Ryan Giles admits he can understand why many pundits have labelled Hull City’s trip to Coventry City a relegation six-pointer, despite it being just the second game of the Premier League season.
Both clubs were promoted from the Championship last term, with the Sky Blues winning the league and City triumphing at Wembley in the play-off final.
Naturally, the two clubs, along with Ipswich Town, have largely been written off by many, even before a ball had been kicked, with the majority of so-called experts backing the three promoted teams to make an instant return to the Championship, particularly Sergej Jakirovic’s Tigers.
While Coventry had a daunting trip to champions Arsenal last Friday night, which they lost 3-0, City and the Tractor Boys both won their respective home games, with the Tigers capturing the imagination with a stunning 2-0 win against Manchester United.
Despite there being 36 games left after the CBS Arena meeting, Giles says he’s not surprised the meeting between the two clubs has already been pencilled in as the proverbial six-pointer.
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“We take confidence from it beating Man Utd),” Giles told Hull Live. “It’s a massive game against Coventry; we know how big that’s going to be, so take a lot of confidence, and we keep going.
“It’s a big game, yeah, there’s no hiding from that. They were unfortunate (at Arsenal), to go away to the Emirates is gonna be tough for anybody this season. They’ll know how much of a big game that is as well as we do, so we take the confidence and recover well. I think that’s important, cos the intensity of the games is so high. The lads need to get used to that level, and then we’ll go there and give it a right good go.”
After looking to be on his way out of the MKM Stadium a year ago, Giles’ Tigers’ career has been transformed, so much so that he’s been the subject of firm interest from Burnley in the past 24 hours. Determined to learn from his short spell in the Premier League with Luton Town, Giles knows just how difficult it will be.
“Yeah, it’s tough, don’t get me wrong, cos teams move the ball so fast, any little gap they play through and up back throughs, and they’re in on your goal.
“It’s tough, but ultimately this is where I wanna be, this is where I strive to be as well as everybody in the dressing room, I believe. I’m delighted. I just need to keep doing what I’m doing. I keep speaking about playing to super strengths, and I need to keep doing that and then keep building on what things I need to work on as well.”
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