Mccann’s men chase place in record books
In-form Hull City face a trip to Fleetwood Town tonight, knowing a fifth consecutive clean sheet on the Fylde Coast would see them equal a record dating back 95 years. Not since Bill Mccracken’s class of 1925, have City managed as many shutouts at the opening of a league season.
Avoiding defeat at Highbury would also see City go top of League One, with maximum points extending their longest winning run at the start of the season for 72 years.
And while that’s a record City’s 2020 manager Grant Mccann admits would be special, he’s more focused on the attacking aspect of his side’s play, some of which this season has been scintillating.
“I think it’s a great achievement, it’s something we wanted to do better in terms of being more resolute in our defending,” Mccann said.
“It’s not something we set out to do all the time, to keep a clean sheet – we want to score goals because we know if we press from the front, the more opportunities we’re going to get, and I think you’ve seen that in the first four games.”
City have so far seen off the challenge of Gillingham, Crewe, Northampton and Plymouth while at the other end they’ve scored six, which could have been at least double, but for chances spurned, something the manager says his players are working hard on to improve.
“We could have had a lot more goals, if you look back to Gillingham, the Northampton game and maybe the first half against Plymouth, there’s opportunities where we could have had three or four that we didn’t take,” Mccann continued.
“We’re working very hard on being more ruthless in the attacking areas, picking the right pass at certain times to guarantee the goal.
“We need to understand that, and more than keeping clean sheets. It’s not in my DNA, personally.
“I don’t set out to keep a clean sheet, I set out to see how many goals we can score and I know if we can do that, defensively we can be better.”