Swansea City v Hull City: Josh Magennis and Mallik Wilks back to strengthen Tigers’ attacking option

The Tigers made a stunning start to life back in the Championship, beating Preston North End 4-1 on the opening day, but have not won or even managed to score a goal since.

A stalemate at home to the Cherries a fortnight ago did however end a run of three consecutive defeats and that result, plus the availability of last season’s top-scorer Mallik Wilks, George Moncur and possibly Josh Magennis for today’s trip to Wales has provided Grant McCann with a welcome boost.

“I think we’ve had quite a tough start to be honest, we’ve played three teams who are expected to be in and around the top-six of the league in QPR, Fulham and Bournemouth,”the Northern Irishman said.

“Those three games, we’ve lost but we’ve had opportunities in all of them to take the lead and we didn’t do it – and ultimately in two of them we got punished.

“So, it was nice to see a little bit more defensive soundness about us in the Bournemouth game and it gives us a platform to build on given the fact that we’ve got [George] Moncur, Mallik Wilks, hopefully [Josh] Magennis back this weekend, a lot of attacking intent at the top end of the pitch.”

In addition, City’s fortnight off has enabled McCann the chance to get through some important work with his new-look squad on the training pitch.

He added: “We’ve brought nine players into the club and things take time. We have to continually work with them to understand their roles and responsibilities but also how the team functions.

“So it’s been a good time for us to work, it’s been really beneficial for the team.”