Tim Walter looks forward after Hull’s frustration continues with home loss

Posted Monday, November 11, 2024 by PA

Under-pressure Hull head coach Tim Walter is adamant results will improve after his side suffered a 2-1 defeat at home to West Brom.

The Tigers were always up against it following early first-half goals from Karlan Grant and Josh Maja.

And though Joao Pedro reduced the deficit five minutes before the break, pockets of disgruntled Hull fans remain unconvinced about Walter’s suitability for the role.

The former Hamburg boss, who replaced popular former manager Liam Rosenior in the summer, said: “There are still 31 games left – I am always looking forward not backwards.

“All we can do is keep going. The players showed character, a lot of courage and a lot of bravery.

“We are looking forward – that’s all we can do. We are trying to push them forwards.

“We are not looking for excuses, we are looking for solutions.”

Hull have now not won in seven and are level on points with the bottom three in the Sky Bet Championship.

West Brom were also on a bad streak – they had not won in eight – but are now back in the play-offs.

Grant’s deflected strike after 12 months put the visitors in front, after which an unmarked Maja doubled their advantage with a firm downwards header five minutes later.

Hull at least showed plenty of fight thereafter and got back into the game when Pedro brilliantly headed home Lewie Coyle’s inviting cross after 40 minutes.

They also had their moments after the interval – Regan Slater wastefully headed over the crossbar after 58 minutes – but could find no way to penetrate a disciplined West Brom defence.

Walter said: “It’s more about the performance than anything else but, at the end, we didn’t have the luck.

“We are conceding unlucky goals but all you can do is to work and fight.

“They proved their character and they tried to involve our fans, which they did.

“The players wanted to show that we can beat teams like this and I know they can do it.

“It was like a repeat button: the same result and the same zero points. But it is, for me, about how we are performing to get to the results.

“If someone told me they would have had two shots against us I would have taken it.”

Counterpart Carlos Corberan was unhappy about the physical demands placed upon West Brom players, who were in action three days ago.

He said: “We arrived to this game in a very difficult physical challenge because we played Thursday night.

“The minimum (gap between games) for me should be 72 hours – in my opinion this is a risk.

“We played against an opponent not in similar physical conditions because they played two days earlier.

“It’s not an excuse but we knew to achieve a positive result the level of strong mentality had to be key.”

Corberan, who was in charge of West Brom for the 100th time, added: “I’m very satisfied with the mentality of the team – the effort and the commitment has been amazing.

“I value the mentality of the players because when you don’t win games you can get frustrated and give up.

Hull are a very good team with very good players. It’s true that under their coach they do something that is totally different to other teams.

“Their types of rotations make it more of a tactical challenge and, with the physical challenge, we didn’t have time to prepare.

“We were very resilient. As a coach I will always want to make our fans proud of the team. We had some good moments, but we are not performing at the level I want.

“I feel unbelievably proud to lead this club for 100 games, but the most important thing is to make the fans proud.”