Sergej Jakirovic’s heroes are one game away from the Premier League
Paddy McNair and Ryan Giles will be key figures at Wembley this weekend (Image: Pedro Porru/MB Media/Getty Images)
Hull City Wembley hero Craig Fagan has urged Sergej Jakirovic’s players to make the most of their walk around at Wembley Stadium on Friday night, before the best part of 85,000 pack in on Saturday afternoon.
City‘s players will depart East Yorkshire for the capital on Thursday afternoon, and they’ll get to have a walk around the iconic arena on Friday evening, as part of their build-up to the Championship play-off final against Middlesbrough.
Fagan, who played a starring role in City’s first-ever Wembley play-off win against Bristol City in 2008, felt getting a feel for the surroundings was absolutely key in overcoming any early nerves and being ready for the game.
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“Take it all in on that Friday night, have a look around, visualise yourself playing there, get all those thoughts out of nervousness before, and then when you walk out for that warm up, really just give it your all,” the ex-City striker told the 1904 Club.
“I think the fans will accept someone who’s given it everything, which they normally do. Don’t leave anything. Don’t be all ifs, buts and maybes or should have, could have, would have. It’s that point of the season, they’ve earned their right to be there.
“Just give it your all on that day, and listen, it might take something where it might be one person clearing the ball off the line, which leads to an attack or something like that.
“That bit of team selflessness. I know Deano (Windass) scored the goal, and everybody talks about Deano, but at the end of the day, it’s the team that got us to that situation in terms of some of the saves, some of the clearances. If you look back and watch the game, it’s a team effort.
“This squad (under Sergej Jakirovic) has definitely shown more togetherness than I’ve seen over the previous seasons. There seems to be an understanding with the media, with the newspapers, with yourselves, you’ve seen it, there’s more togetherness, there’s more openness, they’re more as a team. They’re going to need that on Saturday, and hopefully it goes our way.”
You can listen to the Craig Fagan episode via the links below….
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