The Tigers are on the road again this weekend looking for a first win at the John Smith’s Stadium since 2013

Naturally, Hull City’s recruitment in the transfer market throughout the season has generated plenty of extra focus on the football club as they attempt to return to the Premier League after seven years away.

Going into the final 15 games, City are well placed to give their supporters an exciting end to the season, sitting just two places outside the top six, but only on goal difference, and they do have a game in hand.

The arrivals of Jaden Philogene, Liam Delap, Tyler Morton, Fabio Carvalho, Ryan Giles and Anass Zaroury have catapulted Liam Rosenior’s men into sharp focus. They’re a young group, one feeling their way through the Championship with a growing sense of expectation.

First and foremost, expectation, of course, is driven from within. The players and staff want to be in the Premier League come August, that desire drives them forward. Owner Acun Ilicali and Tan Kesler have been open about their belief and their desire to return the club to the top flight.

For Rosenior, however, the growing sense of expectation from supporters has reached the biggest level since he took charge in November 2022, when City were mired in a relegation battle. For periods of the first half at Rotherham United on Tuesday, City were jeered. Rosenior was subjected to chants of ‘Liam, Liam sort it out’ despite his side dominating and creating numerous chances.

Some away supporters were jeering just moments before Jaden Philogene’s stunning equaliser which turned the game on its head. Within a couple of minutes, one of the January arrivals with less fanfare – Noah Ohio – guided in the winner. The noise on social media takes it to another level, with fans fluctuating from the depths of despair to being on top of the world within a half of football, let alone from game to game, and it’s something Rosenior says he cannot get caught up in.

“I keep speaking about being positive, don’t let the outside noise affect you, like being 1-0 down away from home and being booed for having possession and scoring a minute later, that’s what it’s about,” he said. “I’m trying to build resilience. It means when you have something negative that happens to you in life or on a football pitch, you react positively to it.

“I’ve got a group of players who whether they lose a game at home or lose a goal in the fourth minute, react positively. If you watch the clips of Rotherham scoring their first goal, we get the ball out of the net and put it on the spot. When Jaden does a ridiculous skill, I’ve got three players in my team sprinting 40 yards to get the ball out of the net and put it back on the spot to get another one.

“That’s resilience. The players are showing me that whether we win games or lose games. When I first came in I got to identify the players who have those characteristics and keep them here. I’ve spoken about reactions to goals ever since I came to the club. That’s either in you or it isn’t.

“It’s not my job to (listen to the noise). I don’t take notice of what’s said in the media or on social media, but my kids do, people around me do, people at the club do. I stay really calm.

“We are not going to be perfect between now and the end of the season. I don’t think one team in the Championship is, but what I do know is going away to Rotherham at one nil down and play in the way that we played and playing our way back into the game and getting the result that we did was the all credit to the players. It was well deserved and it showed their character again to be resilient and to react positively to a negative situation.”

Ignoring the comment around City must be hard for any manager, but Rosenior says there are two very specific reasons why he doesn’t allow himself to.

“I think it’s two things one through my analysis of what I see,” he said. “I always watch our game back at least three times, one on the evening of the game that we’ve played, one in the morning and one again in the evening after we’ve played. And it’s amazing how much more you see 24 hours after, as opposed to straight after a game, because you’re in a different place.

“What that enables you to do is be logical in your decisions, be logical in your thinking, and I’m quite a stubborn person. I think you’ve got to know me now, I have full belief in myself as a manager, a full belief in the way that we play. I could have a million people tell me we’re wrong to play out from the back. A million people tell me I don’t get the team right every week. I don’t listen.

“That’s part of my job. I think it’s a big strength and a big weakness At the same time, I believe in what we do. I believe in my way of playing football. I believe in my team, I believe in my club and that helps me get through the difficult moments. It also makes me stay, not complacent if we do have good moments and just stay the course.”

This weekend, City face a trip to Huddersfield Town who will be buoyed by their 1-0 home success over Sunderland in midweek, and with a new manager watching on after the appointment of André Breitenreiter. Jon Worthington has won his two home games as caretaker boss, and lost 5-3 in a thriller at Southampton after going two in front. Rosenior believes the current incarnation of Town is not too dissimilar to the one under David Wagner.

“High energy, high pressing. It reminds me of their really good period under David Wagner, who is now the Norwich manager,” he said on the subject of what will face his side this weekend. “When they eventually got promoted, everything was based off high pressing, high energy, counter-pressing. They can play really good football.

“They play at a really high tempo. They press man to man all over the pitch. They went away to Southampton to score three goals. They look fearless at the moment. All credit to Jon for going in there, because it’s difficult to go in as I’ve been there as a so-called interim. It’s very, very difficult, so he’s built what looks like to be a really good spirit, but we have to go there and show our spirit as well. It’s going be another difficult game, but one, we know that if we get our details right, we can win.”