North End will come up against a new manager on Tuesday night, with experienced Tigers boss Leonid Slutsky in the dug out for the Lilywhites’ trip to Humberside.
PNE’s hosts at the KCom Stadium picked up a point in their trip to Reading on Saturday, but having conceded the equaliser late in the game, their Russian chief told the Hull Daily Mail he was not happy to extend City’s away to 23 games without an away win.
“In football we don’t have the type of words like ‘almost’ because you win, you lose or you draw,” said Slutsky after collecting a ninth point of the season to stay in 17th position.
“For me it was a more disappointing moment than when we lose 5-0 [at Derby County just weeks before]. When you lose 5-0 you must continue to work hard, but when we draw like this it is just like a defeat. There was better balance and if we find a positive that was it.
“We didn’t have space between the lines and we had better chances, but it was only almost. This was two points dropped, of course.”
However, there were positives for City, with Fraizer Campbell getting his first goal of the season since re-joining the East Yorkshire side in the summer and the manager was delighted with his front man.
“Fraizer is now in good form,” he continued. “He missed one month after the injury and the first time he was ready for 20 minutes, then 30 minutes and here he was ready for 60 to 65 minutes.
“If he’s ready he will play [against the Lilywhites]. He scored his first goal of the season. He’d had a lot of chances before and not scored this season so I hope in the next matches he can be our best striker.”
In terms of injuries and selection headaches for Slutsky, Kamil Grosicki’s involvement against PNE is a doubt. The Poland international missed his first match of the season after suffering a knock in training on the eve of City’s trip to Berkshire and it remains to be seen if he will be fit enough to face North End.
“We did a scan and it’s a small problem,” explained the Hull gaffer. “It will depend on how he is feeling. We’ll have a training session and see how the players are feeling.”