Hull City boss Iain Dowie says Mark Cullen and Will Atkinson deserved their chance in the 2-2 draw with Wigan Athletic.

Both players scored their first goals for the club - Atkinson on his Premier League debut - and Dowie said afterwards that they were in the team due to hard work in training, adding that they would feature again against Liverpool.

"Those two boys are in the team on merit," Dowie said.

"When you look at training and you can see Mark Cullen threatening centre-halves and Will Atkinson with his enthusiasm, they deserve to be in the team and that is what I felt.

"I made the decision probably 20 minutes after the game against Sunderland - that we were going to try them because they had been doing that well in training. Both of them will play next week."