Mccann: Conceding gave us mountain to climb
GRANT Mccann criticised his side’s poor defending as Hull City bowed out of the Papa John’s Trophy against Lincoln City.
On a rain-sodden night at the KCOM Stadium, City fell behind when Harry Anderson was afforded too much space to slam in the opener and give the hosts something of a mountain to climb on a quagmire of a pitch.
Greg Docherty scored the second-half equaliser for 1-1 before the game was settled on suddendeath penalties.
“Not pleased to go out, we wanted to go all the way,” said Mccann.
“I thought we were good, Lincoln are a good team.
“It’s frustrating to go out of the trophy, the penalties is always a bit of a lottery and it wasn’t to be.
“Yes, poor defending from us. “It’s disappointing that we didn’t see the danger, that we didn’t stifle it out, a man is free in our box, that’s something we need to learn from and get better.
“Defensively we’ve been really good this season, one lapse in concentration has put them 1-0 up - that was the only chance they had in the first half and it gives us a mountain to climb to try and get back into the game.
“Given the context of the way we played we were good, our performances levels were good.
“It didn’t drop for us, I thought Keane was going to win it for us in the last second - the ball has gone under his foot, maybe the pitch has got something to do with it, usually Keane would stick that away.
“It’s disappointing to lose the game as we did on the penalties, but in terms of the performance level I was quite pleased.”
City have no time for self-pity, with a clear focus now on promotion back to the Championship and no more distractions.
The Tigers face Burton Albion at the Pirelli Stadium on Saturday, before welcoming Lincoln back to the KCOM for a clash of the league’s top two.
“We have to turn our focus to the league on Saturday,” he said.