Maguire: Positives there for Hull ahead of tough run

Hull City may be in the midst of a hellish run of fixtures but defender Harry Maguire is adamant there are plenty of positives to take from the weekend defeat to Chelsea.

Hull went down 2-0 to the Premier League-topping Blues as goals from Diego Costa and Gary Cahill did the damage.

The Chelsea game preceded an EFL Cup semi-final second leg with Manchester United on Thursday before an FA Cup trip to Fulham and Premier League ties with United again, Liverpool and Arsenal.

That proverbial murderer’s row of fixtures would have most teams already in the relegation zone concerned but after matching the Blues for large patches of Sunday’s loss, defender Maguire is hopeful for the near future.

“We’re disappointed that we didn’t come away with anything,” said Maguire. “When you go to places like Stamford Bridge to face the best team in the Premier League at the minute you know it’s going to be tough.

“But for the first 30 minutes of the second half especially, I thought we looked the more likely team to score a goal.

“Hopefully in the coming weeks, some of the big decisions will go our way. However, there were plenty of positives to take from the performance and we need to kick on now.

“The current run of fixtures isn’t particularly kind to us, but we’ll take confidence from the Chelsea game.

“We had a solid base and they didn’t cut us open too often. That is something to take forward into this run of games we have at the moment.”