Preview: Hull City vs Swansea City - prediction, team news, lineups

Hull City play host to Swansea City on Saturday afternoon looking to keep the pressure on the top three in the Championship table.

At a time when the Tigers sit in fourth position, the visitors to the MKM Stadium are down in 16th place despite their recent resurgence.

Match preview

When Hull started the year with a 1-0 defeat at home to Stoke City, there were concerns that they had lost their momentum in the playoff race.

However, Sergej Jakirovic's side have bounced back with a penalty-shootout victory over Blackburn Rovers in the FA Cup and successive wins in the Championship.

Most notably, both of those triumphs have come on away territory, the Tigers recording a 2-1 success at Southampton before cruising to a 3-0 win at Preston North End.

While there is now a five-point cushion between Hull and seventh position, Jakirovic will be focused on the five-point gap between themselves and second place.

Holding a game in hand on an increasingly-inconsistent Coventry City, mounting a bid for top spot is not entirely out of the question for a team that has earned 19 points from their last eight fixtures in the Championship.

© Imago

Eleven points and 12 points separate these two teams in the table, yet Swansea will back themselves to earn something from their trip to Humberside.

Vitor Matos has racked up six wins and two draws from his 13 games in charge, with Swansea accumulating 10 points from their last five Championship fixtures.

Since the disappointment of exiting the FA Cup to West Bromwich Albion on penalties, the Swans have earned a 1-1 draw with Birmingham City and overcome Blackburn Rovers by a 3-1 scoreline.

Nevertheless, there remains issues to resolve on their travels, with Swansea losing five of their last six away fixtures in the second tier.

Their solitary success during that period was a 1-0 win at 23rd-placed Oxford United courtesy of a goal from Zan Vipotnik, who has now netted 13 times in the division.

Hull City Championship form:

Hull City form (all competitions):

Swansea City Championship form:

Swansea City form (all competitions):

Team News

© Imago / IMAGO / Pro Sports Images

With David Akintola suffering a knock that forced his early withdrawal against Preston, Yu Hirakawa could make his first Hull start after his recent arrival.

Joe Gelhardt made a welcome return from a six-week injury absence at Deepdale, yet he will not be considered for a start at this time.

If John Egan passes a fitness test after also sustaining a knock versus Preston, the rest of the starting lineup may stay the same.

As for Swansea, Joel Ward is on standby to deputise for Ethan Galbraith after the right-back suffered an injury issue during the second half against Blackburn.

Jay Fulton will also be considered for a recall in midfield, but the rest of the team may stay the same at a time when Adam Idah is still sidelined through injury.

Hull City possible starting lineup:

Pandur; Coyle, Hughes, Egan, Famewo; Crooks, Slater; Hirakawa, Hadziahmetovic, Millar; McBurnie

Swansea City possible starting lineup:

Vigouroux; Ward, Cabango, Burgess, Tymon; Stamenic; Ronald, Franco, Widell, Eom; Vipotnik

We say: Hull City 2-1 Swansea City

With Swansea having shown their qualities of late, we are expecting them to push Hull all the way on Saturday. However, we cannot back against the Tigers on their current form, leading us to predict a hard-fought win from a game that may be settled during the closing stages.

For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.