Hull City and Sunderland keen to avoid unwanted record

Ten times the two clubs went head-to-head in the Premier League over nine years and each clash had potentially huge ramifications in the fight to avoid the drop.

Never was this more apparent than last May, when a victory for the already doomed Wearsiders at the KCOM Stadium caused such damage to the Tigers that their fate was as good as sealed despite it being another eight days before relegation was confirmed.

What few could have imagined as Hull joined Sunderland in this season’s Championship is that this scrap for survival points when the pair met would continue. But it has, as a glance at the league table ahead of Saturday’s tussle at the Stadium of Light vividly illustrates.

The Black Cats are rock bottom of the table with 22 points from 27 outings. Just three points and four places higher sit a City side that has tasted victory once in three months.

It is a dire state of affairs and one that opens up the possibility of the duo earning an unwanted place in history by being relegated together in back-to-back seasons.

Such a fate has only befallen a pair of clubs three times in the long history of English football, the two most recent instances coming as Wolverhampton Wanderers tumbled from the top flight to the basement division in the mid-Eighties. Cardiff City took the final two steps with Wolves, Notts County the first two.

The Magpies were also involved the only other time two clubs locked in a downward spiral have faced each other three years running in different divisions, Doncaster Rovers joining the Meadow Lane club in being relegated to the Fourth Division in 1959 just 12 months after both had dropped out of the second tier.

For Hull and Sunderland to find themselves in danger of emulating such a spectacular fall from grace has left both sets of supporters rightly exasperated.

Even a change of manager in December has failed to bring the ‘bounce’ usually expected of new appointments with Sunderland thumped 4-0 at Cardiff last weekend and City having failed to score in five of their last six outings.

Nigel Adkins has been busy trying to bring in reinforcements during the transfer window. Two bids have been made for Aberdeen defender Scott McKenna and a third is expected but the Scottish club seem in no mood to sell.

“Scott is not for sale in January,” said manager Derek McInnes yesterday. “There has been an offer. There was then a secondary offer in terms of tweaking the figures but nothing more on the down payment. It doesn’t really matter. They (Hull) have been told we have no interest or appetite to sell Scott. He will not be sold in January.”

As welcome as a new addition to a defence that was terribly naive at times under Adkins’s predecessor Leonid Slutsky would be, City’s attacking options are causing the most concern going into this weekend’s trip to old foes Sunderland.

Not only has Nouha Dicko netted just three times since his arrival from Molineux in August but Fraizer Campbell can look back on having completed 90 minutes just twice in his 21 outings. Adama Diomande has also struggled.

Adkins, however, believes the imminent return from injury of Will Keane and Abel Hernandez can bring some much-needed potency to the Tigers’ attack.

“Will is a player who is talented and is looking in good nick,” the City chief said about Keane, who has been pencilled in for a possible first-team return against Nottingham Forest in the FA Cup.

“He just needs that period of time. We talk about looking elsewhere in the transfer market but we might actually have a player who can contribute in a big way, ready and fresh to go for us.”

Keane, having had three outings with the Under-23s after 14 months out, is further along the road to a return than Hernandez. However, the Uruguayan is back in light training following his ruptured Achilles in August and targeting a possible return next month.

With a World Cup looming, Adkins hopes Hernandez can realise his dream of being selected for the finals on the back of a strong end to the campaign with Hull.

“There is still a long way to go,” added the City chief. “But he is working hard. His attitude is spot on.

“He needs to play as well. He has got a World Cup to think about in the summer.

“The quicker he is back, the better for him and, importantly, for Hull City.”