Luton Town v Hull City: Tigers playing catch-up, says Grant McCann

In his former guise as Doncaster Rovers manager, the Hull City chief was on the receiving end of a 4-0 drubbing in March – on an early Spring day when the margin of victory for the Hatters could have been even more emphatic.

Luton’s move to a new stadium is on the medium-term horizon and should the Tigers fail to get a positive result at the homely venue this afternoon, then McCann is unlikely to bemoan its loss as one of the few ‘old-school’ stadiums remaining in the top two divisions.

He said: “It is a tough place to go. It always is.

“We had a terrible result there last year with Doncaster. We could not get near them because they were flying at the time. We beat them at home, though.

“As you come into the ground, you have got the stands backing on to people’s houses. It is a great stadium in terms of that. I think they are moving into a new stadium in a year or two, so that will be a big change for them.

“They are a team that is used to winning over the last couple of years. It is a new manager and some new players but it will be tough.

“It is going to be a tough game but, as I always say, we will focus on us. I want us to be brave and on the front foot, to try and take the game to them. That is the way I want us to approach every game.

“We know what they are about. They have had a mixed bag of results and a couple of good wins. We have got to make sure we get the game-plan right.”

Hull head into the game on the back of six-match run without a victory in all competitions and McCann has acknowledged that his side are playing ‘catch-up’ and are behind schedule in terms of their projected internal points target.

“We are playing catch-up but we feel as though we can make that up in the next five games,” McCann observed.

“That is the plan for us to try and make up the points targets we have set.

“The players are well aware of that. We set high targets and if we can reach them, it will put us in a good place.

“The Championship is as tight as it always is. Any team that wins two or three in a row can propel themselves up into the top half and be a few points off the play-offs.

“We are only seven games in and we know what we need to do in these next five games to put ourselves in the place we expect to be after 12 games.”