The Tigers are just two points outside the top six having not played for two weeks

Former Championship promotion winner Jobi McAnuff believes Hull City’s terrific 1-0 win at Sunderland last time out will prove to be one of the biggest results of the season if the Tigers go on and earn a place in the play-offs.

City return to action this weekend with Millwall the visitors to the MKM Stadium and will be looking to move back into the top six with a first home win of the New Year, but it was their success on Wearside two weeks ago that caught the eye of McAnuff.

While performances had on the whole been of a consistent standard throughout the festive period, results took a significant nosedive with City losing six in 10 games before Fabio Carvalho bagged the winner at the Stadium of Light.

Boss Liam Rosenior admitted it was a poor performance by their usual standards despite the result, and McAnuff believes it may well prove to be a pivotal one.

“He always comes across fantastically, he speaks well, he’s very measured,” McAnuff said on Sky Sports. “Over the last few games, he’s been super positive. They’ve been playing well but haven’t been getting the results and that only lasts a certain amount of time before that belief starts to be eroded.

“So to come out and not play as well as they have done and get that result will be a huge boost, not just for him, but for the players who want to keep believing and buying into what he’s telling them. It’s a relatively young group. Over the course of the season, these are the nights when you get into the play-off places that you look back on. It’s not always the games where everything was clicking and everything was flowing, it was that 1-0 away at Sunderland where they’ve had to grind it out. They’re the games that you remember.”