Bruce bullish as toothless Tigers stumble towards line

‘DON’T worry....” sang almost 10,000 South Yorkshire voices in unison as Oakwell celebrated a crucial three points, “...about a thing. Because every little thing is going to be all right.”

The chorus from Bob Marley’s classic Three Little Birds has been adopted by Barnsley fans this season and it neatly sums up the belief that David Flitcroft has embedded in the club since succeeding Keith Hill as manager at the end of 2012.

However, as apt as the lyrics may feel to those whose loyalties lay with the Reds, the chances of any Hull City fans sharing with any conviction the belief that everything really is going to be all right are slim.

The Tigers have hit trouble at the worst possible time.

Six defeats in their last dozen outings is not the form of a team chasing automatic promotion. Worse still, City’s last three games – all against teams who will go into the final day sitting in the relegation zone – have yielded just one point.

No wonder, therefore, that Hull is a city living on its nerves right now as the win needed to clinch a Premier League return continues to prove elusive.

Against Barnsley, the Tigers were every bit as toothless as they had been in the goalless draw with already-relegated Bristol City eight days earlier.

With Matty Fryatt, understandably, looking every inch a striker who has spent the lion’s share of the season recovering from Achilles surgery and the usual attacking threat of wing-backs Ahmed Elmohamady and Robbie Brady non-existent, the visitors were well beaten.

At the final whistle, the frustration of missing another opportunity to get over the finishing line in the race for promotion boiled over as a couple of Hull players took exception to being berated by a few of the 5,909 fans who had filled one end of Oakwell.

Considering the fantastic season City have had – the club is, let’s not forget, sitting second with one game to play – criticism seems incredibly harsh.

But it also illustrates the nerves and anxiety that have crept into not only the club’s support but also, judging by the last three performances, the team itself.

Clearly, a big week lays ahead in the East Riding before champions Cardiff City head to the KC Stadium with manager Malky Mackay no doubt intent on giving his former club Watford a helping hand in the two-way scrap for automatic promotion.

“If we win, we are up,” says a defiant Bruce, who has twice taken Birmingham City into the Premier League. “So, I would rather be in our position than Watford’s.

“They have had two wonderful wins recently (over Blackburn Rovers and Leicester City) and they will be feeling good about themselves but the thing about the Championship is you never know what will happen next.”

City’s fate is still very much in their own hands. Beat Cardiff next Saturday and Watford cannot finish second. Draw or lose, however, and Hull will then be relying on favours at Vicarage Road from a Leeds United side without an away win since December 1 and missing suspended duo El-Hadji Diouf and Rodolph Austin following their red cards against Brighton & Hove Albion over the weekend.

On his side’s late stumble, Bruce said: “It is normal to have nerves and I would be disappointed if they didn’t have nerves and butterflies.

“But it is about handling the nerves and playing how you can play.

“Am I worried? Well, I am not as happy as I would like to be, that’s for certain. In my job you dust yourself down, try not to get too high when things are going well and not to get too low now.

“We are not going to try and fool anyone, that’s not my thing. We were nowhere near good enough to win that game. That is possibly the worst they have played under me.

“The big Achilles heel, as we know, is the ability to score a goal. That is the big concern and it is something we need to work on this week.

“We need to re-group and rally because we have a huge game next week.

“We can look and try to analyse why we haven’t played well but I don’t think it’s for analysing just yet.”

Asked if he thought his team were mentally struggling under the weight of expectation, Bruce launched a defiant response.

“No, we are not mentally shot,” he said. “We have had a bad week but to call them mentally shot is an insult to them. We have had a bad performance and we haven’t played but we have been beaten before and bounced back.

“We are now in the thick of it. We haven’t handled the situation as well as I would like but I’m quietly confident that we will still produce a performance next week to get over the line.”