Hull Away – Image Gallery

Something struck me about yesterday, something different.

We won at Hull just over a year ago. The performance was probably better than it was this time but it was another of those pesky false dawns we have become accustomed to in recent times. It wasn’t the clinical, functional and, above all, sustained performance like what the class of 2018/19 produced. And all of that was combined with some wonderful individual performances.

Tendayi Darikwa was the only survivor from last season’s victory to start this time and he turned in another exceptional shift. Another example of giving a player a chance and not writing him off too soon. The attacking trio of Grabban, Lolley and Carvalho continue to merge into a tantalising single unit spearheading our forward play. As much as the defence deserves credit for yet another clean sheet we now have the joint second goalscorer in the division while our Portugese dynamo sits at the top of the assist league. A heady mix of defensive resilience and attacking prowess is an extremely fascinating prospect.

Yet it was Claudio Yacob who impressed me the most. He makes it all seem so easy. He strutted around the Hull pitch casually sticking a leg in where necessary and setting off numerous attacks. It looks like we acquired a hell of a player, one who can hopefully sit in between defence and attack and be that lynch pin we crave.

For the first time in a long time I got the sniff that we are *possibly* on the verge of something. The goals were celebrate wildly by us all but, to me, it all felt a bit natural. Scoring away never mind winning is a rare treat for us. But here it felt like another step to somewhere.

I am not suggesting that we are going to rampage to promotion or even dance our way into the top six but, my word, we seem to be headed somewhere. Which is more than can be said for most of the last decade.

I find Forest in 2018/19 an enthralling team to watch. Not perfect by any means, still prone to to frustrating and disappointing us but the sun might finally be breaking on the horizon. The absolute No.1 priority now is for each and every one of us to keep our shit together. To not let expectation cripple us and certainly to not let the bad results and the blips derail what might just be shaping up to be an exciting season.

If you are going we will see you at Villa.