‘McCann’s road to redemption must include a play-off challenge next season’

Eye Of The Tigers, a column by Sam Hawcroft

A fan’s thoughts on Hull City

Well, the nightmare scenario didn’t happen. We were promoted with two games to go, and declared champions last week. Very Not Typical City. And yet…

Trust us to win the league for the first time since 1966 during a social media blackout across the entire weekend. Much of football’s official media outlets had committed to a boycott of their platforms in an effort to tackle abuse and discrimination – a noble campaign indeed, but City’s social team must have been in finger-twitching agony.

We had to wait until the following Monday for more videos of the team making merry – by which time, most of us were back at work. While they were still great to watch, they didn’t have quite the same effect as when you’re scrolling on Twitter after a few jars of a Saturday night.

But that camaraderie was undoubtedly what helped propel City to the top of the league, and it’s to McCann’s credit that he’s nurtured and bonded this team. The increasingly hilarious videos on City’s Twitter feed after the Lincoln match were a joy to watch.

They included the players singing Twist and Shout to the pretty decent guitar playing of first-team performance analyst Ryan Maddra (on the roof!), Wonderwall with Sean McLoughlin on guitar (playing left-handed… was it the same guitar? Was he playing it upside-down? I have questions), and of course Honeyman doing a Freddie Mercury … you can’t fake that sort of togetherness.

Keeping this sense of unity while bolstering the team for the Championship will be McCann’s biggest challenge.

There is something of a gulf in quality between the two leagues, and, while I feel that most of the squad are well capable of making the step up, surely there will be a few new faces over the summer.

McCann’s keeping his cards close to his chest until after the end of the season, but a few of them see their current deals coming to an end, including the immense Josh Magennis and the versatile Alfie Jones – nailed-on candidates for new deals, you’d have thought.

Jordi de Wijs, who’s expected to make his loan move to QPR permanent, is the one I’d miss least; when he first joined City, I so wanted him to be a legend. With his hulking, tattooed 6ft 2in frame, and his experience in the top echelons of Dutch football, he promised to be a proper fearsome, rock-hard mainstay of City’s defence, but it never quite worked out that way.

My predictions this season turned out to be utterly useless. As I write this, I am now second bottom of Andy Medcalf’s prediction league, looking very likely to be robbed of the wooden spoon after a couple of disastrous correct predictions in the run-in – Rochdale and Sunderland at home, in case you’re interested.

‘WILL I BE ROBBED OF MY RIGHTFUL PRIZE?’: Sam is second-bottom of a prediction league

I’ve had better form in the past, though. Three years ago I came second in the same contest, and back in 2008 I won a few quid on City being promoted to the Premier League at 16/1. Put it this way, it paid for the parking ticket I got in central London and I still had change for some beers.

(As an aside, do the parking wardens hide in bushes down there, or what? I’d gone into the hotel reception for about 30 seconds to ask where the nearest car park was and when I came out, boom, a bill for 60 quid stuck to the windscreen, warden nowhere to be seen.

This was in the days when my phone wasn’t capable of Google Maps; we’d used an actual paper map to navigate our way, somewhat hairily, through the Big Smoke. I recall a close encounter with a bus on Hyde Park corner.)

Anyway (I could digress about that Wembley weekend for the rest of this column!), I’d be surprised if we found ourselves in a relegation battle again next year.

For many City fans, McCann’s redemption will only be complete if we stay up and challenge for the play-offs at least, and I’d put myself in that camp, but while I might have been doubtful a few months ago about his ability to lead next season’s charge, only the most churlish wouldn’t back him to make a decent fist of it.

He has something to prove – that he’s not just a League One manager – and surely this will galvanise him next time around.

Things are looking up on the Covid front, too. Fans should be allowed back into stadia en masse by the time next season starts; as it stands, the EFL is hoping that capacity crowds will be the norm once more come August, in line with the Government’s planned lifting of restrictions on June 21.

Whether this will feature vaccine passports and mandatory mask-wearing, whether away fans will be allowed to travel, and whether iFollow will continue, is all still up in the air. But two ‘pilot’ matches have gone ahead already at Wembley (4,000 at the FA Cup Semi-Final and 8,000 at the Carabao Cup Final), with 12,500 set to attend FA Cup Final on May 15.

Speaking of iFollow, it has been oft-maligned, mostly for the technical glitches that took a fair while to iron out, and the paucity of camera angles and replays – but if they keep it on, I do hope they ask David Meyler back.

He was great; full of humour, insight and passion, he stood out among the sea of ‘he done good’ ex-players across TV and radio who struggle to string a sentence together but still somehow find gainful employment as pundits.

Won’t it be ace to just sit back, relax and watch City at Charlton, knowing the job’s already done?

It wouldn’t be the end of the world if we lost and did our old mate Adkins a favour; a win might sneak the Addicks into sixth. And the manager/player of the month awards are often seen as a curse, but we don’t have to worry about those, either – McCann’s second award and the first for big Josh have rounded our season off rather nicely.

So, what to do after it’s over? I’m afraid you’re not getting rid of me that easily. I’ve already confessed to nipping out for a spot of gardening during half-time, so I’ll be doing that full-time over the next few months.

I’m going to get my gloves and wellies on and be your gardening columnist (though, thinking on, it’d be best to take the gloves off when I’m typing).

See you next month for [**Rough Around the Hedges/Weed it and Reap/Thistle Be the Day/ All Things must Grass…. any other ideas – the first two have been done, according to Google, the latter two not so much**] – but, until then… We are going up, say we are going up!