Kilbane: No time for looking back

Winger Kevin Kilbane claims there is no time to look back as Hull focus on beating relegation.

The Tigers go into the final game of their Barclays Premier League season knowing they need to beat champions Manchester United to be sure of avoiding the drop.

Failure to do so would leave them needing a favour from Aston Villa in their game against fellow strugglers Newcastle.

It is a situation Hull could not have imagined being in back in October, when they sat joint second after collecting 20 points from their opening nine games.

Kilbane, who joined the club from Wigan in January, said: “When you have that amount of points you don’t feel like you’ll be dragged into it but the league is very unforgiving.

“You don’t want it to get to the position we’ve got into – I honestly didn’t think it would – but now we are in the position you can’t look back over what has happened.

“You’ve got to try to be focused on the job at hand.

“When you are in the Premier League playing against top-class teams you can have a bad run of games, I think everyone realises that.

“But we have been positive here. Training has been bright every day and the players have always been optimistic about staying up.”

Republic of Ireland international Kilbane filled in for the injured Kamil Zayatte in central defence last weekend as Hull boosted their chances of survival with a 1-1 draw at Bolton.