City host the Bees in a game they know they must respond in after last weekend's frustrations

Lewie Coyle admits he'll have to apologise after the game if he leaves one on his old teammate Keane Lewis-Potter when the pair meet at a sold-out MKM Stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The former Hull City academy graduate makes his first playing return to his hometown since leaving for Brentford in a £20m deal back in July 2022, and Coyle will likely come up against Lewis-Potter on the same side of a pitch they shared playing pivotal roles to guide the Tigers to the League One title.

Since leaving for West London, Lewis-Potter has gone on to play over 100 games in the Premier League, becoming a firm fixture in the Bees' starting line-up under Thomas Frank, and more recently, ex-Tigers midfielder Keith Andrews, albeit operating as he did at left-back in last weekend's 2-1 home loss to Liverpool, where he scored the host's goal.

Coyle has been an ever-present since City returned to the Premier League, playing his own leading role under Sergej Jakirovic, and he says there will be no room for sentiment for 90 minutes, with his team desperate to return to winning ways after a poor display in losing at Fulham last weekend, though there will be cuddles in the players' lounge afterwards.

"I love to see people do well in general, whether I know them, whether I don't, I'm just one of those people," Coyle told Hull Live. "But especially when it's one of your good pals that you've played with. I'm just made up for Keane. I never had any doubts that when he went to the Premier League, he'd go on and do what he's done. I think he's exceeded that, he's a fantastic player, and a fantastic person, just a great, great lad, and I'm smiling to myself thinking of some of the memories I've got with him.

"It'll be a weird one coming up against him on Sunday. I'll have to put that friendship aside for 90 minutes and apologise if I leave one on him, but no, he's a great lad, and it'll be a big cuddle and a catch-up after the game with him.

"I think it'll be a nice day for Keano on Sunday. This is his club, this is where he started, and ultimately, it's the club that got him a move to the Premier League. That's down to him, but this was the club that gave him that platform to go and play at such a young age. He did his talking on the pitch. He's a Hull lad, born and bred, proper Hull lad as I'd say, got an amazing family, they're all from Hull, so it'll be a nice day for him and his family.

"Hopefully it's a disappointing day for him at the end of the match, but yeah, I'll have a big catch-up with him because he's a fantastic lad."

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The Tigers will be determined to put things right after producing what Sergej Jakirovic described as the worst performance of his tenure last Saturday at Fulham.

A proud, honest group, Coyle says, there have been some honest conversations in the aftermath of what happened in West London before attention turned towards the importance of Sunday.

"It's a group that will never ever shy away from being honest with each other, being honest with ourselves. That's the beautiful thing about football, we've got a chance to put it right in front of a packed out home crowd on Sunday, so that'll be the full focus going into that game," the skipper continued.

"We have to take those chances. We said before the season started that we had to be fantastic at home this year to have a chance of achieving our goal, which is, obviously, staying in the league. We've made a good start in that. We need to use the crowd, feed off that atmosphere of the whole day of being back in the Premier League, but once you're on the pitch, that's the time for us to go to work, and now with two home games back to back (Ipswich at home next weekend), that is a really good opportunity.

"There's initial disappointment straight after the game. It's always hard sometimes after a game, everybody's raw, everyone's emotional, and nobody likes to lose, especially this group, we're a very proud group, so of course, there are honest and harsh words sometimes that need to be said.

"Then we try and park it early part of the week, in terms of we'll have a little look at it, see what we need to work on. It was clear, some of the bits, and then you watch it back, and you can always watch a game, in your head, straight after, and then it does look a little bit different when you take a couple of days to maybe calm down and watch it back. That's usually parked, then full focus is on the next game because it's a bit cliché again, but it's never worth dwelling on the past. It's done. Learn from it, move on and attack the next game."

Coyle brought up an impressive personal tally of 400 career games at Craven Cottage, and he admits the performance felt like the end of the world. So few and far between have those types of displays been under Jakirovic, he believes it shows how far the club have progressed in the past year or so.

"First and foremost, it's never nice to lose a game of football; it's not one of those I go into thinking, 'Oh, we have to win because it's a personal milestone for me', it's a team first as always," the 31-year-old explained. "We were below par, to say the least, and we'll be expecting a reaction this Sunday. On that personal note, always nice to notch up the milestones and just another one to make me feel that little bit older.

"I think that shows probably how far this club's come, that it almost felt like the end of the world, the performance we put in at Fulham. We were nowhere near the levels we've shown so far this season or since this manager came in, which I think is why it was so disappointing and why it felt that way after the game.

"One-nil away to a very, very good side in Fulham, I know they were struggling before the game, but that just shows the levels of the Premier League, if you're not quite at it, then you're gonna get punished. One of those days, it's a bad day at the office, and we move on."