Hull vs Middlesbrough prediction: ENGLAND: Championship betting tips on match 2022-10-31 19:45.
A 1-0 defeat to Blackburn here at the weekend halted Hull City’s resurgent form (W2, L1), although interim boss Andy Dawson wasn’t too upset about it as he put it down to “small margins” after his side couldn’t take some good second-half chances. Ex-Hull player Liam Rosenior is expected to soon take the reins on a permanent basis, so he’ll hope to get his side firing quickly.
First on the agenda for the new boss will be to fix Hull’s slow starts to matches at home; they've conceded the opener in seven of their nine home league games this term (W2, L5), an unwanted league-high. That run includes each of the last six games, five of which they ended up losing without reply, highlighting a lack of killer instinct from the Tigers.
The Michael Carrick era at Middlesbrough started brilliantly after taking the lead within eight minutes at Preston, although a powerful strike from Emil Riis and a 91st minute sucker punch ultimately consigned them to a 2-1 defeat. The new boss highlighted that it “was never going to be a fairytale from the start” but also reiterated that he expects better from his men going forward.
A second away game in the space of a few days isn’t likely to inspire confidence, Boro have won just once on the road all season (D1, L6) and that sole success was against a Wigan side that have struggled to pay players wages. A desperate record away to Hull across the last decade won’t inspire much belief either (W1, D1, L6) as the pre-season promotion hopefuls’ campaign looks like it’s slowly turning into a survival scrap.
Players to watch: Former PAOK teammates Dimitrios Pelkas and Chuba Akpom meet each other as opponents for the first time since Pelkas assisted Akpom for the Greek Cup winning goal against AEK back in 2019. Pelkas is one of Hull’s only two scorers across the last six home games whilst Akpom is the only Boro scorer in the infancy of Carrick’s reign.
Hot stat: Middlesbrough have conceded a league-high 12 goals in the opening 30 minutes of play.