Grant McCann happy to take positives from Hull City stalemate

Hull City have conceded 13 goals in four February matches, but Grant McCann took encouragement from his players’ reaction to Friday’s 4-4 draw at home to Swansea City.
Hull City manager Grant McCann.Hull City manager Grant McCann.
Hull City manager Grant McCann.

The Tigers led three times at the KCOM Stadium without winning. They conceded five goals in their previous home match, against Brentford, and three at Blackburn Rovers last week.

On the back of a transfer window which saw Hull not only sell their two best players, Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki, but also lose a host of others to injury, it would have been easy for them to feel sorry for themselves – even more so after going behind for the first time in Friday’s match after 84 minutes.

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“It’s nice to score four at home, the last time we did that was against Preston (in November),” said coach McCann. “The other side of it’s not nice.”

What was nicer was that his players felt the same way in the dressing room afterwards, rather than glorying in Tom Eaves’s 95th-minute equaliser.

“The boys were voicing their opinion,” revealed McCann. “They were the ones saying we can’t concede four at home.

“There was no malice or anything, it was really positive talk and it was nice to hear that. They understand we’ve dropped two points, we were in the lead three times, but they’ve showed good character.”

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Jordy de Wijs and Reece Burke are back in training this week, but neither featured for the Under-23s against Sheffield United last night. The juniors also have a Premier League Cup game at West Bromwich Albion on Friday.

“For us to lose de Wijs, Burke and (Eric) Lichaj, we’ve had to chop and change,” said McCann, whose defensive injuries have gone beyond those three. “When you’re chopping and changing all the time at the back it doesn’t breed any consistency. That’s not a slant on the boys who’ve played because they’ve done great.

“We forced Kevin Stewart onto the bench on Friday to give the boys a bit of a lift. Could he have played 10, 20 minutes? Possibly.

“It’s nice to have de Wijs, Burke, (Martin) Samuelsen, (Angus) MacDonald back this week. Angus will need some games in the (Under-)23s because he’s been out for some time but the other three will probably need one and we’ll get them back involved, hopefully.”