Pressure of sealing instant Sky Bet Championship return welcomed by Hull City

“Promotion,” says Matt Ingram without blinking an eyelid.

“Everyone here wants to get promoted, preferably automatic or if it’s through the play-offs, we want to be in and around the top pushing for promotion.”

The goalkeeper is only parroting the thoughts of coach Grant McCann.

“If you don’t aim high what’s the point of aiming for mediocre?” argues Ingram, given the first chance to stake his claim to be No 1 goalkeeper by a training-ground injury to George Long. “We’ve just come down from the Championship and we want to get back there. It’s where Hull City belongs.”

There are plenty of League One clubs with recent Premier League experience who can tell them that once a club gets in a tailspin, it is hard to get out of.

The defensive problems which dogged them last season – never more painfully than in July’s embarrassing 8-0 drubbing at Wigan Athletic – remain, as do four of the five-man defensive unit that day.

Josh Emmanuel or Lewie Coyle should provide reinforcement at right-back, and Alfie Jones and Festus Arthur will challenge the centre-back pairing. LA Galaxy are showing an interest in Jordy de Wijs, and his time may be coming to an end.

It is in midfield, where Leonardo Da Silva Lopes where the most reinforcement has come. Richie Smallwood has been installed as captain to provide the leadership so badly lacking when captain Eric Lichaj and his deputy Jackson Irvine left in June, and Greg Docherty comes from Rangers to combine craft and graft.

With McCann at the helm, signing a number of players he had worked with at Doncaster Rovers and Peterborough United, Hull looked a lot like a League One squad last season once the stardust of Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki left. That was a problem in the Championship, but now those players should find their level.

Youngsters are expected to develop too, with Kean Lewis-Potter, Sean McLoughlin and Jacob Greaves tipped to make an impact.

It will not be easy, though. Wigan, Sunderland, Oxford United and fellow relegated Charlton Athletic all look strong.

The Latics have got rather too good at yo-yoing, albeit they need a complete rebuild after their post-administration firesale. As well as resources to blow their rivals away, Sunderland also have Phil Parkinson, who knows his way around this level. Oxford United’s Karl Robinson is another quality manager and Ipswich Town are a big club too.

Lee Bowyer has shown himself well capable of blocking out the Charlton Athletic melodramas and creating his own has not held back Fleetwood Town’s Joey Barton. Burton Albion are another who consistently punch above their weight.

To properly fulfil their potential, Hull need to clear the decks in the boardroom, and for the unpopular Allam family to hand over to owners who can unite a city behind its club. Without that, Ingram’s ambition will be harder to fulfil than it should be.

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Thank you, James Mitchinson. Editor.