Hull City prospect Daniel Batty growing into the task

HAVING experienced the pain of being released by Leeds United at the age 16, Hull City's Daniel Batty is not someone to be fazed by the opening game of the season ending in defeat.
On target: Hull City's Evandro Goebel, right, celebrates scoring against Villa with Fraizer Campbell.On target: Hull City's Evandro Goebel, right, celebrates scoring against Villa with Fraizer Campbell.
On target: Hull City's Evandro Goebel, right, celebrates scoring against Villa with Fraizer Campbell.

Instead, the 20-year-old plans to use the experience of starting in Monday night’s 3-1 loss to Aston Villa as a springboard both for himself and the team.

“We were very disappointed,” said Batty, who impressed on only his second league start for the Tigers. “It was a good start to the game, we got ourselves in front (through Evandro) and had some good momentum. We were keeping the ball quite well.

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“There was a threat about us and the togetherness felt to be quite strong. The structure was good and we pressed as much as we could.

“It is something for us to work on, especially as it happened at the start of the season. We need to work on that and push on.”

For Batty, rejected by Leeds after 11 years with the club due to being too small, this could be a big season after head coach Nigel Adkins followed predecessors Mike Phelan and Marco Silva in seeing big potential in the midfielder.

“The targets for myself are just to play as much as possible and keep getting games under my belt,” said Batty. “Pre-season was good, a lot more involvement for me. Nice to get a look at things and play the game.

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“It feels like a fresh start to me. I am not in between 23s and first team. I have been working as a structure so it has been good for me.

Aston Villa's Jonathan Kodjia and Hull City's Jordy de Wijs battle for the ball during the Sky Bet Championship match at the KCOM Stadium, Hull. (Pictures: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)Aston Villa's Jonathan Kodjia and Hull City's Jordy de Wijs battle for the ball during the Sky Bet Championship match at the KCOM Stadium, Hull. (Pictures: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)
Aston Villa's Jonathan Kodjia and Hull City's Jordy de Wijs battle for the ball during the Sky Bet Championship match at the KCOM Stadium, Hull. (Pictures: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)

“To start against Villa was good. I enjoyed that the manager put trust in me. He said: ‘Go do your thing’. Hopefully, I did that. It would be nice to continue.

“I would like to do well, keep pushing forward. Same for the team. This is a good group of lads, we will work hard and get to where we want to be – which is high up the leaderboard.”