SEAN McLOUGHLIN EARNED substantial praise from his manager after producing an encouraging performance in his first outing in English football.

McLoughlin played all 90 minutes for Hull City as they ended a run of five consecutive defeats by playing out a 1-1 draw away to Reading in the Championship on Saturday.

With Hull missing five other centre-backs for the trip to the Madejski Stadium, McLoughlin finally got a chance to impress for the club he joined from Cork City last summer.

He certainly appears to have made the most of the opportunity, with Hull manager Grant McCann full of praise for the 23-year-old afterwards. 

“I thought he was fantastic, I really did. He’s a proper defender,” McCann told the Hull Daily Mail. “Anything in front of him he’ll head it but one thing he’s very good at as well is that he’s really comfortable on the ball. He’s so calm.

“It was an excellent debut from Sean and that showed that loan spell we gave him with St Mirren has given him more confidence that he can play at this level. He showed that.”

Just days after signing a three-year contract with Hull back in July, McLoughlin was sent on loan to the Scottish Premiership to gain more first-team experience.

He played every minute of St Mirren’s league campaign – 21 appearances in total – before being recalled from the loan spell at the end of December.

A native of Cobh in East Cork, McLoughlin previously turned down offers from several UK clubs in order to attain a degree in Business Information Systems at University College Cork.

Cork City were the beneficiaries, with the former Republic of Ireland U21 international selected in the PFAI Team of the Year in 2018.

He’ll hope to retain his place in the Hull City starting line-up for tomorrow evening’s trip to Blackburn Rovers.

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