Grant McCann says Swindon punished ‘leggy’ Hull in County Ground defeat

Posted Sunday, November 01, 2020 by PA

Hull manager Grant McCann blamed fatigue for his side’s 2-1 defeat at Swindon in which they took an early lead.

Strikes from Paul Caddis and Joel Grant cancelled out Keane Lewis-Potter’s early goal as Swindon came from behind to end their four-match losing streak.

McCann said: “We just lacked spark today. We changed two of our front three, but it didn’t happen. It didn’t click today.

“I felt for the first 20 minutes we were good and we should have been out of sight with some of the chances we had.

“After that it was not good enough from us really. We were below par and didn’t really threaten them.

“We looked a bit low on energy today. It is not an excuse but we looked a bit leggy. And Swindon punished us.

“The first goal was a poor one to concede. We switched off from a corner.”

Swindon’s wretched league record looked like going from bad to worse when Lewis-Potter put Hull ahead in the 16th minute with a fine solo effort.

Lewis-Potter started a jinking run from inside his own half before steering the ball into the far right corner past Matej Kovar.

Caddis lashed the hosts level when Jonny Smith took a corner quickly which caught out the sleeping defence, with Caddis offered time and space to fire in off the bar in the 31st minute.

Grant turned the game on its head in the 54th minute when a fine passing move by the Robins ended with Hallam Hope flicking the ball towards the winger who took his time and knocked it in for 2-1.

Hull pushed hard for an equaliser but looked more likely to get caught on the counter and concede a third.

Swindon assistant manager Noel Hunt, deputising for isolating boss Richie Wellens, said: “I thought the boys were fantastic today.

“To go a goal down and show the character we showed and the goals that we scored were clever thinking.

“The gaffer’s biggest thing for me was to make sure we passed the ball. Today I don’t think we did as good as we have in past games, but I thought there were moments of quality in the game.

“We had a little Covid holiday so to speak and we worked on our defensive shape so we’re disappointed with the first goal because we worked on those sorts of situations in training.”