Friday Night Football in the Championship this week sees Hull City host Bristol City at the MKM Stadium. Both sides have had a mixed bag of results so far this season making this potential haul of three points even more important if both sides want to mount a sustained challenge for the Play-off places.
After three Championship games, Hull sit seventh in the league, nine points off Ipswich Town in the top spot and just a point behind the top six. The Tigers have two wins and a loss so far this season, sitting above seventh Stoke City due to their superior goal difference. Despite having already conceded five goals, Hull’s seven goals keep them above Stoke.
The Tigers opened their season away to Norwich, where Hull took an early lead through a Liam Delap goal. However, Norwich equalised in added time of the first half through Jonathan Rowe and then Adam Idah took all three points for Norwich in the 96th minute. Hull picked up their first win of the season at home against Sheffield Wednesday. Juan Delgado opened the scoring for Wednesday, but a hattrick from Ozan Tufan put Hull in control with Aaron Connolly also scoring. Michael Smith did score late on for Wednesday but it was only a consolation in the 4 - 2 win for Hull.
Hull’s most recent game was a trip to Blackburn. Harry Pickering was shown a red early on for Blackburn, but it was the hosts that were fired into the lead by Sam Gallagher. However, Connolly scored a brace to give Hull the 2 - 1 win.
Bristol City currently sit 14th in the Championship after one win, one draw and one loss in their first three games. They are one of six teams on four points, but sit bottom of that cohort due to an inferior goal difference.
Opening weekend saw The Robins host Preston North End in a 1 - 1 draw with Sam Bell grabbing the goal for City. Their one win so far came on their trip to Millwall where City managed to grab all three points when Matty James scored in the fourth minute of extra time.
In their last game out The Robins hosted Birmingham City. Koji Miyoshi scored in the added time of the first half to give Birmingham the lead after the first 45 minutes. In the second half Robert Dickie was shown a second yellow and ten-man Bristol City slumped to a 2 - 0 loss after Lukas Jutkiewicz scored late in the game.
Hull City and Bristol City have met 92 times in their histories, the first meeting coming back in 1905. The Robins have the advantage in the fixture with 38 wins in comparison to Hull’s 29 wins in the fixture. However, draws are also a common feature when these teams meet, happening 25 times.
In the last five games between the two, Bristol City took the win three times, with Hull winning once and the points being shared once. Despite their different starts to the season, this suggests that the three points may be heading back to Bristol.