Hull City will bounce back says George Honeyman

Honeyman and his Tigers’ team-mates head into training today on the back of a reflective weekend.

After a flying start to the season, City hit the buffers in a punishing 4-1 televised loss at Fleetwoo on Friday – and they must now regroup ahead of another trip to Lancashire when they head to Rochdale.

For League One player-of-the-month nominee Honeyman, Friday was a sobering night. He may have levelled it up for Hull in the first half, but his mistake led to Fleetwood’s key second goal straight after the break and it was an error that the north-easterner is not shying away from.

Fronting up, he said: “It was a tough one. On a personal note, to set them up for the second was devastating. But it is about how we respond and Rochdale cannot come quick enough.

“It is a long old season and a reality check. As long as we are honest with ourselves, I am sure we will be okay.

“You do not want to dust it under the carpet and we have to look at it, realise what we can do better and respond well at Rochdale.

“We have had two away games before Fleetwood and have to get back to what we did in those games and the foundations of what gave us those days.”

Managers invariably learn more in defeat than they do with victories and that is likely to be the case for Grant McCann, who will have found out a fair bit about his players at Fleetwood.

It is something Honeyman is conscious of as well with the onus firmly being on the squad to respond at Rochdale.

He added: “The manager and coaching staff will probably learn more from it than they have in the previous four games because this is where characters have got to show up and stand up and be counted at Rochdale.

“It will be a similar sort of game and they have good quality. If we don’t go there with good application, they will pick us off as well. We have to learn and come back and be the men.”

On the notion of City being seen as a scalp for rivals in 2020-21, he added: “You have to get used to that and we are going to be seen as a scalp.

“With the start we have had and being an ex-Premier League club, everyone is going to enjoy coming to the KCOM with a nice stadium and a good pitch and we have to accept that responsibility.

“We are at Hull City and want to get promoted and have to match everyone, application-wise and then let our quality take charge of games.”

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James Mitchinson