IT’S NOW STEP BY STEP
ROSENIOR SPELLS OUT HIS STANCE ON CITY’S BATTLE FOR PLAY-OFFS
LIAM Rosenior admits to having concerns about the mentality of his Hull City players before their impressive 3-1 win at Cardiff City, which kept the Tigers in touch with the play-off pack.
City knew they must win against the Bluebirds after seeing Norwich City beat arch-rivals Ipswich 1-0, a game Rosenior’s players saw at the Cardiff City Stadium before they went out to warm up.
As it happened, the Tigers players produced a dominant performance thanks to a terrific first-half brace from Fabio Carvalho before Jaden Philogene regained his touch in front of goal against his former loan club. They have since gone on to claim a point in a 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough before a commanding 3-0 win against QPR to keep their hopes alive.
Owing to Norwich’s fine form, the gap remains at six points though City still have that game in hand at Coventry next Wednesday and Rosenior’s side go to Watford on Saturday knowing again that only victory will keep them in touch with the Canaries, who host Bristol City.
“I think if you look too far ahead, you lose focus,” Rosenior explained.
“You have to focus on the next game, step by step, that’s the way you have to do it. For me, all of my energy will be focused on how can we maximise our performance against Watford.
“For the players, they’ve been so focused. They’ve been brilliant so we’ve just got to continue to focus on what we can do and honestly, that is a difficult thing to do, but if you’re in elite performance, that’s what you have to do.
“I was worried before Cardiff. Some of the players were watching the Norwich game because Norwich were playing Ipswich early and they were watching that game go ahead just before they were due to go and warm up. I was worried, but their response to that was magnificent. They played really, really well.
“It’s natural now, in my day, it was like Grandstand or Teletext that you’d get results from or off the radio. Now it’s just on your phone, you can’t stop people looking at other things, so as long as they perform, that’s the most important thing.”
Since coming back from their warm-weather training camp in Antalya, City have won two, lost two and drawn once, but it was the display at Leeds on Easter Monday which gave Rosenior heart, despite losing late on at Elland Road.
He said: “What I would say in these last four games; Stoke was a real kick in the teeth because we had a three-week break before that.
“Since then, Leeds away, we played really, really well and deserved more.
“The performances have been what I want but now we’re starting to see the benefits of the result going with it.”