Hull City will look for their second consecutive victory to start the 2020-21 season when they host Crewe Alexandra at the KCOM Stadium on Saturday.
The Tigers began life back in League One with a 2-0 victory at Gillingham and will look to grab another three points against a Crewe side that slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Charlton Athletic on the opening day of the season.
Managers comments
Hull manager Grant McCann is looking to make the KC Stadium a fortress and will hope that begins this weekend, he said:
”We've had three very tough away games from home against Sunderland, Gillingham and Leeds United and we've come through unscathed in all three.
"What I would like now, and it's important for any promotion season, is your home form is key. With fans or no fans, it's going to be key for us this season. We are going to be a lovely draw for people, coming to the KCOM, because it's such a tremendous place to go and play football. We want to make sure we change our mindset. No one comes her and gets an easy three points."
Crewe boss David Artell doesn't believe his side are too far off despite losing on the opening day of the season at Charlton Athletic, stating:
"I don't think we have been too far off. We know we have to improve and we will be doing everything we can to make sure those margins go for us.
"If we keep working hard then we end up scoring the first goal and then we score another. We then don't concede two goals in a game, it goes to one or none and then we are in a great position. Suddenly you have turned it around and those results go in our favor instead."
Team news
Hull will be without Tom Eaves, who took a boot to his hand studs up in training, but otherwise have a fully fit squad. Crewe also have no injury concerns, but may look to change the lineup around after the disappointing opening day defeat to Charlton Athletic.
Predicted lineups
Hull City: (4-2-3-1) Ingram; Emmanuel, Wijs, Burke, Fleming; Smallwood, Docherty; Wilks, Honeyman, Lewis-Potter; Magennis.
Crewe Alexandra: (4-3-3) Richards; Pickering, Lancashire, Sass-Davies, Ng; Murphy, Wintle, Finney; Kirk, Mandron, Dale.
Previous meetings
It's been a while since these two clubs played. Their last meeting was in a friendly in 2008, won by Crewe 4-0. Their last competitive fixture was a League Cup match in 2007, where Hull triumphed 3-0. Their last league meeting was in the EFL Championship in 2006, won by the Tigers 1-0.
Ones to watch
Greg Docherty was excellent in the EFL Cup victory over Leeds, breaking up play well and getting forward every chance he could. He scored in the 9-8 shootout win and will be one that Crewe need to keep a close eye on.
Ryan Wintle, Mikael Mandron and Charlie Kirk are in the heart of the field for Crewe and will be crucial to any success Alex are to have in this contest. Artell will be hoping this duo can link up well and create more opportunities than they did at Charlton.
How to watch
You can watch the match with a subscription on each of the club's iFollow channels, which are ‘iFollow Tigers’ for Hull and ‘iFollow the Alex’ for Crewe.