Nigel Pearson described coming away from Hull without any points as a "travesty" after his side were punished with two hugely controversial penalty decisions in both boxes.
Andi Weimann wasted little time opening his account for the season when he fired the Robins ahead after 30 minutes after latching onto Zak Vyner's header back across goal from Kal Naismith's excellent free-kick.
City were disciplined and organised in the first half but sat back in the second as Hull looked to force their way back into the contest without particularly troubling Dan Bentley between the sticks.
The turning point arrived in the 72nd minute when Kal Naismith was adjudged to have left a trailing leg on Benjamin Tetteh in the area before the forward finally went down inside the area after a delay. The contact looked minimal but referee Dean Whitestone pointed to the spot before Ozan Tufan buried it from the spot.
Minutes later up the other end, City arguably should have had a penalty themselves when Rob Atkinson was bundled down in the area from a corner. Despite the protests from the visitor's bench and on the field, the referee waved away the protests.
Jay Dasilva almost won it when his cross fizzed across the goal in injury time but Hull went up the other end to deliver a sucker punch and remind us that football is well and truly back. A delivery from the left was cleared into the path of Jean Michael Seri whose strike from distance took a wicked deflection off Timm Klose and into the net over the helpless Dan Bentley.
"Probably best for me to not say too much, have you seen it?” said Pearson, when asked about his thoughts on the initial decision to award Hull a penalty. "I also made sure I had a look at the one after that where Rob Atkinson gets pulled to the ground. It’s not pleasant viewing let’s put it like that.
"I know people are going to say ‘you conceded another late goal’ but the pivotal moment there was the penalty and we’re just very unlucky with their winner a deflection like that doesn’t give you a chance. It’s not necessarily poor defending although we could’ve locked the edge of the box out more. It’s an unfortunate deflection but I’m afraid the penalty is not good to view.”
In regards to the Atkinson decision, he added: "Just look at it, just look at it. We know there’s going to be a little bit more contacts allowed but the lad who’s marking him is the wrong side of him, has his hands round his waist and has no intention of attacking the ball.”
Pearson, who was handed a £5,000 fine by the FA for criticising referee Andy Davies last season after a defeat at QPR, refused to make comment on the officials over performance.
He added: "I’ve said what I’ve said you asked me about the penalty, and I've answered that I have no intention of giving people the opportunity to have a go at me. It’s just very frustrating and well done to them. I’ve got no axe to grind about that.”
Obviously deflated at the full-time whistle, Pearson remained upbeat on the performance and was keen to highlight the positives instead of the overall result. In his mind, there was plenty of improvements on last season and a good platform to build on.
Pearson said: "I think today we played pretty well we could’ve managed the ball a little bit better in the second half, but we defended with a lot of commitment. Bit of a travesty for us to come away with nothing but that’s the nature of football I’m afraid.
“I thought we passed the ball really well in the first half, created some good attacking options down both flanks, some of our runs in behind were really good, and our build-up play was really good.
"We didn’t look in too much danger. Even at the end where they had a bit of pressure, we were very, very committed with how we defended. There’s lots of things which I liked about our performance we just didn’t have the clinical edge to our passing in the second half.
"It’s disappointing for the players and the fans who have made a really long journey to get here because I think they’ve seen a decent performance in many ways but we’re talking about the wrong things again and that’s the problem.”
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