‘Stay with us’: McCann urges fans to have faith

City players celebrate Tom Eaves’ goal against Blackpool. Picture credit: Hull City

Grant McCann has urged Hull City fans to “stay with us” as his side look for a first win in 11 games when they entertain Middlesbrough at the MKM Stadium on Saturday.

A late Tom Eaves goal salvaged a welcome point for the Tigers at home to Blackpool on Tuesday, but McCann’s men still lie in the bottom three after the first ten games of their return to the Sky Bet Championship.

The City boss said he hoped that goal and the fighting spirit shown on Tuesday - the equaliser in the 1-1 draw came when they were down to ten men - would be a “catalyst” for improved results.

Speaking at an online press conference today, McCann said: “I think the response from the group, particularly in the second half, even when we went down to ten men, I thought it showed the determination that we’ve got here in this camp, and we tried to win the game.

“I think anybody who was at the game; they wouldn’t have known we were one man down in the last fifteen to twenty minutes.

“I thought the way we approached it, how we set it up - we nearly snatched the win, so disappointed with the point; obviously we wanted to take the three, but we’ll take the point, given the circumstances.”

He added: “Hopefully, it’s a little catalyst to the boys to realise that, you know, we’re not far away, I know it seems we are, but we’re not far away in terms of … performances, you know, lead to results, and at the minute we’ve got performances but not results.

‘IT SHOWED THE DETERMINATION IN THE CAMP’: George Moncur celebrates Tom Eaves’ late goal against Blackpool. Picture credit: Hull City

“We need to continue to perform. Don’t get me wrong - I’d take a rubbish performance on Saturday and a one-nil win, but ultimately the main goal for us to continue to try and perform to a good level because the more consistently you do that the results will go your way.”

The Tigers boss was asked what his message to the supporters was, given City’s place in the table.

“Just stay with us,” McCann said. “I mentioned after the game on Tuesday that the fans have probably been in the stadium at the second half of the season [season before last]; we were losing games and obviously the pandemic struck, and then obviously we’re looking at it now, they’ve been in the stadium again and we’re still not winning the games that we can do, it is frustrating for them.

“I understand that. They missed a whole season when we were winning, so all they’ve been used to over the past year or so is us losing, but when you put it in context of the second half of the season in the Championship and then now, all they’ve seen is us lose and draw games up to a point, so I get that it’s frustrating for them, I get that every fan has got an opinion, and the right to vent their frustrations when the team doesn’t win, but for us we’ll stay calm on the training ground and we ultimately want to try and send the fans home happy every week.

“We work so hard here, myself and the players, to try and make the fans happy and we’ll continue to do that, and hopefully it’s not too far away.”

Asked if Eaves had given him food for thought with his goal against Blackpool, McCann said: “For sure, definitely. Really pleased with Tom over the last three or four weeks.

“We had an honest conversation in my office regarding the amount of forwards we’ve got at the football club.

‘TOP-CLASS PLAYER’: Josh Emmanuel, who is in line to replace the suspended Lewie Coyle. Picture credit: Hull City

“There was a lot of speculation around whether he was going to leave or not, and Tom wanted to stay. He wanted to fight for his place - we were happy with that.

“And over the past three or four weeks he’s got his head down, he’s worked very hard, he’s trained very well. You can see he’s got that hunger in his eyes again, and I was pleased for him.”

City will face Neil Warnock’s Boro without defender Lewie Coyle, who is suspended following his sending off for two yellow cards against Blackpool.

Asked who would replace him, McCann said: “We’ve got a natural replacement in Josh Emmanuel. Josh is a top-class player and very unfortunate not to be in our team, with the form of Lewie being the reason.

“He’s an ultimate professional, trains fantastically every single day, and when’s played in our team he’s been very good.”

On the injury front, McCann said George Honeyman, Tom Huddlestone, and Josh Magennis were all ruled out until after the international break, with Honeyman being earmarked for a possible return for the trip to Huddersfield on October 16.

Huddlestone is suffering from a hamstring injury picked up while jogging, McCann said.