Hull City are at risk of emulating 2006 disaster: View | OneFootball

Tim Walter is at risk of emulating Phil Parkinson's prior MKM Stadium misfortune

There's no denying that Hull City's aims under Tim Walter are to progress the club even further than their seventh-place standing at the close of last season.

However, based off the first quartet of Championship encounters prior to the September international break, there is very little evidence that the Tigers will be as much of a force to be reckoned with in terms of upsetting the applecart and finally breaking into the top-six for the first time since their Play-Off promotion in 2016 under Steve Bruce.

Of course, the landscape of the club is extremely different to what it was four months ago, never mind eight years, but an uninspiring start to his managerial career in English football, regardless of pursuing 15 fresh faces in East Yorkshire has left Walter at risk of emulating prior Tigers misfortune of 17 years ago.

Tim Walter at risk of 'emulating' Phil Parkinson's disastrous Hull City start

Not many within the City fanbase were expecting the Tigers to gain their first three points of the Walter era at Elland Road, with it eventually coming as no surprise that a far superior Leeds team eventually dispatched their Yorkshire rivals through second-half Mateo Joseph and Joel Piroe strikes.

And although the points tally won't be anywhere near as low as the start of the 2006/07 campaign, Walter is at risk of somewhat emulating Phil Parkinson's disastrous start to life at the MKM Stadium, with the now Wrexham boss being the last man in the dugout to go winless in their first five league outings in charge of the club.

Similarly to Walter, who replaced former full-back Liam Rosenior in the summer, Parkinson jumped ship from Colchester United to fill the vacancy left by Peter Taylor, who moved to Crystal Palace after guiding City from League Two to the Championship between 2003 and 2005 before consolidating the club's position in the second tier in his final season, with an 18th-place finish being the club's highest since 1991.

Despite making a handful of signings such as Sam Ricketts, Dean Marney and Michael Turner - who would go on to represent Hull in the Premier League just two seasons later - Parkinson couldn't have got off to a worse start in his first second tier role, losing five of his first six games in charge against West Brom, Barnsley, Derby County, Coventry City and Birmingham City, with a solitary point coming in a goalless draw away to Ipswich Town.

Indeed, fortunes rarely changed for the now 56-year-old on the banks of the Humber, winning just four matches in charge, before the final straw as far as Adam Pearson was concerned came after a week of losing 5-1 on his return to Layer Road, before his final outing in the dugout came on 2nd December 2006, losing 4-2 to Southampton - just his 21st league game in charge of the club.

“Despite things not working out how I’d wanted, I still look back on my time there as a good learning curve. I don’t regret anything,” Parkinson told Hull Live 11 years later, prior to his eventual MKM return with Bolton Wanderers.

Sheffield United could inflict more misery on Hull City

Sheffield United are the side who could inflict a fifth-straight encounter without victory for Walter when they travel from South Yorkshire next Friday, and given how the two sides have started the campaign, it's not beyond the realms of possibility either.

Chris Wilder has made a number of savvy additions to his squad, including previous City targets in the form of Kieffer Moore and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, and his new-look Blades side remain unbeaten with two wins and two draws, ending Watford's 100 percent record at Bramall Lane on Sunday afternoon.

Not just for the sake of instilling some much-needed enthusiasm and confidence around the home sections of the MKM, but it remains to be seen how Walter's side are likely to operate when in front in a game, with both of their strikes so far this season in response to setbacks against Bristol City and Plymouth Argyle.

Chris Bedia has seen two big chances so far in his short-lived career in Black and Amber pass him by, with one of those an extraordinary bicycle-kick attempt against Millwall, and both he and Mason Burstow will be champing at the bit to get off to a fast start in terms of goalscoring once the break is over.

"It's a crucial two weeks," is how Alfie Jones described the forthcoming international period, and even though there are still 40 games to go after the clash against the Blades, Hull cannot afford to stutter any further if they are to eventually get their campaign off and running in terms of the W column.