Sam Clucas coming good for Hull City on promise of a perfect 10

The Hull City midfielder – one of the unsung success stories of the Championship this season – confidently declared to manager Steve Bruce on the eve of the new campaign that he would deliver a 10-goal haul in 2015-16.

For someone dipping his toes in the Championship for the first time after previous experience in the lower divisions and non-league with Chesterfield, Mansfield Town and Hereford United, many might have seen that as a bold and perhaps wild prediction.

But Clucas is clearly a man who prides himself on sticking to his word and is firmly on course for achieving that milestone come season’s end.

The 25-year-old took his tally to five – only Abel Hernandez has scored more goals this term – in the Tigers’ routine 2-0 home victory over Cardiff City on Wednesday night, which took Bruce’s side back up to second spot for the first time since the morning of November 28.

With the season just past its halfway mark, Clucas remains on track to achieve his aim, which would delight both himself and Bruce in equal measure.

Clucas said: “I told the gaffer at the start of the season that I will get 10 goals. Every season I play, I aim for double figures.

“Touch wood, I have got 10 or more goals for the past three seasons now and I don’t see why it should be any different this season.

“I came off against Cardiff and was a bit disappointed to be fair. I could have had a hat-trick easily on another day.

“But it is just one of those things. The main thing is getting the three points.”

Clucas’s strike at the KC represented his fourth on home soil this season, with the Lincoln-born player – brought in for £1.3m from Chesterfield in the summer – having sampled the sensation of defeat in East Yorkshire just once so far this season.

For the midfielder and his team-mates, it is a case of long may it continue, with Hull and leaders Middlesbrough possessing the best home records in the Championship, with it perhaps no coincidence that they currently reside in the top two.

Each have won 10 out of 13 matches in their own backyard so far, losing just once, and have an identical points haul of 32 from a possible 39.

One thing is for sure, Bruce’s side will be the shortest of odds to extend their exemplary form at home when they welcome crisis club Charlton tomorrow, with the London outfit reeling after an embarrassing 5-0 reverse at Huddersfield Town.

Not that Clucas will lose focus.

Despite Hull being beaten just once at home this term, against Derby County – the side who theyleapfrogged into second place on Wednesday evening – Clucas admits that he remembers that televised 2-0 loss on November 27 perhaps just as much as any other result at KC so far this term.

As the saying goes, sometimes it is not the result that is particularly important, but the reaction.

Since that setback, the Tigers have won their last five home matches in all competitions and Clucas believes the Rams reverse maybe did him and his team-mates a bit of good in the long run.

He said: “That gave us a bit of a kick up the backside as we thought we were better than we were at the time.

“We have bounced back now and are putting the points back on the table and hopefully we can keep the home form going until the end of the season.

“At this time of the season, the main thing is getting the three points on the board because games aren’t going to be pretty with the weather and pitches.

“It’s about getting three points on the board to try and get to where we want to be at the end of the season, which is in the top two.”

Wednesday night may have borne all the characteristics of a landmark win, with Hull moving up to second place and reaching the 50-point barrier for the campaign, but Clucas insists that all he is concerned about is maintaining concentration – with those sort of accomplishments quickly rendered meaningless by a poor result, or two, in his eyes.

And just as he was not distracted by chatter that Hull could move up into the automatic promotion places for the first time in just under seven weeks ahead of the Cardiff game, the last thing that he will be caught doing now is getting carried away now that they have.

He added: “I try not to look too far ahead because there are plenty of games left. But you always hear people saying it.

“When I am at home my friends are saying it and when I get to the dressing room, there’s always one or two lads that say, ‘Come on lads, we win tonight and we go second’ and so on.

“I haven’t looked at the points, but it’s always good to aim for the top and now the main thing is staying there.

“We have got to put a run together now because we know if we slip up, there are teams beneath us who are going to go out there and get three points.”