Hull City: Resurgent Huddersfield Town show way forward for Tigers

Almost 12 months on, Town are plotting a play-off mission and not merely keeping their heads above treacherous relegation waters. Such is Championship life.

For Hull, it provides perspective and a source of inspiration as head coach Shota Arveladze duly acknowledges.

Thankfully, for Hull’s sake, a hefty points penalty for Derby allied to Barnsley and Peterborough’s inability to pick up points consistently over the course of the season means they have enough respite above the bottom three to consider themselves as safe. In truth, it has been a curious campaign for the Tigers, with a spurt of wins in November and in late January keeping them out of the survival battle. For that, they should be grateful.

Smart summer recruitment laid the foundations for Town’s tremendous improvement this term and they have not looked back. Clubs like Hull are entitled to look on with envy and wonder.

Arveladze commented: “Yes, definitely. If you see how much (another) clubs can deliver and do it, it is always a positive thing.

“We are positive about the future of the club and these kind of clubs (Huddersfield) are examples who can give us more energy for the supporters, players, owners and people who invest money in this.

“We have to give them credit in terms of how well they have done to get there.

“Huddersfield have done well throughout the whole season and they are a very good and well-organised team who can play different systems – three, four or five at the back – and they have a good offensive team with a lot of creators.

“You know what you get from them and we will have a hard time against a very tough team. We will prepare where we can hurt them to get the best out of this game.”

Hull head into tomorrow’s visit of Huddersfield on the back of a grim – and somewhat embarrassing – five-match losing streak at the MKM Stadium.

Four of those matches have not seen so much as a goal from Hull, with Tom Eaves’s 90th-minute strike in the 3-1 reverse to Luton last time out representing the first occasion that the Tigers have netted in East Yorkshire in not too far short of nine hours.

As it stands, City have the worst statistical home form in the division and have scored the lowest amount of goals (16 in 19 games) along with Peterborough.

By contrast, only Fulham (37) and Bournemouth (34) have eclipsed Huddersfield’s Championship total of 28 points on their travels thus far.

Arveladze insists that the home issue is not a mental or psychological one. He is certainly not planning any superstitious changes to his pre-match routine heading into the MKM Stadium either.

He said: “I don’t think so. It (the talk) won’t go until I lose an away game. Then, you (journalists) will ask: ‘Now you have lost an away game!”

“It happens this way. We have bad games at home, but we have had good games as well. Maybe we don’t deserve it (this run). Nobody mentions that we beat Swansea (last home win on January 29). It’s all about the last game.

“It is still fantastic to play in front of your supporters and we will go again and do our best.”

Meanwhile, Arveladze reports some positive squad news ahead of tomorrow’s game with the Terriers, which is no bad thing given their recent run in East Yorkshire. Keeper Nathan Baxter and defender Lewis Coyle are among those who are available for selection again, with the club’s only injury casualty being winger Randell Williams.

Arveladze said: “Except Randell Williams, everybody is fit. It is only Randell who is not fit yet, he has been out for a long time.

“He is not fit to train (fully) with the group, but does some things with the group like warming up and some passing sessions.

“But then we have to keep him out to make him stronger.

“Lewie trained with the group already and is fully fit. He has had seven weeks, but of course, it is not easy after two, three or four sessions to come back. But he is good and doing well and he has trained with us and we hope we will be a part of it (on Friday).”

On his improved options, he continued: “It is good for competition with each other and they keep pressure on to make sure they perform better.

“Ok, it sometimes gives headaches to the coach, but it is a good headache which you have to solve and make the best choices.

“Every coach and manager is looking for the group to be fit to play and want to play.

“This is where we’re at – looking forward.”

Keane-Lewis Potter, Markus Forss, Allahyar Sayyadmanesh and Harvey Cartwright are due to return to training today following international duty.