The Tractor Boys boss talked to Hull Live about why City have been so effective this season
Barry Cooper Hull City correspondent
14:00, 05 Mar 2026
Kieran McKenna makes his point at Portman Road as Sergej Jakirovic watches on(Image: Joe Toth/Shutterstock )
Kieran McKenna admitted he was relieved to have come through Tuesday night’s battle with Hull City with a narrow 1-0 victory, but reiterated his praise for the Tigers.
McKenna spoke ahead of the Portman Road showdown about his admiration for the job Sergej Jakirovic has done at City this season, despite inheriting a squad that survived on the final day of last season, and then had to work under strict transfer conditions in the summer.
Despite plenty of setbacks, City remain firmly locked inside the top six and were a difficult nut to crack for McKenna’s promotion favourites, until Azor Matusiwa thumped in a stunning strike in the final 20 minutes, breaking the deadlock.
McKenna’s men managed to keep the Tigers at arm’s length for much of the contest, with City fluffing a number of promising attacks owing to a lack of quality in the key moment.
“I didn’t follow their last season too much to be honest,” McKenna told Hull Live. “When we were in the Championship last time, Hull (City) were a top side. Of course, they’ve had transfer embargoes and things like that, but at the same time, you look at the squad and the firepower they’ve got, and they’ve got really good players.
“For me, it shows you don’t necessarily need transfer fees in this division to find good players, and they’ve managed to do it. They’ve got good players, they’ve got depth, they’ve got threats, and the manager’s done a really good job, so yeah, full credit to them, and they’ve deserved to be up at the top of the league.
“They’ve won games in really different ways, and they’re a really, really tricky opponent, and it was not easy to overcome them. Really important to not concede, and they had a threat, they had a counterthreat, and we defended some of those well, some of the recoveries were really good.
“You know, with Hull, you can’t give them something to hang on to; they’ve done it so many times this year. If you give them something to hang on to, so keeping the clean sheet was a positive.”
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Prior to the Portman Road meeting, City were unbeaten in their last eight away games and had won their last five, which included impressive victories at Millwall, Middlesbrough and Preston North End, as well as Saturday’s 1-0 success at Portsmouth, and McKenna explained why so many teams had come unstuck.
“They’re really hard to play through,” he explained. “You can see that’s why they’re having such a strong season, such a good points total. They’ve had some incredible games this year in terms of the pressure that they’re able to soak up.
“You can have set pieces and territory against them, but they really don’t give up much in the middle of their goal, and then they can score on the counter, and they’ve done it literally on Saturday (at Fratton Park), and they came here to do the same.
“It was tough, and we just about managed to keep hold of their threat defensively. If you keep a clean sheet, you give yourself 95 minutes to win the game. If you concede in that first half or in the second half, then it becomes really, really tough.”
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