We go into the game in bottom place in the Premier League table, now three points behind QPR with a worse goal difference and a further two points behind Leicester and Crystal Palace whilst, for now, the two North East clubs have moved away after recent wins.
Someone said to me today that our next four games would decide our Premier League future. Those four games are against Hull, Stoke, Aston Villa and Newcastle. Surprisingly, the game after those, which apparently won't go towards deciding our future, is the trip to QPR.
Interestingly, the same person said the same to me ahead of the game at West Brom at the end of September.
It has been tough, probably tougher than most of us expected. Some supporters have berated the board for not spending; others aren't happy about the spending at Gawthorpe, giving our training ground a much needed improvement.
As a frequent visitor to our training ground I can confirm that the work going on down there is of the utmost importance to take us forward at every level.
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| No dwelling on disappointments says David Jones |
Sean Dyche spoke yesterday about the situation. He admitted: "If I had £30 million I would spend it, but we haven't and I did do you know what, it would probably ruin the club."
He added: "I am custodian of this club and I have to manage to get the group to win games, but equally I have to make sure the club is in a very good place. Trust me, in my two years here this club is in a far better place than when I walked in and they were 16th in the Championship."
Dyche went on to talk about the cost of bringing players in, claiming some of the figures quoted for Championship players, and I think we know who they are, being unbelievable, and that was just the amounts they are being paid by those Championship clubs.
We are where we are and, with just a little bit of luck, we might well have got this first win some time ago, and more than any other game the one at Palace stands out when we really were the better team and should have won all three points.
It will happen at some time. Apart from the poor day at West Brom we haven't really been outplayed. Even at Arsenal last week we were still in that game with twenty minutes to go at 0-0, and that against one of the top clubs in the league, no matter how they defended in the Champions League in midweek.
The fantastic, articulate and well spoken David Jones, who we can confirm has NOT been groomed by Dyche, has spoken about the positive attitude at the club ahead of tomorrow's game.
"I think people would probably look at it and think we'd be despondent, but at this club, since I've been here, we've been a positive squad," the midfielder said.
"We don't dwell on disappointments because we're a resilient bunch of players and going into the game this weekend we're positive.
"People say you've got a must win on Saturday. There is a possibility we won't win so what do you do? Go into hiding? In terms of that there is no panic because you could win, lose or draw and you certainly don't play good football when you panic."
Jones has been back in the team for the last three games having missed the away games at West Brom and Leicester due to an injury, and there has been good news of the other injured players.
Dyche confirmed that Jones's midfield partner Dean Marney is now fully fit having played 80 minutes at Arsenal and got a full week's training in, and Steven Reid is also back and has trained all week after a groin injury.
That leaves just Sam Vokes and Matt Taylor. Taylor is now into his rehab after surgery on his Achilles injury and Vokes has stepped things up this week and has done some training with both the development and first team squads.
The manager has hinted at some changes tomorrow, although nothing radical he said. It's not going to be easy second guessing him. I didn't expect Stephen Ward to come in for the Everton game nor Marvin Sordell last week at Arsenal.
Ashley Barnes missed out last week and he and Reid are likely to be added to the team that played at the Emirates which was: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Stephen Ward, George Boyd, Dean Marney, David Jones, Scott Arfield, Danny Ings, Marvin Sordell. Subs: Matt Gilks, Michael Keane, Ben Mee, Nathaniel Chalobah, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Lukas Jutkiewicz.
Our opponents Hull were promoted a year before us. Last season they finished in 16th place with 37 points and this season are currently in 14th place with 11 points from their 10 games.
Those points have come from two wins and four draws. They won on the opening day of the season at QPR and have since beaten Crystal Palace at home whilst picking up draws at home to Stoke and on the road at Newcastle, Arsenal and Liverpool.
Those draws in their last two away games might have been even better, certainly at Arsenal where it took a stoppage time equaliser from Danny Welbeck to earn the home side a point. Hull's only defeat on the road this season came at Villa at the end of August.
They've scored 13 goals with most of them shared by three players. Both Nikica Jelavic and Mohamed Diame have scored four times with Abel Hernadez netting three goals. James Chester is the only other Hull player to find the net, that being the opening day winner at QPR.
Jelavic won't play tomorrow. He's ruled out with a knee injury and Hull will also be without summer signing Michael Dawson (ankle), the manager's son Alex Bruce (hamstring) and Robert Snodgrass who suffered a knee injury in that first game at Loftus Road.
They've had something of a goalkeeping problem too recently. Both Allan McGregor and Steve Harper have resumed training this week after shoulder and bicep injuries.
