In turn, they also maintained the Lions’ historic 100% losing rate in Championship playoff home legs.
Despite being the unbeaten-in-six form team with four home wins in six, Millwall had to absorb some Hull pressure in the early minutes, as the Tigers looked to emulate their playoff successes of 2008 and 2016.
A succession of corners went nowhere, but Charlie Hughes almost found the far-left corner via a header, with the ball trickling wide. Millwall were left breathing a sigh of relief, and with only league winners Coventry scoring more away league goals in the opening 15 minutes than Hull’s seven during the regular season, the Londoners could count themselves lucky to be on level terms.
Millwall began to press in earnest after Hughes’ miss, and Femi Azeez could have put the Lions ahead just two minutes later, when he tried his luck from a narrow angle on his side’s first dangerous attack.
They went on to dominate the remainder of the first half, and after his tackle forced Kyle Joseph off due to an ankle injury, Thierno Ballo was a whisker away from the opener, as a cross from the right only just evaded his outstretched boot.
Millwall had 20 of their 25 home league goals conceded this term arrive after half-time, and they nearly continued that habit when Hull crafted a golden chance on 48’. Some incisive passing and a promising run saw Regan Slater play in Oli McBurnie, but his effort at the near post was blocked by Tristan Crama. That was as close as either side came before the hour mark, and with Millwall boss Alex Neil targeting only a second personal head-to-head success in seven against Hull, he rang the changes, with Alfie Doughty amongst them.
The Scot would instantly regret that decision, with Doughty insufficiently warmed up enough to prevent Hull from forging ahead barely a minute later.
A searing ball from Matt Crooks to Belloumi on the right flank saw the Algerian jink infield and curl a left-footed effort into the far corner past Doughty and Anthony Patterson – the latter a playoff final winner with Sunderland only last year.
It could have got infinitely worse soon after that as well, when Barry Bannan – a playoff winner in 2010 and 2023 with Blackpool and Sheffield Wednesday, respectively – gave the ball cheaply to Belloumi in no-man’s land. He found Liam Millar in space, but the Canadian was thwarted by an alert Jake Cooper, who deflected the attempted shot over the bar.
Cooper’s block would be rendered irrelevant with 12 to play, however. As bad as Doughty’s introduction from the bench was, Joe Gelhardt’s was sublime, with Belloumi latching onto the ball on the right flank and sending an inch-perfect ball square to him with the outside of his boot.
Gelhardt picked his spot, firing low into the bottom-right corner despite Patterson getting a hand to the ball.
There was no going back, and after the frustration of finishing as best of the rest earlier this month, Millwall must now wait another year, with Premier League membership remaining elusive after their top-flight relegation of 1990. Meanwhile, the omens are good for Hull, who have never experienced the agony of Championship playoff elimination. Just a year on from a final-day survival act, a similar show of killer instinct at Wembley on 23rd May can only serve them well against their playoff final opponents, with the Promised Land potentially just 90 short minutes away.