Hull City v Blackpool: Team news, predicted line-up and quotes from Neil Critchley

The Seasiders beat Barnsley 1-0 on Saturday thanks to Shayne Lavery’s strike to make it three wins from their last four.

The result saw Neil Critchley’s side move up to 14th in the table and six points clear of the bottom three.

The bottom three is where tomorrow’s opponents Hull sit following a disastrous start to the season after last season’s promotion.

Grant McCann’s side have picked up just five points from their nine games, having failed to win since the opening day of the season.

The Tigers have failed to even score in seven of their last eight outings.

Team news

Jordan Gabriel and Kevin Stewart come back into contention having missed Saturday’s win against Barnsley.

Gabriel was forced to isolate after his girlfriend tested positive for Covid-19, but returned to training on Sunday and is fit and well.

Stewart, meanwhile, could return to the fray after recovering from a knee injury suffered after making his first start of the season in the 1-0 win against Fulham.

Elsewhere, Reece James (foot) and Owen Dale (foot) both received good news following recent scans, but won’t be available until after the forthcoming international break.

Matty Virtue (ACL), Grant Ward (achilles) and CJ Hamilton (foot) all remain sidelined.

Teddy Howe, Bez Lubala and Joe Nuttall are not part of Blackpool’s 25-man squad.

Hull, meanwhile, are sweating over the fitness on influential midfielder George Honeyman and striker Josh Magennis, who is a Northern Ireland teammate of Shayne Lavery.

Neil Critchley’s pre-match comments

“Every win is hard to come by in the Championship, three points is so difficult.

“Even on Saturday, we were the better team and deserved to win but near the end of the game Barnsley could easily have sneaked an equaliser from nowhere.

“Teams stay in games, they’re so competitive.

“After we beat Middlesbrough, we spoke about the counter-attacking opportunities we had towards the end of the game to make it 3-1, where the game would have been over.

“But the way Middlesbrough were defending those moments, the character and the personality of all the teams...there’s no let-up for 90 minutes.

“We know where we are, we know we’re in a good moment now, but that can change and we have to be guarded against that.

“Anything but us going to Hull and being like we were on Saturday, fully concentrated, ready for the game and ready for a team that will be hurting and ready to come at us, won’t be enough to beat them.”

Opposition view

“We’ve been disappointing in terms of our home form and this is an opportunity to try and pick three points up against Blackpool,” Grant McCann said.

“Blackpool are a good team, they’re well-managed, it’s gonna be another tough game, but they’re a team that have come up with us last season, so our aim is to take the three points.

“We understand it is going to be a difficult task, we’ve got to make sure we are mentally prepared and tactically prepared.”

Pool’s predicted line-up (442): Maxwell, Sterling, Keogh, Ekpiteta, Garbutt, Dougall, Wintle, Mitchell, Anderson, Lavery, Yates

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