Manager speaks ahead of Hull City match
CHRIS Hughton insists his Norwich City team will be doing all in their power to end their barren streak when Hull City visit Carrow Road this Saturday.Tuesday’s defeat at Fulham saw the Canaries’ winless run extended to eight matches in all competitions, but Hughton believes his side will show ‘grit and determination’ to get a positive result.
“There’s no doubt it’s a big game. I think the fact that we’re playing at home is important and that we’re playing a team who are not too far above us in the division who have been deemed to have had a very good season so far,” he said
“It’s also a big game for us because we want to improve on our form. We’re disappointed with where we are this particular moment.
“What we’ve been missing is the quality at both ends. We know that we’re on a disappointing run, and the best way to solve that one is by showing the grit and determination to win games.”
New signing Jonas Gutierrez declared himself fit and available for selection when speaking to the media earlier in the day, and although Hughton admitted he hasn’t had to time to work with Gutierrez that he’d have wanted, he said he’s in his thoughts for clash with Steve Bruce’s outfit.
“He certainly comes into contention,” he commented.
“It’s been a disrupted week because of the cup tie at Fulham which he wasn’t able to be involved in, so we haven’t been able to do the amount of training with him with the group that we would have liked.
“Players tend to settle in fairly quickly, though, and particularly into this group. They’ve very acceptant of anybody coming in – they know he’s here to help us and they’ve been very welcoming.”
On the fitness of Alex Tettey and Anthony Pilkington, he added: “They will both be in the squad. We’ll make a decision tomorrow.
“Although they’ve done some good training, they’ve been out for a long period of time, particularly Alex. We’ll make that decision but at this moment we can say that they’ll both be in the squad.”