The influential playmaker made his return from injury in style at Fratton Park
Hull City’s Matt Crooks will be a key figure in the remaining weeks of the season(Image: Steven Paston/PA Wire)
Matt Crooks admits Tuesday night’s showdown with Ipswich Town is a massive occasion, with Hull City and their hosts locked on 60 points with 13 games remaining.
Both teams were winners at the weekend, with Town easing to a 3-0 home success over Swansea City, while Crooks marked his return from a hamstring injury with the winning goal at Portsmouth.
On the road, City have the best record in the league with nine wins and have won their last five away from the MKM Stadium, and they’ll arrive at Portman Road with little fear.
“It’s a bit football cliché, isn’t it, getting the three points when you’re not playing great. It’s put us in a great spot, and we’ve got to keep going,” Crooks told Hull Live after converting one of City’s two shots on target in the game at Fratton Park.
“Winning breeds confidence, doesn’t it? The lads might not be as fluent as at that peak where we were before, but I think on Tuesday (against Derby) the lads were brilliant.
“Real intensity and energy they brought to the game and it shows that when we do that we’re probably – Derby have done that well the whole season, I think we matched them at what their game was – when we bring that intensity and front footed nature to our game, then we’re a difficult team to play against, so I’d like to see us continue doing that to move forward.”
City’s two shots on target was their lowest in the Championship season, while against Derby they scored with all three efforts on target – the other came from an own goal, proving just how clinical Jakirovic’s side are.
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At the other end, keeping a 10th clean sheet of the season gave them the foundation to go and win the game, which is especially crucial at the business end of the season.
“The lads have been real clinical this year,” Crooks continued. “Oli (McBurnie), Joffy (Gelhardt), Kyle (Joseph), they’ve been getting in good positions and taking their chances. If we can keep the ball out of our net, then we’ve always got a chance going forward with our lot.
“It’d be nice to maybe create a few more chances. It’s nice to be on the ball and sometimes be pretty and play nice, attractive football, but like I said before, end of the day, three points.
“It’s getting towards that time of the season where you just want the points, and that’s what we’ve done.
“We’ve shown we’ve got a real resilience in the group, characters and I think that shows in away games where everyone’s against you pretty much, but you can stick together and put in a performance that gets the three points.
“We’ve been doing that consistently over the season, so I think that speaks volumes for the group, really.”
City now turn their attention to a mammoth week where it plays the three other sides currently keeping it company inside the play-off zone, starting with the Tractor Boys on Tuesday night, before Millwall visit the MKM Stadium on Saturday and then Jakirovic’s men go to Wrexham next week.
Facing Ipswich at Portman Road, in front of a full house against a side many tipped to win the title with some degree of comfort, is one Crooks is relishing.
“It’ll be fun,” he admitted. “Looking forward to it. I love away games. I’ve always liked away games. I’m only speaking from my personal point of view, but they should be top two, but they’re not. We’re right in there with them, and we’re both there on merit, so it’s a game that we can go there and win.”
While it could be said that winning at Fratton Park takes the pressure off City in Suffolk in their game in hand, Crooks doesn’t see it that way, and believes his colleagues will go all out for victory to keep their top two hopes alive.
“I don’t think it makes any difference if we’d have won or lost (at Portsmouth). I think we still want to go there and get the three points. That’s a bit cliché and all, isn’t it, but you want to win it. You want to win your next game, don’t you?
“Oh, it’s massive. It’s massive. Every game’s going to be huge now, but to take points off teams that are around you makes it that whole lot sweeter, so it’s going to be a fun one.
“I said to you before, it’s what I missed about English football, going away to grounds like that. It’ll be a real, real good game with a lot at stake.”
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