Hull City v West Bromwich Albion: Tigers pass character test, now Sergej Jakirovic wants consistency
Sergej Jakirovic praised the character have Hull City have shown since being mauled by Middlesbrough, but urged them to break the cycle of boom and bust at home to West Bromwich Albion.
The Tigers started December going 4-0 down at home to the Teessiders in the first half of their televised game, and went on to lose 4-1. But they responded with two good wins, most recently at in-form Millwall, and will be looking for a third against the Baggies.
"We showed a good reaction," said the satisfied coach. "It's not easy, especially after this Middlesbrough.
"This team has a very high work ethic and we had a very honest meeting after Middlesbrough and they showed very good character.
"Against Wrexham and especially Millwall away, we showed great reaction, we scored five goals in these two games and conceded just one."
Millwall had Femi Azeez sent off at 2-0 last Saturday, but Hull closed out a 3-1 victory.
"When they have 10 men, you can be relaxed, they punish you immediately and you start again to play at 100 per cent," said Jakirovic. "Millwall didn't have anything to lose.
"Except the first five or six minutes we controlled most of the game. That was maybe the best performance, especially away.
"We controlled, we didn't allow too many shots, we were very compact and stable and the defence especially play with so much focus and concentration. With Liam (Millar) and Mo (Belloumi) up front, every time you are dangerous.
"We had four games, three losses and now we have four games, three wins, so this is the Championship. We have to continue like this because we already showed that we can play good football."
And he believes Ryan Mason's West Brom are better than 16th in the Championship suggests.
"They are a good team, they beat Sheffield United," he points out.
"They have a couple of good players up front especially, so we analysed them and we are trying to prepare something for Saturday."
Enis Destan will return to the squad after injury. Kasey Palmer is also back in training, but after two months out, may be eased back. John Lundstram's target is Boxing Day, but Joe Gelhardt is not due back until mid-January.