City could do with a helping hand from Boro to boost their play-off hopes
Sergej Jakirovic is targetting final day success with Hull City(Image: Anna Gowthorpe/Shutterstock)
Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic has revealed how his Middlesbrough counterpart Kim Hellberg wished him well for the final game of the season and hoped to come across the Tigers in the play-offs.
City need Boro to do them a favour at Wrexham on the final day of the Championship campaign, with the Teesside outfit in with a shout of automatic promotion, if Ipswich Town fail to beat QPR, and Millwall drop points at home to already relegated Oxford United.
Boro’s hopes of clinching automatic promotion were kept alive after Southampton held the Tractor Boys to a thrilling 2-2 draw on Tuesday night, which gives Hellberg’s side a glimmer of hope going to sixth-placed Wrexham, who are only above City on goal difference.
Jakirovic and Hellberg met at the recent EFL Awards ceremony in London, with the pair nominated for the second-tier’s Manager of the Year, along with Alex Neil and eventual winner Frank Lampard, and the City boss has given an insight into their conversation.
“One hundred per cent (Southampton’s draw can help). At 12:30pm, when the ball is in the centre circle, you don’t think about the other games. You will try to do everything to win the game,” the Croatian told Hull Live. “In my opinion, Millwall, Middlesbrough and Southampton will try to avoid fourth and fifth position.
“If you look back at the form of these clubs, especially Southampton’s great run, you will try to do everything to avoid this (playing at home in the first leg). Millwall has an advantage because if they win their game, then they will be third, but Middlesbrough will also try to do everything to win the game. I know that because I spoke with Kim Helberg at the EFL awards night. He said to me, ‘See you in the play-offs’, so we will see.
“He’s a very nice lad, and I like him. I like his play and his style of football. I said to him what he did there, it doesn’t look good (dropping from second place), but they also had problems with injuries like us. This is something that is very important in this league to keep healthy players, but it’s not easy to keep players healthy. Maybe his wish is to play with us; we will see. It would be very nice, but we have to look at ourselves.”
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With no wins in six games, City’s form has plummeted at the worst possible moment, and Jakirovic knows his team must keep their side of the bargain if they’re to have any realistic hope of climbing back into the play-offs, where they were for four months until late last month.
“We need to do everything to win the game; this is the first target. The second target is to score one goal more than Wrexham,” Jakirovic continued. “We have to do everything from our side.
“If I look back at our last six games, I think we could have won at least three. We’ve had our own problems, and we’ve also had critical decisions go against us from the officials.”
As he did for the win over Leicester City earlier in the season, Jakirovic will watch from the stands after his sending off at the King Power Stadium, with assistant managers Marko Salatovic and Dean Holden overseeing matters from the technical area, though the boss will be in constant communication and will be able to deliver his normal pre-match and half-time team talks.
“Marko and Dean will be there, last time we beat Leicester in this combination. Maybe my team will play better now that I’m not in the dugout”, he joked. “They (the FA) said I could choose this game or the Charlton game. Marko had three yellows, so he missed that one, and I will watch this one from the stands. I hope it will be the same recipe as against Leicester.”
Jakirovic’s men will be backed by a sold-out MKM Stadium, one that will be expectant, and he wants the fans to be loud. After an altercation with a fan at The Valley last Saturday, who was abusing the players after their 2-1 defeat in the capital, according to Jakirovic, he’s keen for the supporters to back their side, whatever happens on the day.
“Fill the stadium like they’ve done already, bring the noise, be loud and support the team no matter what the result is on the pitch,” he said passionately when asked what his final message to the supporters would be.
“If you are a fan of this club, you will support this team even when it’s going through bad times. It’s not about victory, that my shoulder is always heavy for me, or if I can use this sentence from Bill Shankly. If you don’t support us in the defeats, don’t support us in the victories either.’
“It’s very simple. It’s very simple because I know after the game, you are sad, disappointed, but also we are like this. Everything is fine. We cannot complain about the fans this season because they were fantastic at home and away. We will do everything on the pitch. We will do everything. Will it be enough? We will see after around 3pm.”
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