Why Hull City boss Grant McCann believes Sheffield United will get "better and better" after victory in Yorkshire derby

Grant McCann, the Hull City manager, believes that Sheffield United will “only get better and better” under their manager Slavisa Jokanović after his side fell to a 3-1 defeat to the Blades this afternoon.
Hull City manager Grant McCann during the Sky Bet Championship match against Sheffield United: Isaac Parkin/PA Wire.Hull City manager Grant McCann during the Sky Bet Championship match against Sheffield United: Isaac Parkin/PA Wire.
Hull City manager Grant McCann during the Sky Bet Championship match against Sheffield United: Isaac Parkin/PA Wire.

Billy Sharp put the Blades ahead on his 300th appearance for his boyhood club, later winning and then missing a penalty before John Egan scored a brace of headers to put United firmly in control.

City pulled one back when Keane Lewis-Potter got on the end of a good cross from former Blade Tyler Smith, who came off the bench and thought he had scored against his boyhood club – only for an offside flag to chalk it off.

“I’m disappointed,” McCann admitted.

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“We came up against a very good team today who will only get better and better and you can see they’re starting to adapt to the way the manager wants to play.

“But we’re disappointed, we need to be better. It’s as simple as that. I’ll take accountability for it, I’m the manager. We’ll go back to the drawing board and go again.”

Both of Egan’s headers came from corners from his Republic of Ireland teammate Conor Hourihane, with Sharp cleverly blocking off Malek Wilks for the first and allowing his teammate essentially a free header.

“We’ve lost too many games on set pieces and it’s happened again today,” McCann added.

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“The first one is disappointing. They’re experienced, Billy has hold of Malek but it’s good play from them. We need to get better at that and not let anyone block us, it was a frustrating moment for us. But to go and concede again from another set play was not acceptable.

“We’ve got to learn and grow up, as staff and players. We’ve got to understand it’ll happen, teams will be aggressive and we have to be too.”

On Smith’s disallowed goal, McCann added: “We didn’t do enough today but got back in the game and had a big moment.

“Tyler was level like Billy Sharp was and it goes against us. I’m not saying we’d have equalised but it’d have given us a chance.

“Things aren’t going our way at the moment but you have to make your own luck.”

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