The midweek round of matches in the Championship concludes on Thursday when two sides who are far too close to the relegation trap door for comfort meet at the KCOM Stadium when Hull City host Middlesbrough.
Hull go into the match in the bottom three of the table after Huddersfield’s win on Wednesday evening but things are so tight at the foot of proceedings that a win for the Tigers will move them up three spots. Middlesbrough will go five points clear of the drop with a win so there is plenty on this one.
Where to watch
The match will be shown live on Sky Football with the build up to the match beginning at 4.30pm and the match itself starting at 5pm.
Hull City
It has all gone wrong for Hull City since the turn of the year. They haven’t won in the league since the opening day of 2020 and have only picked up three points from the 39 available since then so it is little surprised that they have plummeted into the relegation zone. Their woes are self-made it has to be said. They let their two best players leave in January and failed to adequately replace them and now it has all come crashing down around them.
In a way lockdown came at a good time for Hull. It hasn’t been fantastic since they’ve come out of it but going into the break they were leaking goals left right and centre. There are still issues in that department, as highlighted by them shipping three goals to Birmingham City at the weekend. The positive was that they found three of their own but they still couldn’t win the game. Defeat here and their troubles get intensely serious.
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Middlesbrough
Middlesbrough have been teetering with the bottom three for almost the entire season and after finally dropping back into it after their 3-0 reverse at home to Swansea in their first match back they decided to get rid of Jonathan Woodgate and bring in escape artist Neil Warnock. That paid dividends immediately with a 3-0 success at Stoke last weekend and they will be out to back up that display and get another win here.
It is universally accepted that Warnock will keep Boro up this term, and that might well be the case but it is going to need more than a win at a terrible Stoke side before anyone is convinced by them. The source of their problems this season has been scoring goals. They are the lowest scorers in the division by some six goals and although they haven’t leaked too many, you can’t win if you don’t score! That is something Warnock is going to need to fix over the remaining seven matches.
Team News
Grant McCann may have to call on Tom Eaves for this match as there has been no guarantee that Mallik Wilks will be available with his loan spell due to end at the end of the week. He has no new injury concerns but the likes of Eric Lichaj and Jackson Irvine are still absent.
Middlesbrough boss Neil Warnock is expected to have the versatile Hayden Coulson available after he missed the win over Stoke because of injury. There is no future at the club for Rudy Gestede but Warnock has a fully fit squad to choose from.
Betting
There is the question mark about what Middlesbrough beat last week in Stoke City but whatever it was there is a good chance they won’t be playing anything better here in Hull City. Hull just look like they’ve gone to pieces and even against an ordinary Birmingham City side at the weekend they were unable to hold on to 2-0 and 3-2 leads. That form wasn’t exactly franked by their loss at home to Huddersfield on Wednesday evening either.
Clearly these are two limited and out of form sides but the new manager bounce that Warnock is generating might just prove to be the difference here. Middlesbrough have never lacked for defensive organisation and ability and Warnock will get people in the players in the right positions to get them goals. It is just hard to see how Hull pick up results with their defence leaking like it is. There isn’t a huge amount of value in Middlesbrough with Warnock in charge but you can’t spend value. The visitors are the likely winners of this match in my eyes.
Tips
Back Middlesbrough (-0.25AH) to beat Hull City for a 3/10 stake at 1.88 with BetVictor
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