‘The table-topping Tigers are favourites to go up - what could possibly go wrong?’

Eye Of The Tigers, a column by Sam Hawcroft

A fan’s thoughts on Hull City

Cast your minds back a few months to when I questioned whether we should even be carrying on with this Covid-riddled farce of a football season. And then disregard it all.

For we are the table-topping Tigers and favourites for promotion; at the time of publication, we had 76 points from 40 games and were still basking in the glow of a bumper Easter weekend.

It might seem a little early to talk about the run-in, but, hey, everyone’s been doing it for weeks and secondly, by the time my next column comes out (May 8) we’ll know for sure whether we’ve clinched promotion or whether it will go down to the wire, meaning we’re all going to settle down in front of iFollow on the final day with the squeakiest of squeaky bums. Which one would be more #TypicalCity?

We all know that we don’t tend to do things the easy way, do we? Here’s a nightmare scenario to keep you awake at night: we need to win the last game away to Charlton – whose new manager is, lest we forget, one Nigel Adkins – to ensure we go up automatically. If we fail… we could face a play-off with… Charlton. I’ve come out in a cold sweat just thinking about it.

There’s also the chance that, by then, fans could be allowed to attend games, as the EFL is piloting reduced-capacity attendances at the Carabao Cup final and FA Cup semi-final, with a view to supporters being allowed in to the 2020-21 play-off games. Like many, I’ve wanted to go to a match for months, but noooooo… not like that!

‘I’d be happy not to see another games this season if it means we’ve avoided the play-offs’: Sam Hawcroft

Having said that, this past year has seen me settle into a routine that I might find hard to shift out of once things return to some kind of normality; because I’m getting old and sad, I’ve found that I have numerous things competing with football for my time, the main one being work, as well as gardening and other hobbies.

I’ve got used to going off and doing these other things, then turning the laptop on at 2.55pm and watching City. I even discovered during the Crewe match that the half-time break gave me exactly enough time to go and cut down a buddleia bush. Which was marginally more exciting than the game itself.

I can’t be the only person secretly relishing the extra time on their hands, and I think it’d be great if they kept iFollow on indefinitely as the pandemic abates, especially for those who are still nervous about being among crowds.

Anyway, back to the run-in. Trying to work out all of the permutations at this stage brings to mind those gifs where a load of mathematical squiggles fly around the head of a confused person. Six games left gives us a possible 18 points to aim for, so you would have thought that, going on our present form, winning three and drawing the others wouldn’t be an unreasonable expectation.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m not too bothered about being champions; it’d be nice, but we won’t be in the stadium to celebrate it, so just getting the job done and going up would be good enough for me.

What’s a little concerning is the number of games in hand the others below us have – Peterborough have one, Sunderland and Portsmouth have two, Blackpool and Lincoln three. But you could argue that’s a bit of a punishing schedule at the business end of the season – two games a week for much of the rest of it, so you’d have to ask whether they could keep up the momentum.

Blackpool have staged a storming late run; they could still, in theory, be champions if they won the rest of their matches while the others seriously falter; stranger things have happened. But they have yet to play Sunderland home or away – two huge games for them, and us, obviously.

Portsmouth, on the other hand, look to have the easiest run-in; there are no big-hitters in their remaining matches – indeed, most are in the bottom 10 – and their recent form has been pretty consistent, so for me they’re the ones to watch from the chasing pack.

It’s in our hands; ours to lose, and all the other clichés. The memories of our plunge from grace last season have yet to fade, and in the back of a lot of people’s minds is the fear that it could happen again, but we’re in a totally different situation this time around. We haven’t destabilised the team by selling two of our best players, for a start.

‘At least watching matches on iFollow has allowed me to keep up with the gardening’: Sam Hawcroft. Picture by Aleksandr Rado

Honeyman – or the Mackem Pirlo, as Hull City’s official Twitter feed called him – has been a revelation this year; Wilks, Coyle and Lewis-Potter are exciting to watch; and Docherty has put in some tremendous shifts, to name a few.

Speaking of KLP, you do have to wonder that, had all that unseemly business surround his contract not seen him reduced to a bit-part player for a big chunk of the season, would we practically have the title in the bag by now? 

On Friday morning there was another crumb of good fortune for those of a superstitious bent, as everyone’s favourite National Holidays coach driver was named the League One manager of the month.

Grant McCann was nominated, but didn’t take home his second award of the season (having won it in January), which would surely have put the mockers on our promotion hopes. Instead, the gong went to touchline foghorn Steve Evans, whose bellowing during our home match against Gillingham often threatened to drown out the iFollow commentators.

When I first started this column I mentioned the fact that I’d signed up to Andy Medcalf’s prediction league in aid of the RNLI. At the time, I was rock-bottom… and I still am.

There was a slight wobble, admittedly, when I got a result right for the first time all season (2-0 at home to Rochdale), but I’d like to reassure you all that my extreme pessimism continues to be inversely proportionate to our league success.

I’m now closing in on the £5 wooden spoon prize, a run-in that’s almost as tense as the real thing. What will I spend it on? I think it’ll have to be my first pint in a pub beer garden.