Rochdale v Hull City - Grant McCann refusing to make panic changes after ‘one bad half’

Prior to their defeat at Highbury, the Tigers had won four League One fixtures on the bounce without conceding even a single goal in the process.

Their current points haul of 12 from a possible 15 on offer leaves the East Yorkshire side third in the table ahead of this afternoon’s trip to Rochdale, a scenario McCann says he would have settled for had he been offered it before a ball was kicked this term.

“Of course we’d have taken that, I think we all would’ve taken it,” the Northern Irishman said.

“We’ve had one bad half of football in the first five league games and it’s cost us at Fleetwood.

“This is a tough league and a tough league to get out of. You have to be ready for every challenge each week and Rochdale is going to be no different, they’re a good footballing team.

“We want to go there and respond. We want to bounce back and come away with a result.

“But, we’ve got to bear in mind that the group have had really good performances and results as well, so it’s not about ripping everything up and changing everything after one bad half .”

Although City’s loss to Fleetwood was just their first in the league since demotion, the result still went down badly among a large section of the club’s fanbase.

McCann, however, was not shocked by the response, but says that he is focusing only on factors that he can control.

“I’m not particularly surprised [by the reaction], we are used to it,” he added.

“We’ve got to make sure that we get our own house in order in here, on the training ground because ultimately that’s where we’re going produce the results. So, we just stay focused on what we are doing.”

A significant part of McCann’s focus this week has centred around trying to avoid a repeat of what happened on the Lancashire coast when City visit Rochdale today.

Having witnessed his troops concede three second-half goals without reply, the Hull chief has been left with plenty to ponder.

“We just weren’t right all night, everything was just off,” he said.

“There’s things we look at behind the scenes. Did we travel too early? Were we sit in the hotel too long? Did we do too much during the week in training?These are all things that we’ve looked at as coaches, but ultimately we didn’t perform on the pitch.

“I don’t think that any of us saw it coming, but we’re going to have games this season where we’re not at our best, so we have to dig in and try and get a result.

“We didn’t at Fleetwood, but it’s a learning curve.”

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James Mitchinson