Hull City v Bournemouth: Tigers need to find ‘ruthless’ streak

But for Grant McCann, there is perspective close to hand.

Few sides suffered more from Covid-19 issues in pre-season as newly-promoted City and perhaps unsurprisingly, the start to the campaign has not been straightforward, despite a fine opening-day victory at Preston North End.

Despite recent results, McCann – with key players to come back in September – is the last to be getting downhearted, quite the opposite in fact with his glass steadfastly half-full.

He said: “We always take it in games of six and we have a target in mind over these six games that we want to try and get to.

“I think we can still try and get to that over the two games that we have got to come.

“If you look at it on paper, it has not been a good start for us. But if you look at each game, individually and collectively, we have been in them all and had big opportunities to win the games.

“We just want to get that ruthless ‘edge’ about us where we can put teams by the sword at the top end of the pitch and we are trying to do that.”

McCann is hoping that the signing of Sheffield United striker Tyler Smith – who worked with him during his time at Doncaster Rovers in 2018-19 – will assist in that regard.

The Tigers head coach said: “He (Smith) is a calm finisher and has a real knack of being in the right place at the right time.

“He’s a great age at 22 and wants to learn and improve, which is always a key ingredient in our recruitment.

“He plays on the shoulder and wants to stretch teams, and we feel he will thrive in our environment.”