It has not been a straightforward two seasons in English football for the forward.
He joined the East Yorkshire club from Portuguese outfit Farense in August 2024 and enjoyed a decent start only for an anterior cruciate ligament injury at Oxford in November to end his season.
By the time he returned to action last August the club had sacked both Tim Walter and his replacement Ruben Selles and brought in Jakirovic.
Understandably after such a serious injury it took him time to get back up to speed and two hamstring injuries have kept him out for four months of this campaign.
He started Friday’s goalless first leg and hit the post after just two minutes but Jakirovic said he began Monday’s game on the bench as he had not been able to train since.
“He was very tired and had fatigue in both his hamstrings and Achilles so the plan was to give him the second half,” Jakirovic told BBC Radio Humberside.
“It was a great substitution and a great decision. Now I am very smart, if they do nothing I am stupid. It’s always like this.
“This group of players is unbelievable with the chemistry between them.”
Skipper Lewie Coyle was also full of praise for the match-winner and the club’s medical staff.
“He’s incredible. We are so lucky that we’ve got so many players that can come on and impact the game,” he said.
“We all know what that boy’s about. I’m so pleased for him.
“He’s had an incredibly tough injury but it says a lot about him and the recovery team that he’s come back as he has.”
Wrexham’s dream of reaching the Premier League is over, for this season anyway.
And for Ryan Reynolds, it was tough to stomach.
“I am completely gutted by today’s result but incredibly proud of our season,” the actor wrote on X after the Welsh club he co-owns missed out on a place in the playoffs in the second-tier Championship by drawing 2-2 with Middlesbrough in a dramatic final round of the regular season on Saturday.
That allowed Hull to jump ahead of Wrexham and into sixth place — the fourth and final spot in the playoffs — courtesy of a 2-1 win over Norwich in a match played at the same time.
The winning goal for Hull, by Oli McBurnie in the 67th, appeared to be scored from an offside position but there are no video reviews in the English Football League.
It ended Wrexham’s unprecedented run of three straight promotions under its famous owners — a streak that began by getting out of the fifth tier in the 2022-23 season and has been documented in the globally popular, Emmy Award-winning “Welcome to Wrexham” series.
Still, seventh place marked the Wrexham’s highest finish in its history, bettering the 15th position it achieved in the second tier in the 1978–79 season.
“We’ve come a long way in five years and this was the best result in our 150+ year history,” Reynolds wrote alongside a graphic that showed how Wrexham has risen from the National League. “More to do. But for now, we have so much to be proud of, Reds.”
Elsewhere, Ipswich secured the second automatic promotion spot behind champion Coventry — and an immediate return to the Premier League — by beating Queens Park Rangers 3-0.
Ipswich is owned by U.S. investment group Gamechanger 20 Limited and counts pop star Ed Sheeran as a minority shareholder.
Joining Hull in the playoffs, which begin next week and are over two legs, are Millwall, Southampton and Middlesbrough.
Millwall will face Hull, and Southampton will meet Middlesbrough.
Best-ever finish by Wrexham
It was a memorable campaign by Wrexham in its first season in the second tier since the 1980s.
However, the short-term pain was acute, and Wrexham’s players sat on the ground and looked disconsolate after the final whistle — even though the Hull-Norwich match hadn’t finished.
Wrexham started the day in sixth place, ahead of Hull on goal difference, and conceded in the fourth minute to Middlesbrough, only to score through Josh Windass and Sam Smith for a 2-1 lead by the 41st.
Middlesbrough hit back immediately with a 43rd-minute equalizer but Wrexham finished the stronger, squandering a string of great late chances for a winner that would have secured a playoff place on goal difference.
Wrexham’s Josh Windass squats on the field and looks dejected following a draw with Middlesbrough on Saturday.
(Michael Steele / Getty Images)
In the end, Wrexham finished two points behind Hull.
“This squad as it stands, with a preseason together, will be even stronger next year,” said Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson, who oversaw a summer spend of around $40 million last year.
“Of course we’ll always look to add to that to try and give ourselves an even better chance … we know where we’d like to strengthen and what we need to improve on. We’ll do that and we’ll make this squad as strong as we possibly can to mount a challenge next year.”
Even without the obvious emotional attachment, Steve McNamara feels like an excellent appointment for Hull FC; after all there are few coaches on the market who have his calibre, his experience, his list of achievements.
Hull is a notoriously intense place to be involved in rugby league, a goldfish bowl of passion and expectation that McNamara as much as anyone will be aware of and ready for, but also who understands and feels that passion himself.
It is an acquisition for the Black and Whites that makes total sense. John Cartwright has established a good culture at Hull since taking over, but you sense McNamara can take them even further.
He went into Catalans and changed the club from a stop-off point for expensively recruited flawed yet gifted imports into a proper ‘team’. The Dragons won a Challenge Cup and made two Grand Finals, despite all of the trials and tribulations faced by the Perpignan club in terms of travel and financial costs.
After being thrust into the Bradford job as a young coach, taking on England equally in the relative infancy of his career and having developed his coaching as a highly-rated assistant in the NRL with Sydney Roosters and New Zealand Warriors before his Catalans adventure, McNamara has armed himself with a variety of skills and experiences.
McNamara is likely to be backed by co-owner Andrew Thirkill and director of rugby Richie Myler, overhauling the squad in his own manner, but he is also a coach that should instill confidence in Hull’s homegrown talent – Lewis Martin, Davy Litten, Harvey Barron – all players who would find themselves a key part of the future vision.
You only have to look at the improvement at Warrington in 2026, McNamara has bolstered Sam Burgess’ staff, his fingerprints are all over the upturn in fortunes, and the results are tangible.
Importantly, you feel McNamara will have time and tremendous goodwill from the fanbase. Time to build, time to implement and time to get it right.
Of course, that brings extra pressure, being that ‘hometown’ appointment with the expectation he can drive Hull towards becoming a genuine force. McNamara is in the career arc you feel will give him the ability to cope.
