Hull City vice-captain Jacob Greaves on why Tigers' home form is particularly tough for him

Namely sort out their home form which has rapidly turned into the narrative of their 2022-23 campaign.

For a local lad in the shape of Tigers vice-captain Jacob Greaves, the pain is particularly acute.

Being a defender makes it doubly difficult to stomach.

After winning their opening three matches at the MKM Stadium this term, City’s numbers have nosedived in alarming fashion.

They have lost seven of their last eight games in East Yorkshire, with the most recent one against Reading before the World Cup break being the most galling.

City share the joint worst record for home league defeats in the current campaign, alongside the trio of Forest Green, MK Dons and Rochdale.

Each have lost seven times in front of their own supporters, a lamentable statistic with the Christmas decorations only just going up.

Cottingham-born Greaves, whose father Mark is a former Hull player, said: "My family come to watch the home games and to not win at home is a little bit disappointing.

"It is probably more disappointing for myself, being in the team, that we are not winning games.

"I know the fans are disappointed, but the players are devastated that we have lost too many home games and we are desperate to put that right."

The fact that City have conceded goals in the first half of home fixtures in all but one of their 11 Championship games in the current campaign is one major reason for their grim recent statistics.

Hull have conceded more home goals than any other EFL side, with their leakage of 20 goals being pretty damning.

On the issue regarding first-half concessions, Greaves added: "It has been a common theme and when we have not done it, we must have won or got a result out of the majority of games that we have had.

"If we can see it out until the second half and then hit the reset button and go again..

"But sometimes, you concede goals and just have to react better and defend better.

"We have got to try and keep more clean sheets and have only kept two this season and they have been away from home.

"The last clean sheet at home was against Reading last season and it is not really good enough.

"If we can have that structure to build on from clean sheets - I know we did that a lot last season - we will score goals, moving forward."

City have looked the part on occasions, but all too sporadically in 22-23. In Championship life, winning ugly is always part of the ticket.

It’s something they are guilty of not doing enough of, for sure.

They are far too close to the Championship trapdoor for comfort.

If results go against them on the return to action after the World Cup hiatus on Saturday, they could find themselves in the bottom three by the time they take the field against high-flying Watford next Sunday.

They return to action in front of their own supporters on December 17 when they play host to a Sunderland side who pocketed three points on their last visit to Yorkshire at Huddersfield Town on November 2.

Greaves continued: "Every time we have won, we have dominated games and created a lot of chances and we have not really been battered and won a game this season.

"If we don't have the ball and are under pressure, it's about seeing it out. We have not won ugly and that would be nice."