It is thought this game might come too soon for them and if so it will mean Eldin Jakupovic, who was at fault with the only goal last week, is likely to continue between the posts.
Gaston Ramirez was unable to play against his parent club Southampton last week but returns to the squad which shouldn't show much change from last week.
That team was: Eldin Jakupovic, James Chester, Paul McShane, Curtis Davies, Ahmed Elmohamady, Robbie Brady, Tom Huddlestone, Mohamed Diame, Jake Livermore, Hatem Ben Arfa, Abel Hernandez. Subs: Rory Watson, Liam Rosenior, David Meyler, Harry Maguire, Andy Robertson, Stephen Quinn, Sone Aluko.
Last Time They Were Here
Hull's last visit to Burnley, in March 2013, was hardly a memorable occasion. With Sky selecting it for live coverage it was played on a Monday evening. Hull won it 1-0 and thus went into second place in the league, a position they would hold at the end of the season.
We would have gone up a place had we won but remained in 11th place, again where we finished the season, after this latest sorry home performance.
On the three previous Tuesdays we'd suffered three awful home performances against Middlesbrough (0-0), Huddersfield (0-1) and Barnsley (1-1) and I headlined my report for this game 'Nightmare on Harry Potts Way IV'.
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| Ben Mee was our man of the match |
The last time we'd had such a poor run of home form was at the beginning of Owen Coyle's reign as manager and there was certainly some concern amongst supporters that maybe Sean Dyche was not the perfect choice for us after this poor game.
Not as though Hull were much better, if better at all, and their manager Steve Bruce joked after the game that most television viewers must have been switching over to Coronation Street.
Bruce had brought his team to Turf Moor with one objective and that was to keep a clean sheet. He admitted so himself. He'd even left out his leading goalscorer Robert Koren to play an extra central defender.
At half time the two goalkeepers might have needed treatment for frostbite so unoccupied were they on a bitterly cold night and, to be honest, they had precious little more to do after the break.
Just past the hour, Bruce brought on Koren and Jay Simpson. In their very next attack, the pair played a one-two down the right hand side which led to Koren crossing the ball. Simpson had moved into the middle and played it into the path of Stephen Quinn who shot low into the corner of the net.
There was never any danger of us getting back into the game and Hull retreated back into their shell confident that the points were going back to Humberside.
Ben Mee, who was returning from injury, won the man of the match vote.
The teams were;
Burnley: Lee Grant, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, David Edgar (Marvin Bartley 63), Chris McCann, Keith Treacy (Sam Vokes 54), Ross Wallace (Danny Ings 84), Alex Kačaniklić, Charlie Austin. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Kevin Long, Danny Lafferty, Martin Paterson.
Hull: David Stockdale, James Chester, Jack Hobbs, Paul McShane, Ahmed Elmohamady, David Meyler, Alex Bruce (Robert Koren 64), Stephen Quinn (Liam Rosenior 86), Robbie Brady, George Boyd, Mohamed Gedo (Jay Simpson 64). Subs not used: Eldin Jakupovic, Abdoulaye Faye, Ahmed Fathi, Nick Proschwitz.
Previous Games against Hull
| Last 20 Years | |||||
| Season | Comp | Ven | Res | Att | Scorers |
| 1995/96 | Division 2 | h | 2-1 | 10,613 | Nogan, Allison(og) |
| a | 0-3 | 4,206 | |||
| 2005/06 | Championship | h | 1-0 | 11,701 | Akinbiyi |
| a | 0-0 | 19,926 | |||
| 2006/07 | Championship | h | 2-0 | 11,530 | Duff, Noel-Williams |
| a | 0-2 | 17,731 | |||
| 2007/08 | Championship | h | 0-1 | 9,978 | |
| a | 0-2 | 15,838 | |||
| 2009/10 | Premier League | h | 2-0 | 20,219 | Alexander(2 1pen) |
| a | 4-1 | 24,369 | Paterson, Alexander(2 2pens), Elliott | ||
| 2010/11 | Championship | h | 4-0 | 14,458 | Iwelumo(2), Eagles(2 1pen) |
| a | 1-0 | 20,218 | Delfouneso | ||
| 2011/12 | Championship | a | 3-2 | 20,238 | Edgar(2), Rodriguez |
| h | 1-0 | 15,071 | Paterson | ||
| 2012/13 | Championship | a | 1-0 | 17,782 | Marney |
| a | 0-1 | 10,450 | |||
Click HERE to see all previous results against Hull