City have enjoyed a fine season and have plenty left to play for
Charlie Hughes and his Hull City teammates react after the defeat at Ipswich Town(Image: Izzy Poles – AMA/Getty Images)
Assistant manager Dean Holden has reiterated Sergej Jakirovic’s call for his Hull City players to enjoy the challenge ahead of them in the final 11 games.
Tuesday night’s narrow 1-0 defeat at Ipswich Town ended their eight-game unbeaten run away from the MKM Stadium, but the Tigers remain in a strong position.
City have a seven-point gap to the chasing pack outside the top six, ahead of crunch games against play-off rivals Millwall and Wrexham in the next few days.
Boss Jakirovic spoke after last Saturday’s win at Portsmouth, calling on his players to relish the chance ahead of them, which is a far cry from the stresses of a relegation battle 12 months ago.
“I touched on it previously, didn’t I, about Sergej? I think he’s referenced last season quite a lot as well. When you’re down there at the bottom, that’s real pressure in football,” Holden told Hull Live.
“From where Sergej and the guys come from, and probably all of us staff, probably a big group of players come from experiences in life where we’re in the best job in the world, and it’s basically that.
“When we’re working, it’s intense, and it’s full on, and that’s on the grass, that’s in the meeting room, that’s in the gym. Then when we’re not, in the downtime, he wants the boys to enjoy each other’s company, socialise together. We’ve got an unbelievable spirit.
“Being able to switch off (is vital). Sports psychology tells you – I spoke to one a good while back, talking about Michael Vaughan, the cricketer. When you’re in Test cricket, and you’re out there for six or seven hours in some really tough conditions on the other side of the world, you can’t focus for six or seven hours nonstop. They found a way to be able to, as soon as the bowler comes down, switch on.
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“That’s when you switch on, and you concentrate fully on that, and then you’re able to switch off again in between. Not quite sure why I used that analogy.
“It can get on top of you a little bit because the truth is in the last three weeks or four weeks, I would say there’s a lot more external noise than there’d been before.
“No one was talking about us. You’d watch the goals on the highlights on TV. They were jumping from the top teams to the bottom, and we were getting ignored, but now, we’ve become a bit of a story.
“So it’s making sure, and to be fair, the group, a decent number of them have been in this position before and got over the line, which helps.
“It’s being able to enjoy the journey. If we lose a game, we lose a game and as long as we lose in the right way, and we move on to the next one and put it right as we’ve done, I’m sure our fans can really appreciate that.”
City were backed by a healthy following in Suffolk on Tuesday night, while a sold-out contingent will back them in North Wales at Wrexham on Tuesday night. Despite the early kick-off, there were a thousand of them at Fratton Park on Saturday, and Holden says the backing from the supporters plays a key role, especially on the road.
“Talking of that, we really appreciate them as well,” Holden said of the supporters. “A ridiculous early start on the weekend down to Portsmouth, a late one coming back from Ipswich. We feel when we go away from home, we feel like we go there as a bit of a gang. We turn up, our crowd are with us, getting off the bus, we come out for the warm up, it’s all together. I’m sure they’re enjoying it, we’re enjoying it, and let’s see where it takes us.”
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