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European Qualification – The Hull Verdict

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Very little about the match this week, it’s almost all about the fans and John Carew.

So it should be aswell, Carew has proven lately what an asset he can be to this club, and after previous crowd comments, it’s nice to see O’Neill praising our support when it has been earnt by the team and players.

Speaking on the official site he said of ‘he who is bigger than me and you’ that he was delighted that he’s been able to shake off the pesky back problem that has plagued him this season and that he loves seeing how the crowd react to the big man.

‘He is doing really well. I am delighted for him.

‘He seems to have had no reoccurrence of the back problem which plagued him midway through the season. He is now as fit as he’s been all season.

‘He really is encouraged by the crowd’s reaction during games. He is very popular and that chant the fans sing rhymes very well. He is certainly bigger than me!

‘He is thriving on his popularity with the crowd and the players.

‘It was a good goal he scored. When you have someone like Ashley to deliver that telling ball, you just have to gamble as John did to get a reward. He’s certainly in good form at the moment.’

The celebration for the goal says it all really to me, he was genuinely as pleased as the fans he was shouting at when it went in!

As for the match itself, O’Neill was delighted to finally get back to winning ways after 3 whole, long months without a win.

‘It is great to win again – it’s been a long time coming. We deserved to win the game and we kept a clean sheet for the first time in about five years so that was another positive.

‘They could have got a goal at the end. We should have had the game dead and buried before then. But when we didn’t get the second, Hull were obviously going to go for it with nothing to lose. It was up to us to hold out – and we managed it.’

European qualification two years on the trot, and this time automatic with 3 games to spare.

We all have our dark points over this season, but we must remember league wise this is improvement, it’s what we wanted at the start of the season and hopefully next campaign we can push on properly – we’ll have a good window – and we can really drive towards Top 4.

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