The Croatian made a big decision ahead of Friday’s game in Oxford
Sergej Jakirovic at the Kassam Stadium(Image: Michael Zemanek/Shutterstock)
Goalkeeper Ivor Pandur will return to Hull City‘s team against Coventry City on Easter Monday evening, according to head coach Sergej Jakirovic.
Pandur was left out of Friday’s 1-1 draw at Oxford United after only returning from international duty on Thursday and joining the rest of the squad at their hotel along with Liam Millar and Amir Hadziahmetovic.
Dillon Phillips came in to deputise for the Croatian and made only his third appearance for City since arriving in the summer, in what was his Championship debut.
Phillips performed well on his first league start and was only beaten by Cameron Brannagan’s 13th penalty, which cancelled out Mo Belloumi’s fine effort after just four minutes of the 1-1 draw.
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Pandur, who had been an ever-present all season prior to the Good Friday meeting at the Kassam Stadium, will come straight back in when City host the league leaders on Monday night in front of the television cameras.
“No, we have a clear number one and number two,” Jakirovic told Hull Live when asked if he had a difficult decision to make on Monday. “Dillon is a great support to Ivor, and Ivor is our number one.
“He’s in the Croatian national team. He arrived yesterday (Thursday), so he had a little bit of jet lag. I think that was a good decision because Dillon deserved to be in goal. He trains well all the time, and I think that he showed that he’s reliable, and we can put him in whenever. Ivor will come back (on Monday).”
Jakirovic also confirmed that Charlie Hughes was withdrawn at half-time in a bid to protect him from a sending off, with John Egan coming on in his place.
Hughes was booked after his rash challenge gave away the penalty, which allowed Cameron Brannagan to equalise.
“From my point of view, maybe he thought he was outside the box, but I think it’s clearly inside. From my experience, he will get a second one.
“Not so much him but any player, because they will play. With the wind towards our goal, they will try to use these long balls; we can be too late in some situations and end up committing a foul, second yellow card, ciao. We took him off as a precaution.
“I’m upset as well when we gave away the penalty. I’m upset, but nobody cares about me,” he joked. “No, we have good players on the bench (to bring on).
“We had one plan because of the jet lag with the international players. They arrived yesterday, and four of the players went directly to the hotel. You must think about the team and who can help the team. We gave our advantage to players who had normal training this week, and I think that was a good decision.”
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