Sergej Jakirovic’s heroes were winners again on the road
Southampton’s Nathan Wood and Oli McBurnie battle at St Mary’s(Image: Matt Watson/Southampton FC via Getty Images)
First half goals from Kyle Joseph and Charlie Hughes gave Hull City a deserved 2-1 win away at Southampton on Saturday to force their way back into the top six.
As they did in the reverse fixture at the MKM Stadium earlier in the campaign, Sergej Jakirovic’s Tigers controlled much of the game without the ball and rarely looked in much danger after Joseph fired in the opener after 20 minutes, following typical graft from Oli McBurnie.
Attention for the Tigers now turns to Tuesday night’s trip to another side inside the Championship’s play-offs, with City facing Preston North End at Deepdale.
Here, Tigers reporter Barry Cooper looks back on another terrific trip to the South Coast….
Such big hearts
Some may have questioned how long City can keep their form going with all their injuries, but we said before the game that you should never write them off, and if ever there was an example of their heart, this was it.
Two goals in the first half, throwing bodies in front of shots and crosses and then defending their box impressively in the second period, summed up the spirit.
They might not have a full complement of players, but those that remain deserve so much respect for the way they’re going about their work.
Defensive improvements
Over the past few weeks, the Tigers have improved markedly in their defensive work. We said after the thrashing by Middlesbrough at the start of December, it had to be a turning point, and it feels like it has been.
As a group, the players have looked much more solid, organised, and while they haven’t kept as many clean sheets as they would have liked, the improvement has been noticeable.
Jakirovic had been saying throughout the early months of the season that he felt it would be easy to fix, and while they’re not out of the woods yet, there has been an obvious uplift since that difficult pre-Christmas evening.
Doing the league double
That’s the first league double City have completed this season, and the first time they’ve secured that feat over Southampton since the 1950/51 campaign.
The Saints may not be having the season they hoped for, but to be 11 points clear of them at this stage of the season shows what a good campaign the Tigers are having.
And while Southampton may have clocked up 70 per cent of the ball in each game, they did little with it. In both games, City were 3-0 and 2-0 up before conceding consolation goals. That shows how well they’ve done against a team in the Premier League last season.
Help is on the way
Two new signings are close for City, and that will be a huge relief for the manager and his players. The squad has been creaking for a long time and while John Lundstram’s return on Saturday was timely, he’s barely played in the last three months or so.
New arrivals lift everyone, and they’re coming at a time when City remain firmly in the promotion mix and on the back of another eye-catching away victory.
City only need a little bit of help, and the arrivals of Toby Collyer and Yu Hirakawa will add some quality and depth to Jakirovic’s ranks, and also, something a little different.
Tuesday is huge
That win at St Mary’s means City have taken more points on the road than anyone else over the past three months, with 19 coming in their nine games (won six, drawn one, lost two), and Preston North End won’t be relishing the visit of the Tigers.
PNE produced a tepid showing to lose 1-0 at home to Derby County on Saturday, with City leapfrogging the Lillywhites in the table into fifth, with a game in hand.
Should City be able to get a result at the team directly below them in the table, then they would cement their spot inside the top six going into the weekend, and inflict more damage on one of their play-off rivals.
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