It was a familiar story for Hull City on Thursday as they lost for the seventh time away from home, going down to a 1-0 loss at Preston North End.

In their penultimate game of 2024, City's ongoing worries were yet again brought to the fore as their lack of cutting edge in both boxes caused their downfall; it was also their 23rd game of the campaign, and we now sit at the halfway point of the campaign.

The result punctured the positivity balloon, which rose above the MKM Stadium on Saturday after beating Swansea City to give the Tigers and their fans some festive cheer going into Christmas, leaving the Tigers to reflect on being back inside the bottom three.

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Let's call a spade a spade

The first half of the season has been rubbish. It's been an absolute disaster. City have won four games in 23 league attempts, they've kept one clean sheet and, along with Cardiff City, are the Championship's lowest scorers.

Yes, underlying stats might suggest things will turn eventually, but few could argue that this has been anything other than a shambles. The key stats show that they don't stop goals going in their net, and at the other end, can't score goals. And within games, there's too many times where they let the game pass them by.

Preston was a prime example. For much of the first half, City were good. They had the game by the scruff of the neck but failed to take advantage of it and then in the second half, were far too passive. That kind of encapsulates their season so far.

From the start of pre-season, when Tim Walter turned up with half a squad, it was followed by muddled recruitment, changes behind the scenes, and then a change in manager. Since last season finished at Plymouth Argyle, it has been a disastrous period.

If nothing else, it's been hugely unsettling for all concerned. The appointment of Ruben Selles is a good one and, in time, will prove to be just that. Unfortunately, things continue to be difficult at the moment. It was unlikely that City were suddenly going to go from losing every week under Walter to winning every week under Selles because the quality just hasn't been there.

There are green shoots of recovery, but it's the players who must now take some responsibility and start to turn things around before it's too late. Ultimately, players have got to start doing what they're paid to do because this cannot continue to be some kind of hard-luck story.

Injuries are a factor

It's not the sole reason City have endured a nightmare campaign, but not having two of their top summer signings has been a real issue. Admittedly, the early weeks of the season were hardly going swimmingly with Liam Millar and Mohamed Belloumi in their ranks, but you feel things wouldn't be quite as bad as they are.

The pair carry big threats and can create goals and score goals. Since they've been absent, the Tigers have lacked quality in the final third.

Teams suffer with injuries throughout, but you can't help but feel for the Tigers to lose Millar and Belloumi to ACL injuries within the space of a few days of each other. It basically sums up the season. The reality is that if you take the best attacking players out of any team in the land, they're going to feel it and be replaced by ones who are not at the same standard. And with respect to those coming in, they're not at the same level as those players unavailable, and it's being badly felt.

There are positive signs

Amid the gloom of another defeat and one that should never have happened given the way the game was played out, there is reason to be optimistic. City look a better team now, they have a stronger, more suitable and stable structure.

Selles wants them to get the ball forward quicker and with more purpose, and we've seen that in the first few games of his fledgling tenure.

Yes, they lost the game, but the outlook is more positive than it perhaps has been in recent weeks, and with new additions in January, in the right areas, there is reason to be optimistic, even though it won't feel like it right now given the manner of that loss in Lancashire.

There has been a huge lack of cohesion and chemistry throughout the season, so creating that will be one of the key jobs for Selles moving forward. There doesn't feel that togetherness we saw last term, and that's a worry.

January is so crucial

The importance of the window cannot be underestimated, and given what's at stake in terms of survival, it's Acun Ilicali's most important in his three-year tenure.

We know bringing in players in January is never an easy task, wherever you are in the table, but being in the bottom three makes it doubly difficult. City need players in for the right reasons, not ones coming solely for the cash and who care little about the club and its fortunes.

Attacking players are paramount, but at the back end, there needs to be something done because they've been nowhere near good enough collectively.

There cannot be panic, or signings for the sake of it. The squad is already bloated, and the wage bill will reflect that, so the ones coming in must be smart, strategic and capable of making an impact now, not in three months' time, because by then, it will be too late.

The key job is survival - nothing else matters

City have played 23 games - half a season has gone and they're in the bottom three. At this stage, the only task for the Tigers is to stay up and regroup under Selles in the summer, to hopefully allow him the time and space to really make an impact and get the squad back on an even keel.

For now, Selles has 23 matches to ensure City do not fall out of the Championship and back into League One. That is the single most important job between now and May.

The campaign has flown by, we're already into the second half of the season and very quickly, those 23 remaining games will be whittled down and before we know it, it'll be 15 and then 10 and we'll be into the run-in. City must start picking up points and try to put some kind of run together to try and get some points on the board.