Media View: Expert insight on Hull City

The Cherries looked destined to claim a share of the spoils at Kenilworth Road until Kal Naismith’s stunning strike with the last kick of the game earned the Hatters a 3-2 win.

Hull City, meanwhile, head to Dorset on the back of an impressive 2-0 victory over high-flying Blackburn on Wednesday – the same day the club revealed it had been taken over.

The Tigers ended Rovers’s ten-match unbeaten run thanks to goals from George Honeyman and Tom Eaves with the Acun Medya Group announced as the club’s new owners.

News of Hull’s buy-out by the Turkish-based group, which is headed by entrepreneur and TV producer Acun Ilicali, came just 90 minutes before kick-off.

Victory in front of Ilicali ended a run of five games without a win in the Championship, although a fruitful November saw them beat Barnsley, Birmingham, Cardiff and Millwall.

Ahead of the clash, afcb.co.uk caught up with David Burns who covers the fortunes of the Tigers for BBC Radio Humberside. 

HULL CITY PROFILE

Ground: MKM Stadium

Nickname: The Tigers

Head coach: Grant McCann (appointed June 2019)

Club captain: Richard Smallwood

Current league position: 19th

Leading goalscorer 2021/22: Keane Lewis-Potter (six in all competitions)

Last game: Hull City 2-0 Blackburn Rovers

afcb.co.uk: First things first – give us your thoughts on the takeover?

DB: I think it’s really exciting and it feels as though the club has got its soul back. I know there were tremendous highs under the previous owners, the Allams, but a lot of people felt disillusioned and disenfranchised by their ownership.

Being at the MKM Stadium as the new owner Acun Ilicali came in, it felt like the rebirth of a club. The fans felt part of it again and a lot of people were very emotional about it. It was great to see. It feels like the start of something new again and people have got their love back for the club.

afcb.co.uk: What’s the mood among the supporters following this week’s news?

DB: They are buoyant. They realise the new owner is not going to suddenly start throwing lots of money at it, in fact, money has not really been mentioned.

They like the fact that they think they are going to have an owner who says he understands what it is to be a football supporter and who will talk to them and keep them in the loop and involve them. I think that’s the biggest thing for the supporters.

afcb.co.uk: Give us a brief summary of the season so far for the Tigers?

DB: They are getting better I think is the main thing. At one point, you thought they were going to struggle, they weren’t adjusting to the level, they were losing games and they could be going back to League One.

But credit to them, they have turned it around. The win against Blackburn in midweek, one of the bang in-form teams, was a real fillip for the club.

They are doing much better than they were and, to me at least, they look as though they will stay at the level which I think was the important thing this season.

afcb.co.uk: How would you assess Grant McCann’s tenure?

DB: I think a lot of fans would have had him out in the season they were relegated from the Championship. They went from a position of challenging for the play-offs, they sold Jarrod Bowen and Kamil Grosicki and he didn’t change what he was doing when that happened.

I remember saying to him on air ‘you’re going to get relegated’ and this was in the January when they were in the top ten. He didn’t change the style and they had one win in 20 games and went down.

As it turned out, it was a wise decision to keep him because he bounced back in style with the team, took them to their first title in 55 years and brought them back up a level.

Some fans thought he wasn’t at the level earlier this season but he’s turned it around. He’s plugged away and he’s now got to the situation where he seems to have the faith of quite a lot of fans.

The big question is, has he got the faith of the new owner? Significantly, nobody is answering that question.

afcb.co.uk: Who is Hull’s rising star and one to watch?

DB: The player who makes them tick is George Honeyman and his return from injury has been a key factor in them starting to win games and looking like a Championship side.

But the player I think the Premier League clubs will be watching is centre-half Jacob Greaves. He’s very elegant, his dad Mark used to play for the club and he will be attracting a lot of attention and rightly so.

afcb.co.uk: Are any key players either suspended or injured against the Cherries?

DB: They’ve had a number of injuries. Alfie Jones, Callum Elder, Lewie Coyle and Mallik Wilks are all out and the squad is a bit threadbare at the moment which is why they need the new owner’s investment and they need to start getting in some faces. I’m not aware of any fresh injuries from the midweek game.

afcb.co.uk: What’s your score prediction?

DB: I’ll be optimistic and, on the back of the Blackburn performance, will go for them snatching a sneaky away point – 1-1.

You can follow David on Twitter – @bbcburnsy

Officials: Matthew Donohue (referee), Paul Hodskinson (assistant), Philip Dermott (assistant), Andy Davies (fourth official).