Preston North End’s opponents Hull City still dangerous despite duo’s exit

They may have had a windfall from their departures, but the footballing impact is greater than raking in the cash.

Jarrod Bowen is Hull’s top scorer with 16 goals – that makes him third in the Championship’s top scorer tally.

He moved up to Premier League with West Ham United last month for a fee reported to be more than £20m.

For any team, replacing a player with the impact that Bowen can have is difficult – he also has seven assists to add to his goalscoring exploits for the Tigers this season.

Couple that with Kamil Grosicki’s departure to West Bromwich Albion and Hull have lost a player who weighed in with a further six goals and five assists.

The pair have contributed to 35 of Hull’s 47 overall.

To try and fill the void they have brought in Marcus Maddison on loan from League One Peterborough United, who had been linked with Championship clubs for some time and finally got his move in January.

Mallik Wilks also came in from Barnsley – he will be familiar with Deepdale having performed well there whilst on loan at Doncaster Rovers, dumping PNE out of the FA Cup in January 2019.

With the highest scorer currently at the KCOM Stadium being Tom Eaves on five, the impact that Maddison and Wilks have will likely define the end to Hull’s season.

They will need to find their feet sooner rather than later as 2020 has not been kind to Saturday’s visitors to Deepdale.

Shortly after the January transfer window shut they were handed a 5-1 home defeat by Brentford to compound their start to the year.

Hull have won just one league game over the last two months, that coming on New Year’s Day. They showed signs of improvement against Swansea City last weekend, coming from behind to draw 4-4 in stoppage time.

At the turn of the year, City were 12th, just three points off the play-offs. They now sit 17th, some 12 points behind PNE who occupy sixth.

They are still 10 points clear of the relegation zone so they have a buffer in place but need to start picking up some victories to ensure their safety.

Despite the recent departures, Hull still possess threats.

Josh Magennis started and scored in the 4-0 win over North End in the reverse fixture, and also scored at Deepdale for Bolton last season.

In Jackson Irvine, Hull have industry in the middle of the pitch support the flair players up top.

They showed they know where the net is against Swansea and keeping them out will be PNE’s biggest problem with their failure to keep clean sheets at home of late.

A 95th-minute equaliser can also go a long way for morale and shows that the Tigers will not just lie down.