City’s long, long wait for a Carrow Road success was finally ended on Saturday afternoon
Sergej Jakirovic was full of praise for his Hull City players’ team spirit and attitude, after surviving a first-half scare to win 2-0 at Norwich City on Saturday.
The Tigers were battered for much of the opening period, but they withstood that pressure whilst riding their luck and survived to half-time, before improving in the second half and scoring twice at either end of it through Joe Gelhardt and Darko Gyabi to earn a first Carrow Road win in 15 years.
City had to be resilient in a poor opening period, but a change in shape coupled with the arrival of Semi Ajayi at the break, closely followed by Gelhardt’s fourth goal in four games, gave the visitors the platform to go on and win the game.
This victory, a second straight on the road, was achieved without a host of influential first-team players, including Oli McBurnie, John Lundstram, Liam Millar and Mo Belloumi, a testament to the character inside Jakirovic’s dressing room.
“I think it shows the character of this team because they’re really fighting,” the Croatian told Hull Live. “Every game, I cannot say anything because you know how many problems we have. Every team will feel a lack of five first eleven players.
“These first 11 players, if they are healthy, they will play. We try to replace them with team effort, and we stick together with the tactical plan. For two days, I was thinking about the system, how we can face them because they’re good in possession, and then after 20 minutes, I already wanted to change something, but then I had to use my substitution intervals. I must read the game as well. I have options, but we are short on these options.”
City’s head coach also praised Gyabi’s first senior goal for the club, with that coming in the 87th minute to wrap up the points and ensure the final stages were a little more enjoyable for the Tigers’ noisy band of travelling supporters.
“Yes, he missed first,” Jakirovic joked about Gyabi’s goal. “No, the goalkeeper saved it. I know (Vladan) Kovacevic from Bosnia; he’s a very good goalkeeper.
“We are lucky because he scored, we killed the game with this second goal because you never know in this league. One mistake and it’s a goal.”
Despite coming under intense pressure in the first half, City kept a third clean sheet of the season and first on the road since the opening day draw at Coventry City, something which also impressed the Tigers chief.
“What is very strange, we keep a clean sheet. Unbelievable. When you see the first half, they can score two or three goals easy. That’s football.”
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