Hull City v QPR: Impressive Tigers even surprise Grant McCann

Last season’s League One title-winners routed Preston North End on the opening day and will be aiming to make it two wins from two when they entertain Queens Park Rangers this afternoon.

That would represent quite the comeback for a team widely tipped to struggle on their return to the second tier, and even McCann has revealed that he wasn’t too confident heading into last Saturday’s curtain-raiser following an indifferent pre-season campaign.

Asked whether he felt as if such a comprehensive victory was on the cards in the build-up to Saturday’s 4-1 triumph at Deepdale, the Northern Irishman replied: “No, not really. Truth be told I was a little bit concerned.

“During pre-season I didn’t think we looked as fluent or as prepared as I would have liked, but maybe the boys were saving it. We were a little bit hit and miss over pre-season, so it was pleasing to see them come together and show what we are about.

“Hopefully we can keep doing that all season, that is what we are striving for.”

McCann isn’t getting too carried away, however, and realises that today’s showdown with a Rangers outfit who finished last term with a flourish is going to be far from a walk in the park.

“Back-to-back wins would be great, but it will be hard. It is hard going win, win in the Championship,” he added.

“It’s a big ask but we’ll give everything we possibly can to try and take the three points in front of our fans. We’ll try and take the game to them, but they are a very good team and we’ve got to make sure that we are good behind the ball before we can go and do that.

“We got our performance right last week against Preston, which helped us get the win.

“This game is going to be no different, in that we’re going to have to be really good. In fact, we’re going to have to be better than we were last week. QPR have strengthened very well in the summer and they’ve kept some of their bigger players.”