The Tigers are planning to face Southampton at Wembley on Saturday afternoon
Sergej Jakirovic has masterminded a terrific season at the MKM Stadium (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)
Former Hull City promotion winner Michael Dawson admits he has huge sympathy for his old club and manager Sergej Jakirovic as uncertainty continues to dominate the build-up to Saturday’s Championship play-off final.
City‘s opponents, as it stands are Southampton, but they’re facing a spying charge and could yet be booted out of the final, pending the outcome of their disciplinary panel hearing.
Should Southampton or the EFL not be happy with the outcome of the hearing, which is expected to take place on Tuesday, then either party could appeal, which would place Saturday’s game in jeopardy.
The Tigers have already sold more than 30,000 tickets for the 4:30pm kick-off and have been given more, while Southampton are also expected to sell out of its allocation of just under 36,000.
Middlesbrough, who were the club that had their training session spied on by a member of Tonda Eckert’s coaching staff, want their rivals kicked out and returned to training on Monday in readiness, should they be given a place in the final, despite losing over two legs.
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Tigers boss Jakirovic and his coaching staff continue to prepare for the game this weekend, but Dawson, who skippered Steve Bruce’s side to Wembley glory a decade ago, is full of admiration for the Croatian’s work.
“Oh, I have a huge amount of sympathy (for City),” Dawson said on Sky Sports News. “I hear people talking about it, what’s going on with Southampton. Unfortunately for Middlesbrough, I completely understand that, but you’ve got to think of Hull City, yes, it’s one of my former teams, the work that he (Sergej Jakirovic) will be going into preparing, he’s looking at Southampton, that team shape doing all this analysing, and then all of a sudden, what might be the outcome tomorrow? Only time will tell, but he can forget that.
“Think about the job that this guy (has done), Sergej, who’s been outstanding. At the start of the season, I’m probably looking more like survival than play-off hopes. So that group of players, yes, recruitment, with having the embargo, went and signed free players.
“Oli McBurnie coming in, John Lundstram coming in, players that know the league. Pandur’s been brilliant in goal, John Egan, the experience, and the wide players have been brilliant as well.
“Yes, brilliant for Hull City, just scraping into the play-offs and then beating Millwall over two legs, and you’ve got to remember 12 months ago staying up on that final day, getting the draw at Portsmouth, so it’s amazing. Ten years on since we were last there at Wembley, getting promoted. Let’s hope it’s an omen for Hull City.”
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