Liam Rosenior has told his players to relish the opportunity ahead of them, while calling on supporters to create an atmosphere befitting of the excitement building around a potential push for a Wembley play-off final. Nine games stand between City and the chance to shoot it out in the play-offs for a chance to return to the Premier League.
City have returned to England after their week-long training trip to Antalya and are now well underway with their preparations for the visit of Stoke City on Friday afternoon, before taking on Leeds United at Elland Road on Easter Monday. From there, City face games against Cardiff, QPR, Middlesbrough, Watford, Coventry City, Ipswich Town and then Plymouth Argyle on the final day in what is now a nine-game mini-league between at least five clubs fighting for a play-off berth.
It’s the first time since City won promotion from the Championship in 2015/16 that the Tigers are going into the final stages of the season with a chance of winning promotion to the Premier League.
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Rosenior, who was part of that promotion-winning squad under Steve Bruce, says the position the players have got themselves into is one to relish, and one to be excited about, and urged the fans to create an atmosphere at the MKM Stadium that reflects that.
"It's been nice and refocused and reenergized (during the break), and I'm really excited now, this is the exciting part of the season," Rosenior told Hull Live. "We're in a great position, we had our international players back today, which is really nice to see them and, yes, back to work and back to doing what we love to do. It was exactly what we wanted. The players had some really, really good times together. We had some really, really good open conversations, not just about football.
"Training (in Antalya) was excellent, the facilities are world-class. The weather was really, really good and it felt like a change. I think the time that we were there as well was perfect. Five days was more than enough, and I think after that we were itching to get back and get back into what's going to be a really exciting end of the season."
City's last outing came in that pulsating 2-2 draw with Leicester, a game in truth Rosenior's side should have won, and once again his players will have the backing of a sold-out crowd on Friday afternoon against a Potters side battling at the bottom.
"It feels like three years, let's get back to it," he said. "It's hard when you're a manager, sometimes you have these three-week breaks. Yes, it's the balance of trying to get the players to be in the right place in terms of your training, and it's nice to have a break, but you can go to a point where you overanalyse absolutely everything because you don't have that focus. I just can't wait for the games to begin again.
"I'm really, really looking forward to Friday, full house, great atmosphere, two teams fighting for different reasons. Let's get it on and let's see if we can get to where we want to get to.
"This is what you're in football for, these moments. I've been in plenty of relegation battles and they're really, really difficult. I've had a couple of seasons where as a player or last season, we knew we were safe. We knew we couldn't quite get to where we wanted to or where we all want to be. This year is completely different. It's exciting. I'm excited.
"I don't know what's going to happen, no one does. That's why we're in football. That's why we love football and I just want the players, I want everybody involved with the club to enjoy every moment, and what I'll say is let's not get too high or too low. It's what we've built everything on.
"If we win against Stoke, we're not definitely making the playoffs. If we lose against Stoke, we're not definitely not making the playoffs, it's just another step.
"It's actually a nine-game league. If we win our game in hand, we're level on points with the play-offs, there's loads of football to be played. Let's just enjoy every moment and give it our best shot, and that's all you can ask for."
