Circumstances leading into the next two Hull City games have come at just the right time for George Boateng, our experienced midfielder who is finally fit again after knee trouble.
Perhaps the effective unfussiness with which Boateng went about his play was easily unnoticed by the Tiger Nation until he hurt his knee in the FA Cup third round replay win at Newcastle United, rendering him crocked until his impressive - in context, at least - return as a second half substitute at Middlesbrough last weekend (notwithstanding his slip at the end).
But it was obvious that Boateng is unnoticeable no more. Such was the paucity of quality in City's play at the Riverside that his brand of careful, concise and admirably calm midfield anchoring earned him many disgruntled supporters' man of the match award for a mere half hour or so of action.
And while to receive this unofficial accolade may serve to damn him with faint praise, his timing couldn't have been better.
For now, we have no skipper.
Ian Ashbee picked up his tenth booking of the season and now has to miss two games - this weekend's beyond describable clash at Sunderland, followed by Liverpool's visit to the KC a week later.
Ashbee's enforced absence will smooth over Boateng's inevitable path back into a starting position. I suspect he would have started anyway, even if Ashbee had been eligible, but the lack of a ratter and leader in the middle of the park at Wigan Athletic recently, when both Ashbee and Boateng were injured, was as clear as the clearest day.
We should also bear in mind that our wonderful purple patch in the autumn, which saw Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur fall on black and amber swords and the Tigers manage three straight clean sheets and four straight wins, had Boateng playing alongside Ashbee at its heart. Ashbee isn't hurt, merely banned, so the quicker the two can be selected to play together the better. And, given Dean Marney's chronic lack of confidence right now, a return for his two protectors of the autumn as a midfield partnership may go some way into helping him regain the immense personal form he showed during the same period. Marney needs to keep playing, either as a starter or sub, because City simply haven't the squad size to justify his exclusion, so maybe Boateng's restoration to fitness and a place in the side could be the re-making of Marney, and he sure as hell needs it.
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