Hull City v Charlton Athletic - Mentality of group impresses Tigers chief

The struggling Tigers, winless in 11 Championship outings prior to the suspension of 2019-20, return to action this afternoon when they entertain one of their relegation rivals in what is a crunch encounter.

While the outcome of this showdown between 21st-placed City and the side directly below them in the table wil not decide anything with plenty of football still to be played, the significance of the fixture cannot be understated.

Coming out on top would provide McCann and his men with a huge fillip and lift them five points clear of the Championship drop zone.

Defeat will likely dump them into the bottom three unless Wigan Athletic suffer a heavy defeat at Huddersfield Town and that is the kind of psychological blow that a side who have taken just two points from the last 33 on offer really need to avoid.

“We’ve got nine big games, obviously starting at the weekend against Charlton and we want to try and get off to a good start. That’s the main thing,” said McCann.

“I think every game is important, but we’re at home, we want to set our stall out early, so we’ll look to do what we can to win the game, there’s no question about that.

“At this stage of the season, every game is really, really important whether it be at the top or the bottom of the league.

“I’m sure that everyone is looking to the first game, whoever they’re playing against, it just so happens that we’re playing against Charlton, who are directly below us in the league and, hopefully, we can get the right result.”

Despite their wretched form prior to lockdown, McCann feels that his players are heading into today’s fixture well-prepared and in “a good place.”

He added: “It’s been a good three weeks or so, we’ve had some good friendly games.

“We played Huddersfield at the KCOM, we trained at the KCOM so we understand what it’s going to look like and feel like with no fans – it’s going to be different.

“We’ve had a game against Sheffield United, we’ve had a game against Newcastle. We’ve had good tests and for large periods in all of those games, the boys have done really well.

“I’ve been really impressed with the mentality of the group since they came back, they understand what we’re in for now.”

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