Let’s hope City have made the most of the festive lay-off
It’s been two long weeks for Hull City to fester following Portsmouth’s win at the KCOM Stadium before Christmas. The players and manager would have been desperate to get up to the Stadium of Light on Boxing Day and put it right, but unfortunately, given the coronavirus situation that wasn’t possible, and then of course, we lost the Lincoln game, too.
Three straight league defeats, four if you include the penalty loss at Stevenage in the FA Cup - things have certainly taken a turn for the worst, or a blip as the manager put it.
If anything, the break came at the right time for Grant Mccann and his team.
They’d have had a big meeting in the days after the Pompey defeat to go over a few things, probably get some things off their chests before preparing for what they thought was a trip to Sunderland on Boxing Day.
Performances in recent weeks haven’t been great and results have reflected that; the players looked like a rest was needed.
It’s not beyond the realms of possibility for the Tigers to have lost a couple more games given their form coming into Christmas, further evidence, I feel, that the break was timed nicely.
I wrote in this column only a few weeks ago after the win over Ipswich Town that I thought City had the chance to go on and win the league.
That assumption was given based on the fact the Tigers weren’t playing that well but winning games with at times, a fair bit to spare.
Unfortunately, since the Ipswich match, the 2-1 success over Doncaster and point away to Oxford, performances have got worse with results starting to follow.
You’d be struggling to find too many positives from the defeats to Shrewsbury, Blackpool and Portsmouth - or Stevenage who are rock-bottom of the Football League.
A quick look at the table would still see Mccann crack a smile, but he’ll know performances of individuals and collectively must change.
Having a lengthy break will have been just what the players needed, and a chance to spend some quality time at Christmas with their families would have been important, too - maybe coming back with fresh ideas for themselves and the manager.
As a footballer, one of the tradeoffs you make is that the Christmas period is focused around the football, whether it be training or matches, and for City this year, they will have been able to make the most of it.
Players would have been given fitness plans to stick to over the break, there would have been no excessive mince pie eating and sherry drinking that’s for sure!
Speaking personally, I’d have loved to have been off for such a long spell at Christmas, to spend time with the family - even if we weren’t allowed to go anywhere.
That should see them come back refreshed and ready to go for the visit of Charlton on Saturday.
Like City, they’re not in the best of form and it presents Mccann’s men with a really good opportunity to start the New Year with a positive result and just lift spirits a little bit after a poor end to 2020.