The Tigers haven’t won at Vicarage Road since 2012
The ghosts of Ashton Gate will live long in the memory for Hull City head coach Sergej Jakirovic as he aims to win an away game for the first time as a Championship head coach.
City head to Watford on Saturday afternoon looking to end a run of 44 games without being able to claim successive victories, which dates back 12 months.
Saturday’s thumping 3-1 success over promotion favourites Southampton has raised spirits after the 2-2 draw at Swansea City ended a run of back-to-back defeats, and they’ll arrive in Hertfordshire determined to continue their momentum.
The second of those defeats came against Bristol City at Ashton Gate before the international break. It came despite Jakirovic’s side roaring into a third-minute lead when Joe Gelhardt cleverly scored the opener.
City fell apart thereafter and found themselves 3-1 down at the break after an error-strewn half, and soon it became 4-1 before Kyle Joseph’s first Tigers goal made the scoreline look moderately less emphatic.
That defeat on the Avon proved something of a watershed moment for the City boss, as he watched his side cut to pieces with worrying regularity. The Robins notched 29 attempts (City had 20 of their own in fairness) and hit the woodwork three times.
Since then, City have tightened up at the back, even though they’ve not yet got a clean sheet to show for it. They were denied that honour by Adam Armstrong’s 95th-minute consolation last Saturday.
Now, the Tigers take on a Hornets side on a two-game losing run, with the latest coming at Millwall on Monday night, but the memories of Ashton Gate linger for Jakirovic, and he sends a word of warning to his players about the potential threats waiting for them at Vicarage Road against a side with stand-out quality in their ranks.
“This is our challenge,” Jakirovic said of the need to back up the win over the Saints. “If we can be on the ball more, which is something we’ve worked on in training.
“We will try to play our game when we have possession, but I’m aware that this Watford team has potential. They are very quick, very fast, so we need to be there very smart and pragmatic.
“For example, I always remember Bristol with good energy, with good intensity. We had a lot of problems there, so we need to remove this and try to be better in this part of the game.
“They have talented players, very young players, very ambitious, hungry players, and like I said, they are very, very fast players, so it will be a very big challenge for us. How we will defend (against) this, and also maybe from the beginning of the game, to be pragmatic. This may be the main plan for now.”
Not since this time last year, when Tim Walter’s side won at Stoke City and QPR with a home victory over Cardiff City in the space of a week, have the Tigers claimed successive wins.
Only Southampton among the 92 league clubs has gone longer without winning back-to-back games, a run that stands at 48. But for City, ending that 44-game run will be another significant step forward, something the Croatian has not lost sight of.
“Yes, I think the past year we didn’t have two games to win in a row,” he continued. “Yes, it’s a challenge for sure, so we will try to do that, but it will not be easy, especially against Watford because they’re struggling a lot with results.
“It’s not like performance; they didn’t have luck in some games. They were better than their opponent, but in the end, they lost the game.
“I expect them to be better than against Millwall, maybe more brave, maybe with a lot of attacking players in their finishing zone, so we need to defend that very well.”
Given the air of frustration around the Hornets fanbase, getting a first goal at Vicarage Road since 2012 could work to their advantage in terms of the atmosphere, but the Croatian is quick to again reference that damaging afternoon in the West Country rain.
“We scored the first goal in Bristol as well after three minutes, so we scored the first goal, and at half-time, we were 3-1 down. We will see, every game is different,” he continued.
“We can predict something, try to have Plan A, Plan B, but we will see. We will prepare, we prepared already this week something, so we will see who will be first 11, and who will be in the squad.”
Listen to what Lewie Coyle had to say about this weekend’s game right here
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