Hull City owner Acun Ilicali in 'no rush' to appoint manager despite 2-0 defeat to Birmingham City

Acun Ilicali, their flamboyant owner, reiterated before Sunday’s Championship encounter with Birmingham City that he is still in ‘no rush’ to appoint a successor to Shota Arveladze, who he dispensed with a few hours before their home game with Luton Town 16 days earlier.

“If a new coach comes in he’s going to have three games in six days,” told BBC Radio Humberside before kick-off, in reference to the trips to Blackpool on Wednesday and Rotherham United on Saturday that follow hot on the heels of this game.

Whether any greater urgency was injected into the Turkish media mogul after watching his team’s rearguard breached twice more without a net-rippling response of their own, only Ilicali knows.

But he is perhaps being mindful to get the appointment, and any leaks about the identity of the incumbent, just right having had his fingers burned by Pedro Martins, the Portuguese, who sat in the stands as the manager in waiting for the previous home game, only for the deal to collapse.

“The Pedro Martins situation is over,” insisted Ilicali, who is adamant it was he, and not Martins, who ended discussions.

“I didn’t see the determination. I want somebody who gives their whole energy here.”

Ilicali also wants a manager who will entertain, to attack his way to promotion. If Hull carry on like this it will be a promotion bid from League One.

This was their seventh defeat in eight games, and the sixth time in that sequence they have failed to score.

Andy Dawson, the caretaker manager, is on a hiding to nothing, not helped by leaders like Jacob Greaves conceding soft penalties in the 13th minute to give Birmingham a platform to build on, Troy Deeney smashing the ball past Nathan Baxter.

There were some good moments from Hull going forward; Cyrus Christie forcing a fine stop from John Ruddy with Jean Michael Seri inches away from converting the rebound, and Greg Docherty cutting in from the right only to hit the side-netting, but they were few and far between.

Birmingham, barely a menacing attacking force themselves, carried the greater threat and would have had a second before the break but for a smart save by Baxter from Juninho Bacuna.

Two minutes after the restart, though, Bacuna made certain with a stinging drive from 25 yards that fizzed past Baxter, the space he was afforded inside the Hull half the home side’s greatest crime.

It could have been worse, Birmingham were awarded a 74th-minute penalty when Tahith Chong was played through by a tame backward header from Alfie Jones - who minutes earlier had saved a certain goal at the back post - and Baxter brought down the Blues man.

Deeney strolled up, and even though the game was delayed 20 minutes because the goals were two inches too big, hit his penalty so hard and high that the goalframe would have needed to have been the height of a rugby union cross bar to catch it.