Mccann’s words galvanise City to another victory
GRANT Mccann’s half-time words of inspiration galvanised Hull City as they recorded a fourth successive Championship victory.
The Tigers recovered from the frustration of conceding an equaliser on the stroke of half-time following George Honeyman’s well-taken header after 29 minutes to score just eight minutes into the second half through Ryan Longman.
It proved the winner and sees City move five points clear of the bottom three.
Mccann admits his side needed some words of encouragement having seen Tom Bradshaw race clear to equalise but says he’s delighted with his side’s response.
“At this level you’ve got to take your chances and if you don’t you get punished,” Mccann said.
“We’re taking our chances, I think we’ve played better than we’ve shown in some games this season and definitely in these four games we’ve won.
“We’ve taken opportunities that have come our way and scored first in games which have helped us.
Bradshaw’s leveller saw the Tigers concede for the first time since their 1-0 loss at West Brom on November 3 - a span of 336 minutes.
“It’s the first time we’ve conceded in three games and we showed that real edge about us again to go and try score again so that’s pleased me but most importantly the three points,” Mccann said.
“Pressure is only materialised from the outside, on the inside it doesn’t happen, we are very much as one, as a group and always have been.”
Mccann admitted his side felt a bit deflated heading into the interval after Millwall equalised in the dying moments of the first half.
He said: “The changing room was a bit down at half-time but I said we can’t change that, it’s gone, let’s see if we can start the second half well.
“We had to be strong at the end, when Millwall brought (Matt) Smith on, they’re dangerous in terms of balls coming in the box. He’s phenomenal in the air so we had to be good with second balls and most of the time we were.”