Hull City will host Blackburn Rovers with both teams in a poor run of form in the Championship. In their last match, Liam Rosenior’s team lost badly, 1-0, to Sunderland. The visitors were humiliated, 3-0, away to Huddersfield Town.
Preview (Hull City vs. Blackburn Rovers)
Rosenior’s players haven’t done anything to support their manager’s renewal. They lost their last two Championship games to Bristol City and Sunderland on either side of Christmas Day. It came four days after squandering a 2-1 lead in a 3-2 loss to the Robins. Hull controlled the ball when fellow playoff contenders Sunderland visited their Yorkshire headquarters. However, an excellent strike by Jack Clarke, his 11th of the year, condemned the Tigers to their fourth loss in six games.
At the end of the day, Sunderland beat Hull to move into the top six. Seven teams are within striking distance of the Tigers. Finding a killing instinct has rarely been a problem for Hull. They have only drawn blankly twice in their last 14 games against Sunderland. However, the home crowd will not find the New Year’s predictions comforting.
In fact, after crushing Fulham 6-0 in the 2013–14 Premier League season, Hull has lost twice and drawn twice in their last four home games to end the year. It would not hurt to put up a performance akin to that on Friday. After defeats against Watford and Southampton, Tomasson’s team suffered their third consecutive loss as Delano Burgzorg and Soba Thomas put Blackburn out of contention in the second half. Jaheim Headley had earlier broken the deadlock in the first half. Tomasson apologized to the 3,000-strong Blackburn supporters who watched their team’s surrender from the stands. As a result of Rovers’ winter struggles, Friday’s visitors fell to 15th place in the rankings. They still have a five-point deficit to catch up to the top six.
Team News
Because Ryan Allsop suffered a back injury against Bristol City on Tuesday, Matt Ingram made his first start in the Championship in almost three months. Rosenior also suffered a fresh setback when the defender managed to play through the pain for a short while in the first half of the second half before ending the match. Rueben Vinagre (hamstring), Dougukan Sinik (knee), and Jaden Philogene (knee) are also still in the treatment room for Hull, who should Coyle not cut, will promote Cyrus Christie to the starting XI.
Regarding Blackburn, Pickering and 14-goal attacker Sammie Szmodics were added back to the starting lineup. They were sidelined by exhaustion in the previous match against Watford. However, five injured players are still out of the lineup. Ryan Hedges (hamstring), Sam Gallagher (tendon), Tyrrhys Dolan (knee), and Aynsley Pears (foot) won’t be cleared to play in the match, while Hayden Carter faces a two-game penalty after just one booking. In the Huddersfield defeat, Tomasson benched Andy Moran and Andre Tronstad at halftime.
Hull City 2-1 Blackburn Rovers
For more football previews, click here
