“It’d be a great time to score..” Sheffield United-supporting Hull City man out to beat Sheffield Wednesday

Gleadless-born Regan Slater left Bramall Lane for Hull on a permanent in January last year and is in line to make his 99th appearance for the Tigers when the two teams meet on Saturday.

The boyhood Blade has become a near-permanent fixture in the Hull line-up under Liam Rosenior and spoke earlier this summer to talk up their chances of a dark horse promotion effort.

Hull kicked off their Championship campaign last weekend with a 2-1 defeat to Norwich City and with a much-changed side followed that up with a Carabao Cup defeat by the same scoreline against Doncaster Rovers.

But it is on a different South Yorkshire opposition that the 23-year-old is now focusing.

Slater has scored six goals in his time as a Hull player - a move that initially came on loan - though none have come in front of the club’s home supporters.

Though carefully-worded he was, he admitted opening his account at the MKM Stadium against Wednesday would be something he would especially enjoy.

“It’d be a great time to score the first home goal,” Slater told HullLive with a wry smile.

“A few people have been on at me, but obviously I’m from Sheffield, I support the other side of Sheffield - I’m a Sheffield United fan - so the game is close to home but I’ll treat it like any other game.”

Hull made the trip to Turkey for a pre-season matches against Galatsaray and Fisayo Dele-Bashiru’s new side Hatayspor in July.

A strong crowd is expected on Saturday and having come from three goals down to beat Galatasaray 4-3, Slater hinted that he and his teammates will rise to the occasion against an Owls side who are too looking for their first points of the campaign after a late 2-1 opening evening defeat to Southampton.

“You want the big games, you want the big crowds and I think that’s why the lads who played against Galatasaray enjoyed it so much,” he said.

“Why would you not want to play in front of a big crowd with a big atmosphere?”