Hull City defender Alfie Jones on Tigers' need to get ugly at critical time in their Championship season - and for Tim Walter

Should he remain in situ after the final international break of 2024, his side’s next fixture at Luton Town arrives with flashing hazard warning lights when the Tigers travel down the M1 to Bedfordshire.

Should it end in defeat, there’s a very real chance that sixth-from-bottom Hull, level on points with the four teams immediately below them - including their next opponents and the side currently occupying the final relegation spot in Cardiff City - will find themselves in the drop zone. That could well be the tipping point for Acun Ilicali.

In his utterances with the press, Walter has steadfastly stuck to the mantra of only being concerned with performance in his quest to pull Hull, without a win in seven matches, away from a nasty looking situation.

He spoke of his innate conviction that his side’s current levels of play, which he believes have been good by and large - the first half at Oxford United and second period on Sunday for example - are the key to things changing. The hard currency of results paints a different picture.

Those who have been around the block in Championship circles may also offer a counterpoint with the games coming thick and fast on the resumption.

Hull, who return to action at Kenilworth Road on November 23, have 11 games to navigate in 42 days before leaving the field against Leeds United on January 4. It’s roughly a quarter of the season.

The schedule is largely this; game, rest, recovery, game - with little ‘real’ time on the training ground. Performances are a bonus in the congested period of the season and results massively take pre-eminence in the situation of Hull, who have kept just one clean sheet so far this term. Pragmatism over idealism.

Certainly in the next game; a proverbial ‘six-pointer’, with every additional match without a win making his tenure look more precarious.

Something has to give unless things change fast and will. Both Walter and his similarly besieged Luton counterpart Rob Edwards, should he also survive the break, find themselves in the same boat.

Central defender Alfie Jones, in his fourth season at this level, has seen enough of the Championship to know that City’s next win has the potential to be highly significant in the context of their season. Certainly if it arrives in a week-and-a-half’s time.

He said: “We just need to get back on that straight and narrow and working our way up the table.

"All it takes is a result and the fans will be right back behind us. We understand their frustration. When you are not winning games, it’s frustrating and they are paying money and travelling hundreds of miles. But if they (results) start picking up, they will be right behind us.

"We just need that scrappy win and goal. We’ll take it as long as there’s three points on the board. We are due one of those.

"It’s a results-based business and they can only be happy when we get results. We need to get some wins on the board and especially in this league, you do that and you are back there fighting again.”

Jones turned 27 in October. The dependable foot-soldier has seen plenty in his time in East Yorkshire and in a squad which is not exactly stacked with hardened second-tier experience, the seniority of the likes of the Bristolian, captain Lewie Coyle and midfielder Kasey Palmer will be leaned upon in the key weeks ahead.

Jones was handed a character examination earlier in his career when he was shown the door by first club Southampton.

Then under-23s captain, his pride was bruised, but it gave him the ‘fire in his belly’ to prove the south-coast club wrong.

A loan spell as a young professional at Paisley-based St Mirren, 435 miles way from Southampton, also tested his mental fortitude prior to that in 2018-19.

In an SPL season which soon became a survival fight, Jones was one of the success stories for the Buddies, better and more rounded for the experience. It has seasoned him for the current scenario he and his team-mates are in.

He continued: "It’s been a rollercoaster of emotions (at Hull). At the moment, it’s more down than up.

"I’ve had some tough points and moments and that’s what you learn from and grow as a person and player. I’d like to think I am helping the lads out in the dressing room with that and feel like I’m one of the more experienced players now.

"I’d like to think I can be a calm influence in times like this and help the lads pick their heads up and keep confident and ready to fight. That side of my game has grown now.

"I might not be the loudest in the dressing room, but I can speak to players and they can speak to me, one to one and give them that guidance.

"There’s been a few players in the past I’ve learned from and coming through here, there were a lot of leaders. Richie Smallwood was great and being alongside Lewie, who is a top leader. It’s taking little bits from them and helping me grow.”