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Hull City manager Steve Bruce bemoaned his side's lack of clinical edge as David Nugent delivered a last-gasp hammer blow at the Riverside.

It looked like the Championship's top two defences were set to cancel each other out, but Boro grabbed the crucial breakthrough in stoppage time as Nugent clinically converted Albert Adomah's cross to send the Riverside into raptures.

The result moves Boro back into second place in the Championship table, four points ahead of the misfiring Tigers.

Hull did have chances themselves as Robert Snodgrass and Ahmed Elmohamady spurned opportunities in either half, and Bruce believes those misses ultimately proved costly.

"We didn't deserve that, sometimes it's really cruel but if we're being honest we've had so many games over the last month where we've been the better team and had opportunities," Bruce said.

"We've had the two big chances in a game of this magnitude and didn't take them , and in the end we were punished.

"Up until a month ago (scoring goals) wasn't a concern but certainly it's our Achilles' heel. There was nothing wrong with the performance, Snodgrass and Elmohamady's chances in a game of this magnitude, we have to take them.

(Image: PA Wire)

"In the end, we looked a bit tired which is understandable. We're all devastated. Sometimes you get beat by a better team but that was cruel.

"86 points has been enough (to clinch promotion) for the last 10 years but I'm not sure if that will be enough. There's a lot of football to be played, there's still everything to play for, there's some big games ahead and hopefully we'll have a bit more luck and we'll be a bit more clinical.

"There will be nerves around. People get nervy and edgy and that's normal, whatever league you're in when it comes down to the nitty-gritty. It's how you handle it.

"Our goalkeeper hasn't made a save. We should be taking those two chances, we can't keep missing the chances we're missing, and it's been the same now for the last four or five weeks."

Hull have now won only one of their last seven matches, scoring only three goals, and Bruce voiced his frustration at the team's rearranged match with Nottingham Forest - played only 72 hours before their trip to the Riverside.

"It's ludicrous that we've had to fit a game in on a Tuesday night before Middlesbrough and they looked fresh as a daisy, but there was nowhere else to fit it," Bruce added.

"Now we've got a two week break, nobody wants an international friendly but it is what it is."