Hull City still have time to rescue season, insists Grant McCann

The Tigers find themselves in the bottom-three for the first time this season ahead of today’s trip to Birmingahm City.

Nine losses in 11 league outings prior to the coronavirus-enforced suspension of 2019/20 saw the East Yorkshiremen plummet down the table and become embroiled in an eight-way fight for survival.

Yet, it was Saturday’s home reverse to fellow strugglers Charlton that proved to be the tipping point, Lee Bowyer’s men leapforgging their hosts and dumping them into the drop zone courtesy of a 1-0 success at the KCOM.

McCann, however, does not believe that too much should be read into his team’s current position and is adamant that with eight teams separated by only eight points, all is still to play for at the bottom of the division.

Asked if he considered sliding into the drop zone a a psychological blow, the Northern Irishman replied: “No, not really. 

“It’s tight down there. We don’t see it as a blow and that the season’s over, we’ll all pack up and go home. 

“We look forward to the next. We’ve got eight games to go. There’s a long way to go, a lot of points to play for. We’ll stay positive and stay focused on what we can do in the training ground and what we believe we can do.

“Everyone knows it was disappointing to lose last week, really disappointing. But you can’t cry over it, you can’t mope around all week. You have to go on to the next game. We’ve got huge games every week.

“It’s not going to be settled over the next two or three games, it’s going to go longer than that, I’ve no doubt about it. 

“A lot of teams are within reach of the top half or within reach of the bottom three. That’s how tight it is and we’ve just got to stay focused on us.”

Having failed to win in the league since their New Year’s Day trip to Sheffield Wednesday, City desperately need three points at Birmingham to breathe new life into their season.

A bad as their recent form has been, they can take some solace from the fact that they cruised to a 3-0 triumph the last time the sides met, at the KCOM in late December.

The 16th-placed Blues have become somewhat harder to beat since then, however, losing just one of their last 12 Championship fixtures.

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