Harry Maguire believes Hull City’s survival hopes are inextricably linked to their ability to “handle the pressure” at Crystal Palace next week.
Marco Silva’s key central defender accepts it is imperative that the East Yorkshire club win at Selhurst Park next Sunday if they are to retain any hope of avoiding relegation to the Championship. “We have to go to Palace and get three points,” Maguire said in the wake of the 2-0 home defeat against the already relegated Sunderland on Saturday. “But we have handled pressure games in the past, so who says we won’t deliver at Palace? It’s a huge game but it’s all still to play for.”
With Hull now 18th, a point behind Swansea City and four in arrears of Sam Allardyce’s team, Silva’s players could do with their Welsh rivals slipping up at Sunderland on Saturday. Considering David Moyes’s players have not won a League game at the Stadium of Light since mid‑December it sounds like wishful thinking but Maguire believes such a scenario is extremely plausible.
“As a player you are tense going into any Premier League game, every player is always tense but Sunderland had nothing to play for and were relaxed,” he said. “The gaffer [Silva] had drilled it into us that it would be tough because they were playing without pressure and it was. They passed it around well because they were playing with no nerves but we were a bit tense because it was a big crowd and a big game. We saw the game as being as big as a Wembley final.
“We now know that Swansea going up there next week isn’t as easy as people think. We didn’t crumble but Sunderland are a strong side. We missed a lot of chances and their goalkeeper [Jordan Pickford] was man of the match but, credit to Sunderland, they didn’t lie down.”
A combination of Pickford’s excellence and Hull’s inability to cope with the pressure resulted in the end of Silva’s extraordinary record of not having lost a home league game in Portugal, Greece and England since March 2014.
“Jordan Pickford is a very good goalkeeper and it was a very good performance from him,” said Hull’s manager, whose side were sunk by his defence’s zonal marking system enabling Billy Jones and Jermain Defoe to score second-half goals from set pieces. “But the way Sunderland played against us wasn’t a surprise. I advised my players every day this week that it would be like that because I expected they would come here and play like they did.
“Of course, they didn’t achieve this goal [of survival] but Sunderland have good players. It’s not a surprise what they did here but what they will do next week is impossible to say. I don’t know.”
The Portuguese, whose side face Tottenham Hotspur at the KCom Stadium in their final fixture this season, was certain of one thing, though. “I told my players that maybe this would be the most difficult game we will have at home,” Silva said. “I know football. When you think it’s easy, it’s never easy and we played with big tension behind us. There were many players anxious in our team and, in this situation, it’s not easy to make the best decisions.”
Although Silva was adamant that Hull should have been awarded a first‑half penalty in the wake of John O’Shea’s handball, he acknowledged a general failure to “relax” prefaced this unscheduled defeat.
“Staying calm is very important for us now,” he said. “In anyone’s work it’s impossible to do things well if you are not calm but, against Sunderland, we tried to do everything too fast. To succeed you must relax.”
Jones did not disagree. “Being already relegated meant we played with more freedom, we passed the ball well,” the visiting right-back said. “The pressure was all on Hull.”
Hull City Played 36, points 34
Remaining games Sunday Crystal Palace (a) 21 May Tottenham Hotspur (h)
