to prepare and we got off to a perfect start.

“We created in the first half and had two or three other chances. In the second half we spent more time defending and did well.”

Coventry under-23s head coach Luke Tisdale bemoaned the Sky Blues’ start to the game after they found themselves a goal behind inside the first five minutes and 2-0 down inside half an hour.

Tisdale took charge of the match after positive Covid tests for manager Mark Robins and assistant Adi Viveash before City’s win over Sheffield United at the weekend, whilst first-team coach Dennis Lawrence and goalkeeping coach Aled Williams also returned positive tests.

“We didn’t start very well,” admitted Tisdale.

“I thought we reacted OK to the goal to be fair and we had large spells of possession like we always do.

“It’s difficult to break them down and I thought they defended really well, they get a lot of bodies behind the ball and made it really difficult for us.

“Frustrating is a good word to use. Everyone knows those performance levels we haven’t seen a lot this season but we’ve got to find a way of moving on quickly as the games come thick and fast.

“It felt like there was a lot of misplaced passes. Again, that is not really a Coventry City thing that we’ve seen a lot this year so sometimes these things happen, nobody is very happy about it but it’s about how we and the players react.”