Hull City aim to take advantage of welcome break

Thriller: Hull City's Tom Eaves, centre right, celebrates scoring his side's fourth goal of the game with team-mate Josh Magennis.

A head-spinning and dispiriting fortnight ended with a 4-4 draw at home to Swansea City on Friday, after which coach Grant McCann gave his players and himself a weekend off.

With the likes of Jordy de Wijs, Reece Burke and Martin Samuelsen back in training today, it should almost feel like a reset for a team which has claimed two points from the last 21 available.

Josh Magennis has been through worse, but even the creator of Tom Eaves’s ‘95th-minute’ equaliser was glad of a breather.

Hull City's Tom Eaves slides in the equaliser against Swansea on Friday (Picture: PA)

“It was important for the boys to get a couple of days away from the football club to get their heads back in place and come back refreshed,” argued McCann.

Since New Year’s Day, Hull have had to integrate new players, hosted Chelsea in a televised and hard-fought FA Cup tie, lost leading goalscorers Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki on deadline day – ushering in yet more new faces, and seen their injury list reach double figures.

Deadline-day signing James Scott is the latest ruled out for the season after being sent for an ankle operation.

“It’s our dream to play football but with these hectic schedules still coming off the back of Christmas, we haven’t really had a break,” said Magennis. “This league’s absolutely relentless.

“If we had got beaten on Friday I think there would have been a cloud over the training ground.

“There’s been a lot happened the last few weeks but compared to Bolton it’s paradise! Getting warm water, getting fed and paid on time, I’m on cloud nine!

“Friday was mental. We took the lead three times and when they scored the fourth I’m thinking: ‘Is this actually happening?’ We managed to get the equaliser and that was the minimum result we should have come away with.”