Town boss Paul Jewell admitted that his side’s “relegation form” is “very worrying” with the season now around a quarter of the way through. Saturday’s 2-1 defeat at Hull saw the Blues remain in 23rd place in the Championship.
Jewell, who considered his position in the wake of the weekend loss but is set to continue as manager, conceded that Town’s position is increasingly concerning: "It’s very worrying. That’s 11 games gone, nearly a quarter of the season, and we’ve got seven points. That’s relegation form, isn’t it?
"You can build it up whichever way you want, but that’s the way it is. We didn’t come to Hull and play them off the park and have been done late on, we’ve come here and we’ve been second best all afternoon.”
Despite Tigers’ sub Nick Proschwitz netting the second of his two goals in the final minute, Jewell felt his team, which had gone ahead through Jay Emmanuel-Thomas in the first half, deserved little from the match: "In the first half I thought we were very, very average.
"We scored a really good goal and then in the second half I thought we improved a bit.
"When it was 1-0, we had a couple of opportunities to maybe get a second. But once they equalised, you could see their momentum kicking on and us taking a backwards step. That’s a confidence issue.”
He says regaining that self-belief is no simple thing: "Confidence is a big thing in football and getting it back isn’t going to come easily. No one gives you anything for nothing in this game.
"When it becomes a little bit nitty gritty, a little bit 50-50, we haven’t got enough people who stand up and put their foot in and are strong. We lose lots of little battles which end up becoming big, big ones. That’s why we’re losing games.”
Jewell gave midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker and keeper Stephen Henderson their debuts at the KC Stadium but the Blues boss felt it was the team overall which was under par rather than the new players not settling in: "I was disappointed with the way we played, that’s no reflection on the new players, it’s difficult when you come in and I thought the goalkeeper played well.
"Nigel came in and it was a tough game and we’ve got a lot of people who haven’t played a lot of football, but that’s not an excuse. At 1-0 we should have been able to do better than we did.
"The same old things have sneaked in today. We’ve been leading the last four games and we’ve come away with two points.
"I know what it’s like when you’re losing games as a player, you get that fear factor. You’ve got to get rid of that fear factor or you’re going to be in trouble.”
He admits that with Town having gone 10 games without a win a victory in one or both of this week’s home matches against his former clubs Derby and Sheffield Wednesday is absolutely crucial: "The next game’s only 'must win' if it’s the last game of the season and you need to win it, but the next game’s vital for us.”