Sergej Jakirovic hails Hull’s ‘unbelievable’ achievement of reaching play-offs

Head coach Sergej Jakirovic reflected upon an “unbelievable” achievement after Hull earned a spot in the Sky Bet Championship play-offs with a 2-1 comeback win at home to Norwich.

Goals in either half from Oli McBurnie saw the Tigers nudge clear of Wrexham and Derby to land a place in the top six.

Jakirovic, who has had to operate all season under a transfer embargo, said: “It’s a big success to have achieved this.

“To achieve this is my first season at the club is unbelievable. It’s a very big achievement, but this is massive for me and club – especially in these circumstances.

“We maybe missed a few opportunities to get a more points this season, but that’s what makes football so interesting.

“This is a sweet feeling.”

Hull had to do it the hard way on a tense afternoon in the East Yorkshire sunshine after Mo Toure struck after 26 minutes following Anis Ben Slimane’s perfectly-weighted pass.

But the home side’s reaction was immediate as McBurnie struck from the penalty spot two minutes later.

Hull were much improved after the break and scored the key goal that sets up a play-off semi-final clash against Millwall when McBurnie bundled home Matt Crooks’ well-directed header after 67 minutes.

Jakirovic said: “I’m very proud of our players because they showed a great mentality.

“In the first half we didn’t do anything – just kicking the ball around nowhere – but my message at half-time was that we needed to calm down and believe in ourselves because they (Norwich) are not robots.

“When we scored a second goal, we didn’t need to score again so it was important to defend so well and we did that really well.

“We had to do everything to win this game and – in the end – we succeeded.

“I was calm after the second goal. My focus was on how we could improve and what needed to be changed. I’m so happy we got there and it is great credit to the lads.

“We will recover good for two days and then full concentration from Tuesday for Millwall.”

Counterpart Philippe Clement felt Norwich did not deserve to finish their strong end to the season in defeat as they finished the campaign in ninth.

He said: “All credit to Hull, but that was not a game we should have lost.

“We did our job to get a result and think we deserved more. Our players showed the right mentality and they – until the last second – (tried) to get a result.

“We deserved more out of this game, but it didn’t happen.

“We need to focus on ourselves. What we missed to have a really good game was to be more ruthless in the final third.”

Assessing his time at the club he joined in November, Clement added: “The last 26 games we took most points in the league, so it’s an amazing story.

“Next season this (the play-offs) will be our target. There’s now a real unity with our fans so, of course, we want to do something special next season.

“We need the right recruitment and the right players – players will also be coming and going – so that’s a puzzle that will need to be fixed.

“The most important thing is to focus on ourselves but to raise our levels with recruitment, with players who are already in the building.

“I’m really hungry to continue this story (for as long) as possible.”