Liam Rosenior’s Hull City concerns unfounded as Tigers keep play-off dream alive
The Tigers know they have to beat Watford on Saturday to stay in the play-off race.
Liam Rosenior admits to having concerns about the mentality of his Hull City players before last Saturday’s impressive 3-1 win at Cardiff City, which kept the Tigers in touch with the play-off pack.
City knew they must win against the Bluebirds after seeing Norwich City beat arch-rivals Ipswich Town 1-0 at Carrow Road, a game Rosenior’s players saw at the Cardiff City Stadium before they went out to warm up.
As it happened, the Tigers players produced a dominant performance to beat Cardiff thanks to a terrific first-half brace from Fabio Carvalho before Jaden Philogene regained his touch in front of goal against his former loan club, and have since gone on to claim a point in a 2-2 draw with Middlesbrough before easing past QPR on Saturday with a commanding 3-0 win to keep their hopes alive.
Owing to Norwich’s fine form in recent weeks, the gap remains at six points though City still have that game in hand at Coventry next Wednesday night and Rosenior’s side go to Watford this weekend knowing again that only victory will keep them in touch with the Canaries, who host Bristol City.
“I think if you look too far ahead, you lose focus,” Rosenior explained. “You have to focus on the next game, step by step, that’s the way you have to do it. For me, all of my energy will be focused on how can we maximise our performance against Watford.
“For the players, they’ve been so focused. They’ve been brilliant so we’ve just got to continue to focus on what we can do and honestly, that is a difficult thing to do, but if you’re in elite performance, that’s what you have to do.
“I was worried before Cardiff. Some of the players were watching the Norwich game because Norwich were playing Ipswich early and they were watching that game go ahead just before they were due to go and warm up. I was worried, but their response to that was magnificent. They played really, really well
