Hull City’s disastrous run leaves them on brink of Championship relegation

Saturday’s 1-0 home defeat to fellow strugglers Luton Town was the Tigers fifth on the bounce and 15th in their last 19 games. More significantly, it means that the East Yorkshire side are now almost certain to drop out of the Championship.

A seemingly unlikely sequence of events – including Hull actually winning a game of football – could yet potentially save them on the final day of the season, though their prospects look extremely bleak.

Three points from safety and needing to beat promotion-chasing Cardiff away from home on Wednesday while relying on results elsewhere going their way, the position in which Hull currently find themselves beggars belief.

Having turned over Sheffield Wednesday at Hillsbrough on New Year’s Day, McCann’s men hosted Fulham the following week knowing that victory would leave them within touching distance of the Championship’s top four.

Even though they lost to the Cottagers, City sat just three points shy off a play-off berth when the full-time whistle sounded on January 11.

They were genuine contenders for promotion at that stage of the campaign and any suggestion that that they would later end up being sucked into a relegation scrap would have seemed utterly ridiculous.

Yet, that is exactly what has happened following an unprecedented disintegration within their ranks.

Sparked by the departures of star players Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki at the end of the winter transfer window, Hull’s plummet down the table has been woefully spectacular. They have garnered just six points from the last 57 on offer.

“It’s been a disastrous five, six, seven months for us from late January onwards,” said McCann.

“Not winning enough games from the end of January onwards. We’ve been really poor. We’ve been disappointing.

“It’s everyone’s fault. It’s mine, the players, everyone connected inside the training ground. We are where we are for a lot of different reasons but we haven’t been good enough on the pitch.”

While the catalyst for Hull’s spiral towards the point of no return was without doubt losing Bowen and Grosicki, there have been a number of other factors at play.

City have been unwilling or unable to adequately replace their two star attackers. This has not only left them short on creativity and goals, but has also meant that McCann’s preferred 4-3-3 formation has just not worked during the second half of the season.

A horrific injury crisis pre-lockdown, plus a lack of experienced players or those with the character to help guide a young, seemingly brittle group on the field has also contributed.

It is however, a perceived stubborness and naivety from the club’s head coach that a growing number of supporters believe is to blame for the Tigers’ current predicament.

His team has won just once in 19 league outings, conceding a staggering total of 60 goals in the process, yet it took an 8-0 humiliation at Wigan last time out for McCann to consider starting with a different shape against Luton.

While the Northern Irishman refuted suggestions that he has refused to employ any alternative tactics, he admitted that he has considered his own failings before anything else.

“I always look at myself. Make no bones about that but what doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger. My mother and father have always told me that,” he said.

“One thing I am is a person who will always be honest with myself before I look at anyone else.

“It kills me. My wife and kids were crying on the phone the other night. It hurts. I take it so personal. I always blame myself first, I always look at myself.”

City began Saturday’s contest with Luton brightly and played at a good tempo and with real intensity. George Honeyman forced Sam Sluga to tip over an early goalbound free-kick, then drew another decent stop out of the visiting custodian with a wicked inswinging delivery from a similar position on the left flank.

Those incidents occurred inside the first three minutes of the contest, however that was literally that in terms of the hosts looking like they were going to breach the away defence.

They never got going in the second period, never once threatened to exert any meaningful pressure or force a breakthrough in a match they desperately, desperately needed to win if they wnted to stay up.

Meanwhile, the Hatters got better as the contest wore on and, in the end, Nathan Jones’ troops could have won by two or three.

Danny Hylton and George Moncur wasted clear opportunities to break the deadlock before Kazenga Lua Lua eventually did, sending a low strike from outside the box beyond the despairing dive of Matt Ingram to decide matters in the 86th minute.

Hull City: Ingram; Da Silva Lopes, MacDonald, Tafazolli, Elder; Stewart, Batty (Lewis-Potter 88); Wilks, Honeyman, Magennis; Eaves (Scott 75). Unused substitutes: Long, De Wijs, Burke, Toral, Bonds, Samuelsen, Jones.

Luton Town: Sluga; Bree, Cranie (Kioso 90), Potts, Bradley (C), Carter-Vickers, Rea, Mpanzu, Berry, Lee (Moncur 79), Cornick (LuaLua 70), Collins (Hylton 70). Unused substitutes: Shea, Butterfield, McManaman, Tunnicliffe, Shinnie.

Referee: R Jones (Merseyside).

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