Tiger feet remain on the ground
Ingram 6; Coyle 6, Jones 6, Greaves 7, Elder 6; Slater 6, Docherty 7, Crowley 6 (Whyte 71, 6); Wilks 6 (Smallwood 90), Magennis 8, Lewis-Potter 7. Unused subs: Long, Eaves, Scott, Emmanuel, McLoughlin.
FLEETWOOD: Cairns 6; Hill 6, Connolly 7, Donacien 6; Burns 7 (Biggins 86), Camps 6 (Duffy 87), Rossiter 6 (Finley 76), Batty 6, Andrew 6; McKay 7 (Garner 76), Vassell 7 (Saunders 76). Unused subs: Coleman, Holgate.
Josh Magennis. Scored Hull’s vital equaliser and
VITAL STATS
HULL CITY FLEETWOOD 2 ........ Shots on Target ......... 3 1 ......... Shots off Target ......... 4 7 ................ Corners ................. 4 4 .................. Fouls .................. 14 4 ............... Offsides ................. 4 75.7 Passing Success % .71.3 441 ....... Total Passes ........ 349 55.7 ..... Possession % ..... 44.3 47.2..Territorial Adv %..52.8
GRANT McCANN played it cool after Hull moved to the brink of an instant return to the Championship.
It was a perfect day for McCann’s men after third-placed Sunderland lost again, putting automatic promotion firmly within touching distance for the Tigers.
Victory left them three points clear at the League One summit above Peterborough and a whopping 11 points clear of the Black Cats with just four games remaining.
Hull, now unbeaten in 11, host Sunderland on Tuesday where another victory could potentially seal their rise.
After second-half goals from Josh Magennis and Keane Lewis-Potter sealed a fourth straight victory, McCann (above) said: “This was a big win for us at this stage of the season.
“Now we will go and prepare for Sunderland on Tuesday, which is just the next game for us. Until it’s mathematically possible for us to get to where we want to be, we will keep preparing.
“We can’t get overjoyed because there are still four games to go.”
Asked how he would react if Hull won promotion on Tuesday, McCann played a straight bat again, saying: “If it happens, I’ll tell you how I feel afterwards.”
Hull were flat in the first half and Fleetwood led in the 22nd minute when Wes Burns showed delightful skill to nutmeg Callum Elder before crossing low from the right for Kyle Vassell to tap in.
Yet the Tigers improved markedly after the break and levelled in the 61st minute when Magennis raced on to Greg Docherty’s defencesplitting pass and rifled home a superb right-foot shot. Fleetwood threatened on the counter – Dan Batty earlier had a goal disallowed for offside – but Hull scored the winner after 70 minutes.
Dan Crowley delivered a dangerous right-wing cross and Lewis-Potter headed home at the near post.
McCann added: “Psychologically, Peterborough won last night and I don’t know whether that showed in our first-half performance. But we showed tremendous resilience.”
Fleetwood boss Simon Grayson said of his side’s disallowed goal: “I’m not quite sure how he got the decision wrong – it’s hard to take.
“But if we are disappointed to lose to Hull City, it shows where we are as a team and a squad and also what we’ve got in place for next season.”