Matt Smith is in line to make his full Hull City debut on Tuesday night, when the Tigers host Wigan Athletic in the first round of the Carabao Cup.
Smith is on loan at the MKM Stadium from Premier League champions Manchester City and came off the bench late on in Saturday’s 4-1 demolition of Preston North End at Deepdale, showing some nice touches and movement in his cameo display.
City face the Latics on home turf in a rematch of the 3-1 win back in early May which saw Grant McCann’s men clinch the League One title in a game which also proved key for Leam Richardson’s men in their quest to survive.
The midfielder will be one of a few changes made for the game by McCann, with the City boss keen to give other members of his squad a chance to stake a claim for a place.
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“Good chance, like everyone else,” McCann said on the subject of Smith starting. “He’s only played 45 minutes of football since he came back from the Euros.
“He played 45 minutes for Manchester City against Preston.”
McCann also took the opportunity to praise what was his seventh signing of a productive summer so far, having fought off competition from elsewhere to sign the 21-year-old Welshman.
“Matt’s a very good player, a Welsh international and he played over 40-odd games last year for Doncaster, he was probably their stand-out player in League One,” he said.
“We were really delighted to get him in the building, he trained for a couple of days prior to it getting announced but these things can take a bit of time.
“When he came on for 15 to 20 minutes, you could see his quality in his play.”
It’s likely that Chelsea loanee Nathan Baxter will be handed a start in goal at the expense of Matt Ingram, while there will also be a spot for Manchester United youngster Di’Shon Bernard, with McCann keen to assess the fitness of those who delivered such a fine display at Preston before deciding whether or not to risk any ahead of Saturday’s date with QPR.
“We may do in certain positions, it’s important that we have a look at the players because they’ve put a huge shift in, it’s a big pitch at Preston and the distances (covered) have been massive from the boys.
“It’s important we see how they recover, how they’re feeling and then we’ll go from there and pick a team based on that.”
McCann will, however, be without new arrivals Ryan Longman and Randell Williams, both of whom missed Saturday’s opener along with Sean McLoughlin because of coronavirus.
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