Hull City rookie Brandon Fleming determined to make most of his chance
The 21-year-old defender, who spent last season on loan at Bolton Wanderers, has been something of a peripheral figure at the KCOM Stadium this term, featuring in just eight matches thus far.
But, the absence of first-choice left-back Callum Elder – presumed to be one of the unnamed group of Tigers players currently battling Covid-19 – meant that Fleming was handed a rare league start by his hometown club at the weekend.
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Hide AdLining up alongside 23-year-old Josh Emmanuel, Alfie Jones (also 23) and Jacob Greaves (20), the City academy product made up a seriously inexperienced home back-four, but more than held his own against the free-scoring Addicks.
Thus, Fleming is hopeful that he has done enough to stake a claim for more regular football.
Asked if he was eyeing a temporary move in January in a bid to get some additional minutes under his belt, he replied: “No, I feel like I’ve played well today, so let’s just see what happens in the next few weeks. Hopefully I keep my place in the team because what I want to do is play for Hull, that’s my main aim.
“I just want to play as many games as I can. Hopefully I’ve done enough today to keep my place for the next game.
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Hide Ad“That’s all I want to do, play well when I get the chance and play games because I’m 21 now it feels like I’ve been around the first team for quite a long time and I’ve probably not played as many games as I would like.
“But, I’ve still got plenty of time left to kick on.”
Fleming’s lack of first-team football owes much to the form of Elder, who has been a reasonably consistent performer under McCann.
And, the Australian’s rival for the left-back spot says that the competition between the pair for the one starting berth is a good thing for City.
“Obviously Callum is playing really well, I feel as if we’re pushing each other every day, we’ve got a good relationship and I feel like it’s healthy competition,” Fleming added.
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Hide Ad“When I get my chance I do my best to try and take it, that’s all I can really do. There’s not much I can do when Callum is playing the way he is, I can’t really knock on the gaffer’s door and be saying anything because he [Elder] is playing really well.
“It’s times like these when I do get the chance that I’ve just got to try and take it.”
A solid rearguard action from Fleming and his defensive colleagues provided the platform for a strong City performance against Charlton, and, while their own clean-sheet never really looked to be in danger, the home side could easily have scored more than the two goals they did manage.
But, in the end, efforts from Hakeeb Adelakun and Greg Docherty proved sufficient to seal maximum points and bring to an end a sequence of four League One games without a victory.
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Hide AdFor Fleming, the three-point haul which lifted Hull up to second place in the table was “massive”, while the clean-sheet and his own performances were a bonus.
“Every game is a massive game, so it’s a massive three points, it puts us back up there we want to be in the automatic promotion places,” he said.
“Charlton are up there as well, so against a promotion rival it’s a really, really big three points.
“As a defender, first and foremost I want to keep clean-sheets and we did that today. We felt comfortable, I thought we defended well from set-pieces and we made it difficult for them to break us down. We had a really good shape.
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Hide Ad“With the attacking players we’ve got at the other end, I think that as long as the defence keeps a clean-sheet we’ve got a really good chance of winning games.
“As you’ve seen this season, there’s not many games where we haven’t scored goals, so credit to the forwards and the defence.”
City got their noses in front after 18 minutes of Saturday’s contest, their breakthrough arriving from their first attack of any note.
Centre-half Greaves met a Charlton clearance near halfway and played the ball into the path of Mallik Wilks, who drove down the left before drilling a low centre across the six-yard-box.
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Hide AdA kind deflection diverted the ball into the path of the unmarked Adelakun, and the Bristol City loanee made no mistake at the far post.
Tom Eaves squandered a brace of clear opportunities to double the lead before half-time, but Greg Docherty’s clinical finish from a clever George Honeyman back-heel settled matters 15 minutes from time.
Hull City: Long; Emmanuel, Jones, Greaves, Fleming; Honeyman (Slater 78), Smallwood (Batty 84), Docherty; Adelakun (Mayer 78), Eaves (Lewis-Potter 70), Wilks. Unused susbtitutes: Ingram, Coyle, McLoughlin.
Charlton Athletic: Amos; Gunter, Pratley, Pearce, Matthews; Maatsen, Watson (Gilbey 10), Forster-Caskey, Morgan (Williams 61); Washington, Bogle (Smyth 46). Unused susbtitutes: Maynard-Brewer, Purrington, Oshilaja, Maddison.
Referee: M Coy (Durham).
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