The talismanic frontman has been one of City’s star performers this season
Oli McBurnie has been looking ahead to Hull City’s final game(Image: Sean Troup/Shutterstock)
Oli McBurnie says Saturday’s home game against Norwich City is the type of occasion that gave him the fire to join Hull City in the summer.
McBurnie will lead the line for City in their final game of the Championship season, knowing victory is a must to give themselves the best chance of clinching a place in the play-offs.
The Scotsman has been the Tigers’ talisman this season, bagging 15 goals after arriving from Las Palmas in Spain’s La Liga back in the summer, and fans will be looking to him to fire the Tigers into the top six.
City have seen their advantage inside the top six dwindle away in recent weeks, but they’ll go into the last game level on points with sixth-placed Wrexham, and a point clear of Derby County as they look to end their six-game winless run.
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“It’s more of an opportunity, it’s more of a chance to go and do something instead of the pressure, and we need to do this; otherwise, people are going to lose jobs, people are going to do this, da da da,” he told Hull Live.
“That’s a completely different position, and it’s one that we’re fortunate we’re not in. We’ve got to enjoy the pressure of the opportunity that we’ve given ourselves. These are the games when you’re a kid, and you’re thinking about becoming a footballer, these are the games you wanna be in. You wanna be fighting for games to go and win promotion to the best league in the world, that’s what you want to be doing.”
Many were surprised that McBurnie was tempted to join the Tigers last summer, especially given the struggles of the season before, coupled with the transfer restrictions placed on them. From his first interview, the 29-year-old has insisted he believed the squad was good enough to challenge, and that decision, he says, has been vindicated.
“I said at the start of the season to you, I don’t want to be coming back to a team that’s happy being a mediocre Championship team, middle of the table, safe,” he continued. “It’s not gonna get me out of bed in the morning, get me excited.
“I’m not leaving the Canary Islands to go and do that. I wanted a challenge that would keep that fire within you, and I think that’s what’s been so good for me this year, having that thing to work towards.
“If we’ve been 15th all season and it’s four games to go, we’re safe, nothing to play for, it’s not what I’m here for, it’s not why I came to the club. I feel vindicated in my decision to come here because of the games that we’re putting ourselves in, like this. Potentially four more games away from playing in the Premier League again. That’s the reason why I came here. We’ve got to enjoy that pressure or burden or whatever you wanna call it, of being in this position.”
City may have been odds-on to be in a relegation battle before a ball was kicked back in August, but there’s no hint of accepting their fate.
There may be acknowledgement of what a good season it has been, and a far cry from the trepidation of 12 months ago, McBurnie says the players do have perspective, but are desperate to get what they feel would be the rewards for a year of solid graft and toil.
“It’s easy to say now, but if you ask anyone involved with the club if they said, ‘Right, it goes to the last game of the season and if you win you get in the play-offs’, everyone’s snapping your hand off, aren’t they?
“I was speaking about it with Eags (John Egan) the other day, and he was saying this time last season, the boys couldn’t eat because they were going into the last game and they needed to get a result to stay in the division. If you compare the contrast from last year to this year, I feel sometimes you have to put things into a little bit of perspective. That being said, we’re all desperate to get there and to do it. It’s not a case of resting on our laurels or anything like that.
“Sometimes you do need to sit back and have that bit of perspective, and I think that helps us go into the game. We can go out and kind of play with freedom.
“People talk about pressure and stuff, but there’s no pressure. It’s football. The pressure that you are in, you’ve got to enjoy the pressure. It’s a good pressure that you put yourself under; it’s not like the pressure of we need to win, or we could be in League One next year, or anything worse could be happening.
“You’re only going out there to achieve goals; you’re only going out there to really go and achieve something that will go down in history, to make the season and all the hard work that you’ve put in worthwhile.”
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