City have gone through a rare blip in the past couple of league games
Oli McBurnie celebrates his 12th league goal of the season (Image: Greig Cowie/Shutterstock)
As Sergej Jakirovic bounced into his chair deep in the bowels of the MKM Stadium after the game against Bristol City, it was not immediately obvious that Hull City had suffered their first league defeat in six games.
The Croatian was calm, assured and measured, giving a typically honest assessment of the game, and even finding time to have a laugh and a joke with the assembled media, as he always does.
Beaten 3-2 by Bristol City, the Tigers slumped to a disappointing home defeat that saw them miss the chance to take advantage of leaders Coventry City dropping points at home to Oxford United, and the chasing play-off pack also failing to make the most of their opportunities.
Jakirovic was exactly the same as he was the week before, when the Tigers were 1-0 winners at Blackburn Rovers, or a couple of Tuesdays earlier after a resounding 3-0 success in Preston. They’ve since dropped to fifth given they’ve not played and others have.
That level of calmness is vitally important, and will become more crucial as time goes on and the end of the season arrives on the distant horizon.
Post-Chelsea, the Croatian was objective and reasoned. Admitting that his side were beaten by a world-class team, though still felt frustrated at ‘cheap’ second from Pedro Neto which went in straight from a corner.
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Key for Jakirovic is managing expectations because those have suddenly changed because the club are enjoying their best season for a decade, and they have a genuine chance of winning promotion to the Premier League.
It’s been a fabulous season, better than almost everybody could have expected. Better than Acun Ilicali dreamed of, better than Jakirovic and his coaching staff. Yes, there would have been an in-built belief they could be successful, of course, but to be in with a shot of automatic promotion with 15 games to go is beyond what anyone realistically could have imagined.
Yes, City have been relatively poor in the past three games. In those three games, they’ve won one and drawn on, keeping two clean sheets.
Against Bristol City, City conceded three really bad goals. It’s the Championship, it can happen. It’s happened before, and it’s happened again. The last time something similar occurred was early in December against Middlesbrough. Since then, Jakirovic’s side has been almost flawless. No team in the league had taken more points or won more games.
City have no divine right to beat anyone. Two home games coming on the back of four straight wins were a fantastic opportunity to get more points on the board. Especially when you factor in that the two games were against managerless Watford and a Bristol City side beaten 5-0 last time out.
In many ways, that makes both teams more dangerous. Watford’s players have a point to prove to a potential watching manager, and Bristol City are like the proverbial wounded animal.
City didn’t play well enough in either game, and didn’t deserve to win on either day. That’s football, that’s the Championship, and it can happen. Both teams are in the play-off mix and are fighting their own battles; they’re not just going to roll over because City should be beating them.
Jakirovic’s biggest challenge now is managing the expectations both inside his dressing room and in the stands. His players have put themselves in a genuinely unbelievable position to go and do something spectacular, unthinkable back in August.
There is no divine right to secure a play-off place, or better, for the Tigers, only hard work, graft and a bit of fortune will help with that cause. Every team in this league has a cause and is playing for something. They’re not going to give City a free pass to three points; it will have to be earned. In truth, another 20 points from the remaining games probably assures them of a top six place. Secure that first, and see where you are in the final five.
City’s fans have every right to be excited, to dream because expectations have been raised, but there also needs to be an acceptance that there’s still a long way to go, and there will be ups and downs. Defeats will come. Every time they’ve had setbacks, they’ve responded brilliantly, and hopefully they will again.
For Jakirovic, having the focus shifted to Chelsea was probably a good thing just to break up things up, but the next two home games are absolutely huge in their quest to regain form, and the most crucial thing at this stage of the season, momentum.
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