The Tigers came from behind to win a feisty encounter on Saturday afternoon
Jobi McAnuff believes the post-match scenes at Stoke City on Saturday can have a galvanising impact on Hull City, in their bid to maintain their fine start to the season and top six push.
Players and staff from both clubs clashed after the final whistle at the bet365 Stadium, following Joe Gelhardt’s stoppage-time winner, with one fan from the Boothen End trying to get onto the pitch, before falling over and being escorted away by stewards.
Referee Leigh Doughty handed out cards to John Lundstram, Kyle Joseph and Ashley Phillips amid the melee, while Potters’ boss Mark Robins blamed a member of Sergej Jakirovic’s coaching staff for the fracas restarting.
Both clubs will almost certainly be charged by the FA for failing to control their players, which will be the second time in the space of two months the Tigers will be in the dock, following events at Birmingham City back in October.
McAnuff, though, who skippered Reading to the Championship title in 2012, feels such events can make an already close-knit squad even tighter.
“Oh, listen, I think clearly emotions are running high, and if there’s such a late goal and a bit of interaction between the fans and the players,” he said on Sky Sports. “I just feel both teams could have done a lot better in just getting away from it, certainly from the Hull perspective, you’ve just won the game.
“Whether it’s a group of staff or whatever, get the players away from it, and the same with Stoke City, really, but no, clearly not what you want to see at the end of a football match.
“As much as we don’t want to see it as probably from an external perspective, I think when you’re in amongst it, you do want a group that is gonna stand with each other and show a togetherness and a fighting spirit, not literally.
“There was nothing overly aggressive there; it’s a little bit sort of in each other’s faces and stuff, but I think as a group, they are the little times in the season that it can galvanise you.
“You’ve got to remember they’ve just lost a couple of games, have had a really good start to the season, they find themselves a late winner, so I’m sure from a Hull City perspective, they’ll be taking that as we’re all in this together.”
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