Coventry City v Hull City: Ruben Selles looking for Tigers to be better leaders

The Spaniard's first match as coach saw the Tigers open the scoring for only the fifth time this season but as against Portsmouth, Derby County and Burnley, they had to settle for a 1-1 draw.

As Selles looks for improvements from his first game to his second, at Coventry City in Saturday's early kick-off, that is one he is hoping to see – not through negative game management but positive thinking.

"We are trying to never be that team that after going 1-0 (up) we change our way of doing things," said Selles, who saw Chris Bedia's 82nd-minute strike cancelled out by Rocco Vata's for Watford in the 88th on Wednesday. "If you analyse the (goal), we press high and it ends up in our box.

"If we stay low it will come from a second action, or whatever.

"We need to learn how to cope with those moments in games – when we are leading, we are drawing, how can we keep ourselves in the mode of, 'Okay, we know what is coming, we know what we can do.'

"Those moments, sometimes you can talk about it but you need to experience it so you can prepare for the next moment it happens.

"In that action, we need to stop the action before but keep the pressure on the ball.

"Next time we know how to act."

Making adjustments has been difficult with so little time before games, just as preparing his side for Watford was on the back of two training sessions. Selles has praised his staff and his players for the speed with which they were able to do it.

"What we do usually is after the game we take time to watch it individually then put our ideas together," he explained.

"I think the game expressed a lot of ideas of what we want from the team. Obviously the game was not perfect. Some of the points we will try to improve in the next game and coach in the long term.

"We cannot expect that after a couple of days everything will be perfect but it was a good expression.

"It's always important the way you deliver information because it's not only about myself and the training-ground staff but how they take information on board. We found them ready to go and the technical staff worked very hard to simplify those ideas.

"I was very pleased with the effort and hopefully we can keep that spirit."

He has a bit of a head-start this weekend in that it is not the first time he has faced Frank Lampard. Selles was Nathan Jones' assistant manager when Southampton won 2-1 at Lampard's Everton in 2023 - the Welshman's only Premier League win with the club.

"I know the team and Mark (Robins) was there for a long period making an impact in the Championship," said Selles of Coventry, a team he has never faced as a manager. "We faced Frank in the Premier League a couple of of seasons ago with Everton but it's going to be a little different.

"We can expect a little evolution from the last couple of games but knowing him before and the players he has available, we think we can adapt a couple of things and be successful."

One history lesson Selles does not want Hull dwelling on is their 12 matches without a win – a sequence that has put them bottom of the Championship after 20 games.

So congested is the bottom of the Championship, breaking that run in the west Midlands could lift them out of the relegation zone at a stroke.

"We will not try to make any narrative about what happened in the past, we need to focus on the next game and build on what we did on Wednesday with a gameplan that makes us successful," commented Selles.

"We are going to try to take one game at a time. The past will only support us as a platform to better things and the future we don't know."

The mood in the dressing room reflects the fresh start Selles has brought, rather than the league table, according to defender Charlie Hughes.

“The lads are really confident going into games now,” said Hughes. “The dressing room is a nice place to be at the moment, we’re excited to see what’s to come in the next few games and ready to push on.

"Football happens and it’s never nice to see anyone lose their job (as previous coach Tim Walter did) and the whole team and the club wish team well but we’re excited to see what happens next.

"You play one style under one manager and another style under the next but in football a lot of changes can happen quickly but once we met the new gaffer we were ready to adapt and learn. That’s one of the biggest things in football, to learn.”

Central defender Alfie Jones is ready to return from injury. The hope is that midfielder Xavier Simons will be back next week.