With seven matches to go, Hull City are firmly in the promotion race in the Championship, and you can certainly look at it from one of two perspectives.
Despite a mixed run of form, the Tigers are now back to within five points of second-placed Middlesbrough, who host fellow promotion hopefuls, Millwall on Good Friday lunchtime, whilst Southampton, Wrexham and Derby County are still breathing down their necks in the battle to solidify fifth and sixth spot.
This time 12 months ago, City were staring a potential relegation to League One in the face, before Jakirovic was able to immediately transform the club’s on-pitch standing despite a two-window transfer fee restriction.
Regardless of what happens from here on in, the feel-good factor has certainly been brought back to the MKM Stadium by Jakirovic and his team, who have batted away several instances of on and off-field misfortune to be in this position.
| Hull City’s 2024/25 & 2025/26 seasons compared (After 39 games) | 2024/25 | 2025/26 |
| League Position | 20th | 5th |
| Points | 41 | 66 |
| Top Scorer | Joao Pedro (6) | McBurnie (13) |
A crucial Easter weekend lies in wait, where they face off against Oxford United and Coventry City, two sides which the Tigers took four points from a possible six to kickstart the Bosnian’s reign back in August.
Plenty of eyes will no doubt be cast on developments in HU3 between now and the end of the season, and ex-Tigers captain, FA Cup final goalscorer and promotion-winner, Curtis Davies, has heaped strong praise on the current squad ahead of the run-in.
Embed from Getty ImagesHe said via Betway Insider: “The biggest compliment I could give Hull this season is the fact that they’ve been in the transfer embargo, but the players they’ve signed have been unbelievable. I spoke about the Birmingham transfers, but imagine if Oll McBurnie was in Birmingham’s team now.
“McBurnie has been there, done it and obviously scored goals this season. The level that he’s brought to the team has been brilliant, but that experience of knowing how to do it, how to get a promotion, people forget about that.
“You couple that with a John Egan at the back, who is experienced in the Premier League, and then they’ve dotted around a lot of players like John Lundstram. They’ve also got players in the squad that will run through brick walls so he’s done a really good job,” the ex-Tiger added.
“He had never managed in England. But he said in a recent interview that the draw of Hull City was simply that he wanted to manage in England, so he was hungry to come over here. But he’s done an unbelievable job and a really exciting job for the for the chairman that brought him in.”
Despite City’s lofty position, that hasn’t meant that some of Jakirovic’s players haven’t been immune from criticism.
Although he was called-up to the Croatia squad for friendlies against Colombia and Brazil, Ivor Pandur has certainly felt the heat in recent matches – in particular after the concerning 3-0 loss to West Bromwich Albion.
Whilst City’s offensive record of 62 goals from 39 games can only be bettered by Southampton, Ipswich Town and Coventry, only Leicester City, QPR and Sheffield Wednesday have conceded more than the 57 shipped thus far.
On the flipside, seven of the 10 clean sheets accrued by Pandur and his defence have come since the painful 4-1 defeat to Middlesbrough on December 5th, and Davies believes that his former side have done well to address their shortcomings on this front.
Embed from Getty ImagesAt one point, I think Hull were second top scorers to Coventry, but they were second most conceded just behind Sheffield Wednesday. So this exciting football is all good but it can’t maintain itself. And at that point, they did get slightly better. But as it got further into the season, I found that they seemed to mellow out a little bit,” he continued.
“They were happier to see out a 1-0 rather than going for the second. Whereas early on in the season, it was kind of just go after it and get what you can. So I think there has been a little bit of a shift.
“So, it was a concern to me. But the big thing is, when you go out to the playoffs, you’ve got three games, that’s it. You don’t want to lose the game by a big margin. But the defensive record was something that I believe had to be addressed. They did address it, but they’re in good position now to kick on and try and make those playoffs.”
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