Hull, Boro and Owls proving mean hosts in bid to join elite

Each Yorkshire venue has proved thoroughly inhospitable for most visitors, with formidable home form being the bedrock of the promotion charges of the White Rose trio of Hull City, Middlesbrough and Sheffield Wednesday.

So much so that the triumvirate – along with League One’s Gillingham – boast the best home statistics in the entire Football League, the Tigers leading the way with a super 35 points from 14 Championship home matches.

Boro and the Owls are not far behind with 32 and 31 points, respectively, with the statistics of each Yorkshire side being extraordinary in their own way.

In large parts of the North and East Ridings and a fair chunk of South Yorkshire, a chorus of ‘Long may it continue’ may be distinctly heard from football lovers.

Steve Bruce’s recent declaration that Hull’s bid to return to the top flight was being buttressed by ‘impeccable’ home form is beyond any doubt.

In all competitions, the Tigers have lost just once in 18 matches since relegation last term when only Burnley managed fewer Premier League points on home soil – which provides impressive context to the turnaround orchestrated by Bruce.

With three-and-a-half months of the season still to go, Hull’s tally of 35 is just eight and 11 points adrift of their home totals in the promotion-winning campaigns to the top tier in 2012-13 and 2007-08. Odds are short on those respective hauls of 43 and 46 points being comfortably surpassed by early May.

A mixture of grit and sparkling attacking football has served the Tigers well with their remorseless side shown in the 6-0 weekend drubbing of Charlton.

A haul of 30 home goals is bettered only by Manchester City (33) across the country, with their concession of just six goals producing a set of rounded statistics that even surpass those of home specialists Boro.

Arguably, the most noteworthy facet of the Teessiders’ eye-catching statistics at Fortress Riverside this season requires a wider sense of perspective.

The story of Boro’s remarkable consistency on Teesside under Aitor Karanka stretches back not to August, but almost 18 months to the start of the 2014-15 season.

That ‘nearly’ campaign did see Boro top one table, with Karanka’s troops sharing the joint-best home record in the Championship along with Ipswich Town, the pair racking up a half-century of points.

It has been more of the same at the Riverside this term where the hosts have lost just once in the league – to lowly Bristol City on August 22.

All told since August, 2014, Boro have seen their colours lowered just four times in 36 league matches, with their defensive numbers proving peerless for the second season running.

Boro’s concession of just 12 home league goals in 23 games was the best in the Football League by some distance last season and, this time around, they have taken things to another level.

Karanka may have seen his side’s quest to achieve a second-tier record of 10 successive league clean sheets dramatically ended at Ashton Gate last Saturday, but one feat remains firmly intact.

Heading into Saturday’s home encounter with Nottingham Forest, Boro possess a club record sequence of nine consecutive league shut-outs at the Riverside – with Brentford’s Lasse Vibe being the last visiting player to score there in the Championship in the Bees’ 3-1 loss on September 15.

The only other visiting second-tier player to score there this term is Bristol City’s Joe Bryan, with the conceding of just two goals in 13 league matches saying everything about Boro’s stinginess – Dimi Konstantopoulos having not let in a league goal on Teesside in around 14-and-a-half hours.

In their own way, Sheffield Wednesday’s vital home numbers this term are every bit as laudable as those registered by Hull and Boro.

In years gone by under several previous managers, home form has proved an Achilles heel for the Owls, whose transformation in 2015-16 has been staggering, set against not just their home form of last season, but the previous two campaigns, too.

The Owls haul of 31 home points thus far is already five more than their tally of 26 points in 2014-15. It is also equal to their seasonal totals in 2013-14 and 2012-13, with over a third of the campaign to go.

As with Hull – and to a lesser extent with Boro – Wednesday have married a winning mentality with a handsome home goals record with their return of 27 surpassed only by the Tigers at this level.

It is all a far cry to last season when Hillsborough punters saw just 16 goals plundered by their team, the joint lowest Football League return with York City. Some turnaround.