IT’S WIN OR BUS
When we hit the road the wheels come off.. but home form can save us, says Daws
CAPTAIN Michael Dawson is writing off Hull’s away nightmares and says home comforts will keep them safe in the Premier League.
The Tigers have not lost at the KCOM Stadium under boss Marco Silva, and Dawson predicts it will stay like that.
It will need to, because Hull are pretty useless when they get on the bus for an away game.
Even when they play well, as they did here at Stoke, they still got beaten by three great goals.
“It’s feasible for us not to win away again and stay up – if we win all our home games,” said Dawson.
“There’s nine points there fir the taking. But we are putting pressure on ourselves to keep winning at home by not getting anything away.
“This was a hard scoreline to take, but it has happened to us too many times.
“We were frustrating Stoke, we had them on the back foot, they made changes.
“Then Peter Crouch gets a goal like he’s done all his career. Then there’s the third one – Xheridan Shaqiri’s done it again hasn’t he, like he did to us at home?
“It’s another loss, but results elsewhere went our way.
“What is it going to take to stay up? Who knows? We are only two points above the botton three. But we are back home next, against Watford.
“To leave here without anything was harsh. We’ve had meetings about our away form, we have been terrible on the road. But at 1-1 we had belief we could win never mind take a point. Our home results have put us in a position where we can stay up. It’s still in our hands and while it is we have massive belief,” added Dawson (right).
“People wrote us off at Christmas when we were adrift at the bottom. We will keep going, keep fighting and let’s hope come the end of May we are still a Premier League team.”
Hull haven’t won an away league game since August 20 at Swansea, and have collected just two points in that time, at Burnley and Manchester United. There are still trips to Southampton and Palace to come, but Dawson is relying on his manager’s amazing record.
Silva hasn’t lost at home with four clubs across three countries in three years – so watch your backs Watford on Saturday and then Sunderland and Spurs. When Harry Maguire (below) equalised Marko Arnautovic’s excellent opener you could have put money on Hull winning. Maguire thought so. “We were on top, thoroughly deserved to be level and I’m thinking if there’s a team that’s going to win it’s got to be ourselves,” he admitted.
Stoke were so rattled keeper Lee Grant shoved team-mate Erik Pieters in an on-field rant after Oumar Niasse had fired over. “They had lost a few games on the spin, and there was a lot of tension in the ground,” said Maguire.
But subs Jon Walters and Crouch combined for the latter to connect with a blinding header, before Shaqiri sealed it with a 30-yard special.