Source: Eurosport
Tigers boss eyes top-half finish
Hull boss Phil Brown is still targeting a top-half finish in the Premier League table despite facing a relegation battle of growing intensity.Hull are just four points above the bottom three and face a crucial clash with fellow strugglers Portsmouth on Saturday.Brown has eight games to steer his side to safety but, despite collecting only one win in 14, he remains confident of a strong finish.Brown said: "It is a massive game. I think we probably need to win three out of the last eight."If we do that, and if it starts tomorrow, you are probably looking at a top-half finish."You are looking to get into that vein of form we were in at the start of the season."It is a big three points, but it is a big three points for them as well."Everyone will be feeling the pinch, but if you had given me this position at the start of the season I would have taken it."Seven teams are worse off than us, we are four points clear of the bottom three and there are some big teams in trouble."Striker Daniel Cousin is Hull's only fitness concern after the international break gave the likes of Michael Turner, Andy Dawson and Ian Ashbee time to overcome injuries.The two-week recess since the last-gasp loss at Wigan has also taken the sting out of the Tigers' 13th defeat of the season."To say the two-week break came at the right time is an understatement," Brown added. "We finished against Wigan with five playing out of position."But the effects of Wigan have not been evident in the last fortnight."The sessions I have been witnessing this week are ones that have given me a spur."People are enjoying their football again. Whether that has something to do with the sunshine or not, I don't know - but I think we are looking forward to this game."Pompey are a point beneath Hull in the table but travel to the KC Stadium having claimed eight points from five games under new boss Paul Hart.They also boast international quality having provided three of England's starting line-up against Ukraine in midweek.Brown said: "I think they have got a manager that has steadied the ship, tightened up the back four."In (Peter) Crouch he has got a player who is in goalscoring form at the right time and (Niko) Kranjcar is a player that can open defences."Jermaine Pennant has come back from injury and can open the door as well."He has got flair players, so we have got to bring our best defensive head to the table, but we have flair players that can open their back four as well."Left-back Dawson knows what to expect from one of Hart's teams having worked under the former Nottingham Forest manager at the City Ground.The 30-year-old began his career as a trainee at Forest before moving on to Scunthorpe and then rising through the divisions with Hull.Dawson, fit again after leaving the field with a thigh injury at Wigan, said: "They have got a good manager in Paul Hart. I know him personally from when I was a young lad and he is a good motivator."He was Under-19 manager and I was with him for two years. He is a fantastic coach and fantastic manager, and over his career he has proved that."[LNB]
