Faye aiming to be calming influence in Tigers’ quest

Hull City’s automatic promotion hopes were dealt a blow on Tuesday night by Championship defeat at home to main rivals Watford. Richard Sutcliffe reports.
Abdoulaye FayeAbdoulaye Faye
Abdoulaye Faye

A TIME of the season that Sir Alex Ferguson famously once described as “squeaky bum time” is when calm heads are called for.

No wonder, therefore, that Steve Bruce is delighted to have Abdoulaye Faye in the Hull City ranks.

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The veteran defender is one of just two Tigers players to have won promotion from the Championship, captain Robert Koren being the other after twice going up with West Bromwich Albion.

Faye’s experience of prevailing in the battle for a place in the Premier League is also fresh in the mind, the 35-year-old having been part of the West Ham United side that went up a little under a year ago.

The Hammers’ triumph over Blackpool at Wembley came at the end of a campaign that had seen Faye and his team-mates having to contend with not only a demanding fan-base but also the roller-coaster of emotions that is a typical Championship season.

City are well aware of those after Tuesday night’s defeat to Watford, their main rivals for second place behind runaway leaders Cardiff City. There was a palpable sense of dejection among the KC Stadium’s third highest crowd of the season at the final whistle as the reality of the automatic promotion race having been blown wide open by Troy Deeney’s winner hit home.

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Faye was as disappointed as anyone in amber and black. However, the experienced defender also believes it is important that everyone at Hull remains strong going into this weekend’s home encounter with Middlesbrough.

“We are in a fantastic position,” the former Senegal international told the Yorkshire Post. “If you had said to me when I signed for Hull (last summer) that we would be second with six games to go, I would have said, ‘I hope so’.

“We believe in ourselves. We have a good team and good players. We need to keep our heads up after what happened against Watford.

“It was a big disappointment, especially as we all knew it was a big opportunity for us. Watford are a good team but they only had one strike on goal and, unfortunately, it went in.

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“But it is gone now and we cannot be down. When you do that, it is no good. We have to be positive and mentally strong. At West Ham last season, we suffered setbacks but always bounced back.”

Resilience is something that City have shown in abundance this season, none more so than over the past six weeks when every defeat has been followed by a victory. To continue that run, the Tigers will have to beat Boro on Saturday – a result that Faye believes will pile all the pressure back on Watford, who face leaders Cardiff in the tea-time kick-off.

The defender said: “This is the Championship. A team can have a defeat and be disappointed but things change round very quickly.

“You have to be strong mentally. That is what the successful teams do. A team cannot allow a defeat to upset them.

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“If we win on Saturday then the Watford game will be forgotten. That is how football is. And if we can win, then Watford will know that before they play Cardiff. They are the leaders and will not make it easy for Watford. It will be tough.”

Faye’s season at Upton Park taught him plenty about the ups and downs of life in the Championship, a level he had never played at before the summer of 2012 due to the previous six years having been spent in the Premier League with Newcastle, Stoke and Bolton.

The Hammers went into last season as favourites to make an instant return to the top-flight but disappointing form at Upton Park – where Sam Allardyce’s men were held to eight draws – meant they had to settle for the play-offs.

Salvation came, however, via a 1-0 win over Blackpool and Faye believes lessons learned during the tense finale can help City this time around.

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“My time at West Ham means I know setbacks like Tuesday can happen,” says the veteran defender. “We had a lot of setbacks and sometimes the fans thought we might not make it.

“But, as players, we always believed. I can’t say there is one particular game (that stands out as a low point). More like a few, especially at home. West Ham had to win but sometimes we couldn’t.

“That upset the fans and brought more pressure, which was added to by so many teams who wanted to beat us. That is why we had difficulties.

“But we coped, in the end, and we can do the same here. At West Ham, we were an experienced group and would talk to each other. Those strong characters knew how to cope and how to slow things down when we got out on the pitch.

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“We had a lot of Premier League players and that helped a lot. Here, we have young players but they are good. It is going to be okay, I am confident about that.”

After Saturday’s visit of Middlesbrough, City travel to Ipswich and Wolves before ending the season with home games against Bristol City and Cardiff either side of the April 27 trip to Barnsley.

The table suggests the race for second is a straight fight between Hull and the Hornets but Faye said: “Crystal Palace could still finish well. That is what I mean about the Championship being strange. No-one really knows what will happen though Nottingham Forest are maybe a bit far away.”