‘Rolls Royce’ Alfie Jones set to drive Hull City back to the Championship

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Grant McCann’s Hull City side can seal promotion to the Championship at the first time of asking if they can overcome Lincoln City at the LNER Stadium on Saturday.

The Tigers’ form has been solid if not entirely spectacular but their professional approach and focus on the ultimate objective has not wavered. Having assembled a blend of young, hungry and talented players, McCann is reaping the benefits and the form of the versatile Alfie Jones has been a significant bonus.

After an impressive loan spell in the midfield anchor role at Gillingham last season, Southampton academy graduate Jones left St.Mary’s for Hull in the summer with his contract expiring.

Having struggled to pin down a place in the side over the first half of the campaign, the 23-year-old slotted into the vacant midfield role following an injury to captain Richie Smallwood.

Whilst that looked to be a real blow at the time, Jones has seized the opportunity and hasn’t looked back since, establishing himself as very much part of the first team fabric.

Since his return in the 5-0 win away at Wigan Athletic in mid-February, City have only lost just one game (Jones a second-half substitute in their home defeat to Ipswich) and it can be no coincidence that he has been ever-present in their 12-game unbeaten run.

His performances have been of a 7/10 consistent nature week on week with his manager being demanding at this stage of the season with City’s form still susceptible to being a little patchy.

“Wherever he plays, he’s great there. Composed, reads the game well, not scared of a challenge and has great distribution. He’s a steal for a free transfer” Ant Northgraves – City fan.

Greg Docherty in particular had blossomed in that midfield partnership with Jones as City picked up 20 points from a possible 30 as they started to make a charge to be crowned League One Champions.

Only injury to Reece Burke had put paid to that partnership with Jones being redeployed to centre back but his individual performances since have left his manager feeling ‘very pleased’ with his impact.

Jones’ first outing alongside Jacob Greaves came in the bruising 1-1 encounter against Gillingham where the physicality of John Akinde and Vadaine Oliver proved quite the baptism of fire.

For a fairly young centre back pairing, both Jones and Greaves have not looked phased and have risen to the challenge of shutting down teams at the back.

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In the 2-1 win over Crewe Alexandra on Good Friday, Jones put in the type of body on the line challenge in the second period that wins teams promotion and his dedication to the cause, with so many other City players, has been a huge factor in their impressive march to securing promotion.

His character off the pitch combined with his calmness in possession but fighting attitude personifies the type of character McCann wants in his squad.

“Over the last 12 games, he’s played seven games in central midfield, and five at centre half and in each position, he looks comfortable in both. The best way I can describe Alfie Jones – he’s a Rolls Royce.”

For Jones himself, having gotten over the stop-start beginning at his new club and now getting a run of games, he’s really enjoying his football. He spoke of how he and the squad have all bought into the manager’s thinking and are not getting carried away until the job is done.

“Promotion has been the focus of the whole season and it would be unbelievable to do it this weekend but we’ve just got to go out there fully focussed and get the three points.”

Appleton’s men have been on an impressive run of form of late after suffering a string of defeats which threatened to completely derail their hugely successful campaign.

With key injuries to the spine of the team, losing centre half Joe Walsh, skipper Jorge Grant and striker Tom Hooper were just steps too far for Lincoln’s threadbare squad to cope with all at once. Throwing in a further injury to the influential Liam Bridcutt, many Imps fans would’ve been questioning what they’d done to deserve such cruel fortune.

An impressive performance at the Stadium of Light just over a month ago was enough to give Sunderland the jitters in a game that a spirited young Lincoln side should have gone on to win in their 1-1 draw.

Whilst they were defeated at Oxford United in their following game, since then Lincoln have been on an unbeaten run and have recorded three successive victories, moving back into third place and not yet given up on their automatic hopes.

Seven points adrift of Peterborough United occupying second place, the Imps are due to take on the Posh next weekend with still a game in hand. Not quite mission impossible, whilst Lincoln are still winning and injured players are returning to action, there’s still a chance of success.

“If we’ve got any chance whatsoever, we have to take care of the next two games.

“The reality is, Hull is going to be a very difficult game. We’ve had two close games against them so far and there’s been nothing between the teams. Hopefully, we’ll have the edge on Saturday.” Michael Appleton – Lincoln City manager

Lincoln have proved that they are no ‘flash in the pan’ side having already sat in the automatic spots for much of the season. With Jorge Grant nearing a return to the starting line-up, Imps fans will feel some relief that their season is still very much far from over and will be delighted to seal a play-off place given their alarming slump in results a few weeks ago.

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With Morgan Rogers and Brennan Johnson up there with the best attacking forwards in the division, there will be interesting duals across the pitch with both City’s full-backs Lewie Coyle and Callum Elder’s ability to get forwards and cause problems from deep.

With not much between the sides in the previous corresponding fixtures, only a victorious penalty shootout for Lincoln in the Papa Johns Trophy has been the difference between the teams.

As two of the most entertaining sides in the division and with the stakes raised even higher, it promises to be quite the encounter and one of them may well be popping the champagne at 4:50 pm on Saturday teatime.

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