After last week’s humiliating defeat away at Fleetwood Town on Sky Sports, it was back to their clinical best for Grant McCann and Hull City as they took all three points with a comprehensive 3-0 victory against Rochdale at the Crown Oil Arena. 

Rochdale bossed the stats in terms of possession, but we all know controlling the ball doesn’t win football games. Dale’s seven shots to Hull’s thirteen showed that even with less of the ball, the Tigers can dominate games - especially with Mallik Wilks and Josh Magennis firing again. 

Add into that Josh Emmanuel and Callum Elder pushing forward as overlapping fullbacks; Richie Smallwood returning in midfield and City fans will have that optimistic feeling back this weekend with home games against AFC Wimbledon and  Peterborough United to come in the next few days. 

  • “It’s a really good reaction from a bad half at Fleetwood that cost us the game”

McCann was understandably upbeat after his side’s win as he spoke to the club’s iFollow service. “It’s a really good reaction from a bad half at Fleetwood that cost us the game,” said the Northern Irishman.

Since we’ve started the season, that’s all it has been. We wanted to come here today with a real intention of responding in the right way, with the right performance and I think we’ve done that.

  • “I thought the shape of the team and our organisation was good”

They’re a good footballing team, they play the right way and they try to overload you in wide areas. I thought the shape of the team and our organisation was good. When we broke, we looked dangerous on nearly every occasion.

It could have been more. One of our frustrations at half-time was just the final ball at times. We were getting into the mid third of their half and sometimes overhitting the pass or losing the ball.

  • “The most pleasing thing was the shape and the organisation”

There were opportunities for Keano (Lewis–Potter) he could have had a couple - and Mallik could have had another one or two goals. The most pleasing thing was the shape and the organisation, the willingness to defend our goal because we know we’ve got threats in the team and we can get goals at the other end.”

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