External pressure no problem for Hull City insists Grant McCann as Millwall are seen off

It would seem a fair assumption to make that a run of four consecutive victories would ease the pressure on a Hull City side that was mired in the Championship relegation zone just over three weeks ago.
Hull City head coach Grant McCann. Picture: Getty ImagesHull City head coach Grant McCann. Picture: Getty Images
Hull City head coach Grant McCann. Picture: Getty Images

But, Tigers chief Grant McCann insists that neither he nor his players were under any pressure in the first place, even after they lost five games on the bounce prior to the recent international break.

A team apparently transformed, City followed up wins over Barnsley, Birmingham and Cardiff with a 2-1 home success over Millwall on Saturday, with their head coach using his post-match media duties to reaffirm that his camp is a united one.

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"Pressure only materialises from the outside. Inside, it doesn't happen," he said.

"We're very much as one as a group and always have been. We've got a very good group of players, a good changing room, we've got a really good mentality around the club.

"The pressure only comes from other people, different sources, they want to write things and try and put pressure on you.

"For me, we stay as one with a real siege mentality and keep trying to do what we're doing."

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City did indeed manage to carry on doing exactly what they have been doing against Millwall, scoring first, defending bravely and, ultimately, coming out on top.

George Honeyman headed in Jacob Greaves' left-wing cross to break the deadlock on 29 minutes, though Tom Bradshaw beat the offside trap to level matters on the stroke of half-time.

Undeterred, the Tigers reclaimed the lead eight minutes after the resumption, Ryan Longman pouncing from close range after Bartosz Bialkowski parried Josh Magennis' effort into his path.

Millwall came on strong during the final half an hour, though the togetherness that McCann referenced was there for all to see as his players dug deep to see the game out.

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Reflecting on Saturday's display the Northern Irishman added: "It's another good win, it was nice to score the first goal again but we're obviously disappointed to concede when we conceded.

"The changing room was a little bit down at half-time because of it but we picked them up and said 'we can't affect that, it's gone, let's see if we can start the second half well' - and we did that.

"We had to be strong at the end. I thought we limited them to not many real efforts at our goal and although we didn't have many ourselves, we're just pleased with another three points."