The Tigers have three games left to secure a place inside the top six
Regan Slater has missed the last four games through injury(Image: Anna Gowthorpe/Shutterstock)
Hull City will expect to welcome back Regan Slater into their squad for Tuesday’s huge Championship showdown at struggling Leicester City.
Slater has been sidelined since limping off after half-an-hour of the Tigers’ last win over Sheffield Wednesday on March 21, missing the last four games with an ankle problem.
The infuential midfielder trained on Monday, and is expected to be in the squad at the King Power Stadium, with City bidding to end a four-game winless run, their longest of the season.
Sergej Jakirovic’s ranks will also be boosted by the return of fellow midfielder John Lundstram after he missed the weekend draw with Birmingham Ciity because of suspension.
Darko Gyabi is also pushing for a return to the squad after missing out at the weekend, with no other issues reported aside from a couple of unspecififed niggles. John Egan was hurt at the weekend after sustauining a gash to his leg, though that’s not thought to be of any concern. Toby Collyer and Cody Drameh remain unavailable through injury.
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Victory for City in the East Midlands would not only boost the Tigers’ hopes of finishing inside the top six, it would relegate the Foxes to League One, a decade on from their Premier League title win.
Assistant boss Dean Holden is keen for City to relish their opportunity, but says despite Leicester’s issues, they’re still a team with indivdual quality.
“It’s brilliant part of the season, every point matters, we’re embracing the situation we’re in, we’ve got ourselves in a brilliant position,” he told told Hull Live.
“We’ve got players back from injury, so squad wise we’re probably as healthy as we’ve been for a long time and we can’t wait to get down to Leicester for a tough game. Not having it, what people say that they’ve not got good players, if you look individually they’ve got some excellent players. Clearly it’s been a really difficult season for them, as you can see with the league position.
“We’re expecting a tough game and we’re gonna go there with our mindset to try and win the game, but knowing that it’ll be a tough evening if we don’t get the basics right. We’re well set, we’re well prepared and we’re ready.”
The Foxes have won just once in 17 and are eight points from safety with only nine left to play for. Saturday’s 1-0 loss at Portsmouth coupled with West Brom’s 2-0 win at Preston North End means they are on the cusp of a return to League One, and that would be confirmed if the Tigers are victorious.
“It’s not like they’ve been blown away in every game, you watch the games. They’re in games when you’re in that position, things go against you and it can start to feed through the stadium and anxiety can creep in and confidence clearly at times can be low. Teams can can make the most of them situations and clearly that’s been the case certainly recently.
“Gary’s (Rowett) gone in, a very, very experienced manager, not being able to really turn results around but certainly performances, defensively they look quite solid at times. They’ve given away some poor goals, there was one there a week or so ago (against Swansea City) where they’ve got a corner, they concede possession, and all of a sudden it’s in the back of their net.
“These moments can cost you and go against you when you’re in that position in the league. For us, we have to make the most of it. We have to, as I say, go there and really stamp our authority on the game and try and take the points.
“It’s an incredible situation that they’re in really, if you think about it. I mean, they were nearly every supporter’s second favourite team 10 years ago when they won the Premier League.
“The way they’ve dropped off has been a big surprise, really actually sad to see really wonderful football club, big club. We have to use all the things that are available to us. We’ve got a way of playing, that we’ve performed to most of the season.
“We’ve got experienced players who’ve been in these types of situations before, and of course we know there’s, there’s chinks in the armour of any opposition. Equally we know that, they’ve got really good players in key moments in games, so we need to be on our game.”
Though City’s form has hit the buffers in recent weeks, Holden believes the Tigers must treat the next three games like cup finals, in a bid to get over the line.
“We have to treat this like a cup final, we’re not worrying about the Charlton game or the Norwich game or how many points we are or aren’t in the play-offs or where we were a month ago, where we are now, we’re not interested in that, we’re interested in getting our preparation absolutely spot on for a big, big game for this football club at Leicester and we can’t wait for it.”
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