Hull City play their first Championship match in over two years when they host Huddersfield Town on the opening day of the season on Saturday.

The Tigers slumped to relegation from the Premier League last season, ending their two-year stay in England's top division, and host a Huddersfield side who have been a consistent Championship club since 2012.

Hull City

Hull boss Steve Bruce will be desperate to blow away the lingering mood of negativity at Hull, and breathe in fresh optimism as the Yorkshire side get used to the second tier once again.

After a positive 2013-14 season, Hull were not among the favourites to go down last year but injuries and a lack of goals made winning games hard.

Bruce's men found the net only 33 times, which was the 17th best in the division, while their eight wins was only better than Burnley's and Sunderland's total of seven.

The Tigers have undergone a slight overhaul of their squad with the likes of Tom Ince and Robbie Brady sold, while Yannick Sagbo, Maynor Figueroa, Paul McShane and Stephen Quinn are among those released.

However, it could be argued that Hull have kept hold of their most important players, with the likes of Tom Huddlestone, Nikica Jelavic and Alan McGregor still at the club.

Bruce has not been as busy as he would have liked so far, with Ryan Taylor joining Arsenal loanees Isaac Hayden and Chuba Akpom as their only first-team additions.

However, despite this they are still among the favourites to win the title and bounce straight back up, and there are likely to be more additions to come before the window shuts.

The risk for Hull is that they start slowly and struggle to adjust to the Championship, like other sides who have come down from the Premier League in recent years, such as Cardiff City, Wigan Athletic and Reading.

After Saturday's match, they make the trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers, before facing London duo Fulham and Charlton Athletic.

Pre-season form: WWDWD

Huddersfield Town

Huddersfield have been a steady side since they arrived in the Championship three years ago, and have narrowly improved each season.

Last year they finished 16th in the table, 14 points clear of the relegation zone, and will be keen to improve once again this year and push for a top-half finish.

However, they will have to make do without midfielder Connor Coady, who joined Wolverhampton Wanderers earlier in pre-season for a fee in the region of £2m.

Manager Chris Powell, who is close to celebrating his one-year anniversary at the club, has signed five new players so far this summer, with experienced midfielder Dean Whitehead joining from Middlesbrough.

Town enter the new season on the back of a good finish to the last campaign, where they finished on a seven-match unbeaten run, although they failed to win in their last three.

They will be hoping to avoid a repeat of the opening day of last season, when they crashed to a 4-0 defeat to Bournemouth. After that, manager Mark Robins was dismissed and they went on to win just one of their first eight.

After their trip to Yorkshire rivals Hull, they face back-to-back home games with Blackburn Rovers and Brighton & Hove Albion before they travel to London to face Fulham.

Recent form: WWLLDL

Team News

Hull could hand a debut to new loan signing Chuba Akpom, who has signed for the season from Arsenal. His fellow Gunner Isaac Hayden is also likely to be involved, but may have to settle for a place on the bench.

Ryan Taylor could make his debut at right-back in place of Liam Rosenior, who has left the club.

Huddersfield boss Powell could field an entire new central midfield on Saturday, with both Whitehead and Jacob Butterfield pushing to start.

James Vaughan is fit enough to start up front and is likely to be joined by former Bradford City man Nakhi Wells.

Hull City possible starting lineup:
McGregor, Taylor, Dawson, Bruce, Robertson, Meyler, Huddlestone, Elmohamady, Clucas, Akpom, Jelavic.

Huddersfield Town possible starting lineup:
Smithies; Smith, Hudson, Lynch, Davidson; Scannell, Whitehead, Butterfield, Dempsey; Wells, Vaughan.

Head To Head

Huddersfield have a marginally better record in this fixture, with 21 wins opposed to Hull's 20.

However, recent history favours the Tigers, who have won each of their last four contests, three of which came at the KC Stadium.

This will the 51st game between the sides, and Huddersfield will hope to match the result of the first back in 1919 when they won 4-1 away from home.

We say: Hull City 2-2 Huddersfield Town

Relegated teams coming back from the Premier League have often struggled to adjust to Championship life in the early weeks of a new campaign, and Hull may be the latest side to follow that trend.

Huddersfield have a battle-hardened squad full of Championship veterans, and will be keen to give their local neighbours a bloody nose on the opening day.

Expect attacking football, a lot of drama and an entertaining game which Sports Mole predicts will finish 2-2.