Having avoided relegation on goal difference last season, Hull City have made a very good start to this one and, after beating Leicester on Tuesday evening, now sit in seventh place. That means that they are two places below Charlton who, if you hadn't noticed, stuffed Ipswich 3-0 at Portman Road on Tuesday.
A 1-1 draw at Portsmouth on last season's final day saw Hull clamber into twenty first place but survival wasn't enough to save manager Ruben Selles' job. He was replaced in June by Bosnian Sergei Jakirović who had been at Turkish side Kayserispor for the latter half of last season and had improved their league position enough to impress Hull's Turkish chairman Acun Ilicali.
Jakirović was joined in early July by Dean Holden as an assistant head coach but two days later the club were hit with a three-window transfer embargo (subsequently reduced to two) imposed because of late payment of loan fees to Aston Villa and Manchester City. This means that the club have not been able to sign players for a fee but, as we saw with Sheffield Wednesday last weekend, that does not mean that they can't field a competitive side.
An opening day 0-0 draw at Coventry looks particularly good in retrospect and it has been followed by home wins over Oxford (3-2), Southampton (3-1), Sheffield United (1-0) and Leicester (2-1). So far, the only teams to come away from the MKM Stadium with anything are Preston who got a 2-2 draw last month and (surprisingly) Blackburn who turned the home side over 3-0 in August.
In addition to Dean Holden there will be plenty more familiar faces for Charlton fans on Saturday. Dillon Phillips joined them from Rotherham this summer but has so far been understudy to Ivor Pandur. Semi Ajayi and Akin Famewo came respectively from West Brom and Sheffield Wednesday although so far they have only seven appearances between them. CAFC Academy graduate Kasey Palmer joined from Coventry last year for £1.25m but has only been used as a late substitute recently and wasn't in the squad on Tuesday. Liam Millar, however, made his first start after a year out with an ACL injury and marked his return with a superb strike into the top corner to put Hull ahead. Mason Burstow, signed from Chelsea last year, won't be there as he is out on loan at Bolton for the season.
Man of the moment is undoubtedly former Sheffield United striker Oli McBurnie who, with six goals so far, was named Championship Player of the Month for September. It was surprising that he wasn't in the squad for the Leicester game with the Hull website merely commenting that he "isn't involved". It remains to be seen whether he will feature on Saturday, but Hull can still field a potent strike force with Leeds loanee Joe Gelhardt having scored four times so far.
Jakirović sets the team up in a 4231 formation which is dangerous going forward but leaky at the back. Hull's fullbacks love to bomb forward to overlap the winger in front. Ryan Giles has notched up 6 assists in this fashion already. James Bree will be licking his lips at the prospect of attacking into the space left behind Giles and if The Addicks can counter attack as quickly as they did against Ipswich there should be plenty of opportunities to score. While Charlton have the lowest possession percentage in the league their opponents are equally ball shy, with only 2% more possession over the season; as you might expect from that, Hull have hit the third most, long balls in the Championship. Lloyd Jones will need to be imperious in the air as usual while Conor Coventry and Greg Docherty need to be first to every second ball.
Nathan Jones was "very proud" of his squad's performance at Portman Road and he was very appreciative of the support from travelling supporters:
“The fans were absolutely outstanding, they travelled on a difficult night, the weather was bad, a Tuesday night coming to Ipswich is not the easiest place. I thought they were wonderful and I'm just glad we could give them a performance. The rapport we have now [is great]. Be proud of yourselves because we're in a good place as a club.”
However, he thinks it is "a little bit odd" that for the second time in a few weeks his squad have a double-header of away games. Nevertheless, he is phlegmatic about it: "We enjoy tonight; We'll dust ourselves down, do a bit of training and travel North again".
Simple as that
Picture by Rhea Spencer-Newell