Hull City: Lewis Coyle confident Tigers can turn season around as Tim Walter pays price for wretched campaign
LEWIE COYLE says he has seen enough in Hull City's dressing room to turn around the form which cost coach Tim Walter his job.
On Wednesday the Tigers sacked the German after just three wins in his 18-match tenure, all within the space of 11 days in September/October.
But it was more than just the results – nine without a win and a fourth consecutive defeat on Tuesday when they were beaten 2-0 by a Sheffield Wednesday side who have won more games at the MKM Stadium than Hull have.
Amongst the many anti-Walter chants during that game was a pointed one about the quality of the football from a coach who was brought in to entertain after Liam Rosenior's functional style saw the Tigers miss out on last season's play-offs by three points.
Financial fair play restraints saw Hull sell or return a host of key players after pushing the boat out in search of promotion and although a coach with a self-declared "unique" style was brought in early enough to have a full pre-season, most of his signings were not.
Ultimately, though, Hull-born captain Coyle has told his team-mates it is down to them to change Hull's fortunes. On Saturday they are at Middlesbrough, who went into Wednesday's game at home to Blackburn Rovers having scored 15 goals in their last four games.
"We need to turn it around and turn it around quickly," said the full-back.
"We're not in a good spot, that's plain to see, but there's only us inside the club that can turn that around. There's no excuses, it's down to us as a group of players.
"We can't seem to score first at the minute, they score (a Josh Windass penalty) and it has that same old story feel about it. In the second half we were throwing everything at it and they go down the other end and score (through Michael Smith).
"We need to be more ruthless in keeping the ball out of our net and going up the other end and scoring.
"We have to talk, as mad as that sounds. I'll talk to the boys.
"It's hard sometimes, especially nowadays to get a lot out of boys. People in general are a lot quieter than maybe I'm used to but I'll get around the boys and see if they need anything.
"I need them to be as happy as they can off the pitch so they can perform on it.
"This isn't a time to go your separate ways. It's going to require everyone, not just the lads playing at the minute – albeit it chops and changes all the time.
"When the chips are down that's when people stand up and be counted so maybe a trip to Middlesbrough is what we need.
"I maybe look back to my younger days at Leeds but I wasn't playing then, and we went through a rough patch in our first season back in the Championship. As a collective we've got enough experience and we've all had things in our life that have not gone right, sometimes bigger than football.
"There's definitely enough experiences in the changing room from life and football to turn it around from a dark place.
"Times like this are usually when you find out most about people but I'm more than confident I've seen enough already."