Hull City v Birmingham City: Sergej Jakirovic draws line under tension after October fracas
Hull City boss Sergej Jakirović draws line under Birmingham City tension after October fracas
Hull City manager Sergej Jakirović has drawn a line under tension ahead of his side’s reunion with Birmingham City.
The sides last did battle back in October and a fiery affair in the Midlands boiled over. A fracas overshadowed Hull’s 3-2 victory and words were exchanged between Jakirovic and Blues boss Chris Davies.
Line drawn under bad blood
Security staff had to pull feuding players apart but Jakirovic has brushed off talk of simmering tension.
“What happens on the pitch stays on the pitch, that’s it,” he said. “I understand him completely in this situation. He must understood me with my stuff as well. This is football. I don’t have any problems with Chris Davies or anyone from Birmingham.”
Jakirovic even had warm words for the Blues, insisting Hull will need to be “very, very good” to get the result they desire.
“They started good and then [had] some problems there,” he said. “I don’t know, I’m not involved.
“But I saw they invested a lot in the January transfer window. They bought this Spanish player (winger Carlos Vicente) who is a very good player who had a very good seaosn last year at Alavés.
“They have individual quality, some good players. They are a good team, they played a very good away game against Ipswich. We have to be very, very good.”
Hull City looking for late-season improvement
With four games remaining, Hull occupy the final Championship play-off spot. Sixth is a nervy position to sit in at this stage of the campaign and the Tigers cannot afford many more slip-ups after failing to win any of their last three.
“We can keep this frustration in every duel in the next games,” said Jakirović. “No matter how you won the game, or you lose the game, it’s always new game, new challenge.
“We are preparing for this new game and maybe to improve some things we noticed there. In these last two games against Coventry and Sheffield United, we played good. Mostly, we played good.
“We need to take benefit from our chances we create to finish the game earlier. We had a few very nice chances one-v-one with the goalkeeper. [We need] better decisions in the last third. This is something we need in this moment.
“This is football. When you dominate in some moments of the game, you should score, you should take your advantage through your chances.
“Still, we are in a fantastic position. We create our own destiny and we have everything in our legs. If we cannot win some games until the end of this [season], we don’t deserve to be there. It’s very simple.”