‘Flustered’ Hull City urged to keep their focus on play-off challenge
On the night Leicester City were floored, Liam Millar felt Hull City were flustered. It did not reflect well on either of them.
That the team with the highest wage bill in the Championship were relegated from it after Tuesday's 2-2 draw was pretty shocking, really, and on a night when thousands of fans stayed away in disgust, Millar and everyone else in the media room had to make themselves heard over the anger of the hundreds who booed and barracked the Foxes players as they dribbled home.
For a team who 10 years ago had won the Premier League title, who five years ago had won the FA Cup, to be relegated to League One, their second successive demotion, was the big story of the night. If 2016 was the impossible dream, 2026 was the barely believable nightmare.
But the East Yorkshire subplot was a strong one too, and not a happy one either.
After spending 22 of the previous 23 matchdays in the top six, it was the night the Tigers tumbled out of the play-off places, hopefully only temporarily.
That mental fragility came into play was a particular worry.
You expected it of Leicester – how else could a squad with so much talent be where they were?
But Hull's players have been around the block more than once, and their fortitude put them in the promotion picture when nobody expected it.
Hull's starting back four and their two midfield protectors had 1,800 league starts between them – mainly in England, but also Turkey, where the stakes can get very high, Scotland (no such thing as a low-pressure Old Firm derby) and America, not to mention Semi Ajayi playing in this season's Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals and John Egan's 38 international caps.
So the assessment of another international, Canada winger Millar, was jarring.
“I think our reaction after the goal needs to be a little bit better,” he said.
“I feel like we were a little bit flustered from what happened with the penalty and whatnot.
“We've just got to try our best to make sure that doesn't happen again and be a little bit more focused after they score.”
Jarring, but right. A stronger team would have won.
Leicester looked as flaky as they are when, after setting the early tone, their super-experienced goalkeeper, Asmir Begovic, passed the ball straight to Millar. He used Jamal Lascelles to curl in a lovely opening goal.
The boos rang out again.
Hull instantly found their feet, Leicester shrank.
Joe Gelhardt, Matt Crooks, Millar and Mo Belloumi all had chances to score before half-time. None did.
Even more alarming, though, was the way Hull went to pieces defensively in the second half.
You could argue whether Lewis Koumas' rash challenge on Abdul Fatawu was worth a penalty – Sergej Jakirovic did, and was sent off – but Hull should have reacted better.
“I don't know what's happened for the penalty,” said Millar after the game. “I've seen it from my view, but not the slow-mo like they would have seen. Clearly, they've seen something and they're not happy about it.
“We're all human. We all have emotions. We all react the way we react.
“This is the end of the season, we all want to do the best possible and be the best that we can. I completely understand why he (Jakirovic) reacted that way.”
Understandable, perhaps, but Hull had more than 40 minutes to pull themselves together, and could not. Within two minutes Luke Thomas had got in front of Ajayi to make it 2-1 and although Oli McBurnie pulled a goal back, Leicester had more of the many good chances sloppy defending allowed in the final half-hour.
This is not over.
Even a point at Charlton Athletic will put Hull back into the play-offs before Wrexham, now sixth, face champions Coventry City. Phil Parkinson's men host Middlesbrough on the last day.
But never mind hoping others do them a favour, Hull needed to start doing themselves a few.
Their five-match winless streak is their longest this season. They kept a clean sheet against Coventry in one of those games – a huge feat – but threw leads away in all the others.
You would have to be brave to bet on them taking maximum points against Charlton and Norwich City – hopefully not their final two matches of 2025-26.
To finish seventh or eighth would be a tremendous achievement, but to do so from here would feel bitterly disappointing.
“We can't change what's happened now,” said Millar. “We can't be in regret of what's happened. We've just got to keep focus.
“We've got a game on Saturday, 12.30, so we've got to make sure that we go out there and do everything right to try and get three points. It's been a while.”
It is starting to show.