CURTIS: WE NEED TO FIND OUR TIGER FEET
It’s City’s night ultimately... but not before brave County deliver shock
CURTIS DAVIES knows all about Wembley heartache and has warned his Hull teammates they will have to step it up if they want to avoid any more against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday.
Two years ago this week, the 31year-old centre-back scored the second goal of the FA Cup final as Hull raced into a 2-0 lead, only to see Arsenal fight back and lift the trophy.
There was something of a sense of déjà vu this week when Derby almost pulled off an incredible comeback in the semi-final second leg.
Davies is desperate to avoid a repeat against the Owls.
“Before the second leg it was two years to the day since the FA Cup final,” said Davies.
“It was a good memory, but after the reality of the Derby game and the way it went we need to make sure we guard against complacency.
“It’s a good feeling now that we’ve got there, but I remember that losing feeling at Wembley from being 2-0 up.
“I don’t want to feel that way again, and there’s a big prize at the end of it if we can win.
“We’re there and we’ve scraped over the line, but we need to be better than that and go up.
“Of course, we’re not happy with the performance, but the goal was not to get to Wembley and have a day out, the goal was to get promoted.”
In the end, Andy Robertson’s injurytime goal in the first leg proved to be crucial for Hull.
That performance, winning 3-0 at the iPro, showed that Hull are more than capable of getting the job done at Wembley but Davies was concerned the team didn’t bring the same intensity to the second leg.
“The performance was poor. But it just goes back to the 97 minutes in the first leg when Robbo scored and it ended up being the winner,” he explained.
“We lacked a bit of discipline in the first half, compared to when we went to Derby. In that game we were all over them, like rats really.
“We were just running around like mad men, whereas in this one we switched off a couple of times. That allowed the goals but that happens in football.
“They had to throw everything at us and, credit to them, they did that.
“We can take one thing, though. We’ve got character. In the second half, we showed a lot of character and bottle and resilience. If we can take that into the Wembley game hopefully we can come out better.”
The outcome at Wembley could also be crucial for the future of boss Steve Bruce, who admits he does not yet know if he will still be in charge next season.
Only Karl Robinson has been in charge longer at a Championship club, but, having offered to resign after relegation a year ago, Bruce might need to get promotion to keep his job.
“I haven’t really given myself any real thought of what lies ahead because you can't in management any more, unless you are in the elite,” he said. “All of us don't know what is around the corner.
“I haven’t really looked at my position at all. Last year, we got relegated and I offered my resignation to the board and they asked me to carry on.
“I will have a conversation with the owners in a couple of weeks regardless of what division we are in.”