The Tigers host their Yorkshire rivals in a crucial contest before the international break
Ipswich Town were 2-0 winners at Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday(Image: Gary Oakley/PA Wire.
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Hull City face Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday, knowing they must beat the league’s bottom side to get their promotion push back on track after last weekend’s shock 3-0 defeat at struggling West Brom.
Wednesday were relegated after their Steel City derby defeat at Sheffield United last month, and haven’t won a game since beating Portsmouth at Fratton Park in September, a run of 32 games.
The Owls have taken just one point from their last 45 available, but despite that, have proved a difficult nut to crack for teams this season, and that was the case against Ipswich Town on Saturday.
It took until 12 minutes from the end of the contest for the Tractor Boys to break Wednesday’s resistance, though Ivan Azon, before Jack Clarke scored from the penalty spot shortly after to seal their victory.
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That level of resistance impressed Town captain Dara O’Shea, whose comments will serve as another warning to City, should they need it after the 2-2 draw in Sheffield on Boxing Day, that Henrik Pederson’s side might be relegated, and be depleted, but continue to fight, and show some pride.
“They are where they are in the league, but they don’t play like they’re there,” he told TWTD. “Massive respect to them for that. It’s not easy when you don’t have much to play for in the season, but I really respect the way they came out and played. They’re a really tough team, they’ve got some massive threats, and they play a really nice and dangerous style of football.
“We always knew that today was going to be difficult; it wasn’t going to be easy. It was about getting that first goal, and it took us a long time to get that.
“I’m proud of how patient we were. There are a lot of games where we haven’t been that patient, and we’ve tried to rush things and got frustrated.
“We knew today was going to take either a magic moment or late on in the game to get in front, so I’m proud of how we understood that and how the game went.”
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