Points desperately needed at the KC

It's simple maths now. If Burnley don't win their last three games then it will be Championship football again next season. We are now nine points behind Leicester and Hull who occupy the lowest of the safety positions, so, at best, with three wins, we would be reliant on one of those two losing them all and Sunderland picking up no more than a point.

Some on the message board can't wait to give us their told you so message once relegation is confirmed and it really is just a matter of when now. I'm very much in the glass half full group but I think, right now, to have any confidence in us staying up would require my glass not just to be full but to be overflowing.

We just haven't been able to pick up anywhere near enough points; not win anywhere near enough games, but, even so, we've still got three games to play and I don't expect any let up in the way we play. No one can accuse us of not giving it everything and I can't recall too many performances where we haven't competed long into the game.

George Boyd is looking forward to seeing old faces but playing to win

Tomorrow should have seen two former Hull players return to the KC Stadium. Dean Marney left them for us in the summer of 2010 but ends his fifth season at Turf Moor in rehab after suffering an anterior cruciate ligament injury.

But George Boyd, who has started every game for us since signing on the last day of the summer transfer window last year, will be making his first appearance there since becoming a Claret.

He said: "I'm looking forward to seeing a few old faces as I had a great time there but it's a massive game and the focus is on winning. We'll go there and it's big for both teams so they might have a few more nerves, and as we have done all season, we will play to win and try and put our stamp on the game.

"We were comfortable at 11 v 11 last week and created quite a number of chances. After we went down to ten men it was difficult, but we didn't get turned over. We showed our fighting spirit and the character we've got so we'll take that into the weekend."

Boyd was withdrawn last Saturday at half time with Sean Dyche shuffling his back after the nonsensical dismissal of Michael Duff by FA Cup final referee Jon Moss. Someone had to be sacrificed but it would be a shock if he wasn't in the starting line up tomorrow.

Duff is available too after the club successfully appealed the decision from Moss, a red card that has still baffled me completely. Michael Keane did exceptionally well when he came on but I would expect Duff to retain his place now he won't have to serve a one match ban.

Last week was Duff's 316th league appearance for us. Should he play in each of the last three games it will take him into tenth place in terms of post-war league appearances, moving him above Adam Blacklaw who appeared on 318 occasions.

It looks as though Sam Vokes will be out again. He's missed the last two games with a thigh injury that again leaves him doubtful, but Dyche has this week stressed that it is a minor injury and not connected in any way to the long term injury from which he's just returned.

With Duff available and Vokes ruled out, it will be the same squad that faced West Ham. We are likely to line up: Tom Heaton, Kieran Trippier, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, George Boyd, Scott Arfield, David Jones, Matt Taylor, Danny Ings, Ashley Barnes. Subs from: Matt Gilks, Steven Reid, Michael Keane, Stephen Ward, Fredrik Ulvestad, Ross Wallace, Michael Kightly, Lukas Jutkiewicz, Marvin Sordell.

Hull ended last season in 16th place in the table which is one place higher than they are now. They were four points clear of the relegation places and, after some squad building, were expected to progress this season.

They started well too. At the end of October they were ninth having won eleven points from the first nine games which included wins against QPR on the opening day at Loftus Road and at home against Crystal Palace.

Into November, having lost at Southampton, they came to Burnley and became our first victims when we won with an Ashley Barnes goal and in early December they dropped into the relegation positions for the first time.

They've not been far from them since and just a couple of weeks ago, given how tough their remaining fixtures were, they were considered real favourites for relegation. Then two wins in three days changed things for them. They beat Liverpool 1-0 at home after a 2-0 success at Crystal Palace.

It took them to 15th although they've dropped back two places following last Monday's 3-1 defeat at home to Arsenal. They are, realistically, now one of five clubs fighting to avoid the last relegation place alongside us and QPR, and with a game at Spurs and a home fixture against Man United to follow, they will be very much looking to get the three points tomorrow.

They have a home record not much better than ours, having won five, drawn four and lost eight. Besides Palace and Liverpool, they've also beaten Everton, Aston Villa and QPR at the KC.

Arsenal's win there added to victories previously for Man City, Southampton, Spurs, Swansea, Leicester, Newcastle and Chelsea.

Nikica Jelavic is their leading goalscorer this season. He's netter eight league goals. Five of those goals have come at the KC Stadium, the last of them in their 2-1 win against QPR. He started only two more games before having surgery which was expected to keep him out for the remainder of the season, but he returned via the bench against Arsenal and Steve Bruce has confirmed he will play a part tomorrow with strong suggestions that he'll start.

One player definitely ruled out is Mohamed Diame. He will undergo knee surgery next week and has been ruled out for the rest of the season. Jake Livermore is also expected to miss out. He suffered an injury in the Arsenal game.

Their line up against Arsenal was: Steve Harper, James Chester, Tom Huddlestone, Robbie Brady, Jake Livermore, Paul McShane, Michael Dawson, Sone Aluko, Ahmed Elmohamady, Dame N'Doye, Stephen Quinn. Subs: Allan McGregor, Liam Rosenior, Alex Bruce, Abel Hernandez, David Meyler, Andrew Robertson, Nikica Jelavic.

Last Time We Were There

We have to go back two and a half years for our last visit to Hull. We'd had a strange start to the season with Eddie Howe leaving after ten games, Terry Pashley taking over for the next three before the appointment of Sean Dyche.

This was Dyche's fifth game in charge. He'd kicked off with two wins but followed that with two defeats at Ipswich and at home to Charlton, the game when Kieran Trippier was ridiculously sent off for handling the ball on the line by referee Bobby Madley.

It left us going into this game in 12th place in the league, and without Trippier for what was his first league miss in his second season at Burnley. David Edgar, who had scored twice in that dramatic comeback at Hull in the previous season, deputised.

Dean Marney scored the winner last time at Hull

Hull, under new manager Steve Bruce, had started well and were in fourth place in the table, behind leaders Palace, who themselves had just lost their manager, Cardiff and Middlesbrough.

Other than horses for courses, Hull were very much the favourites, but we'd won there on our last three visits, beating them 4-1 in the Premier League and then 1-0 and 3-2 in the next two seasons.

We might have been underdogs for this one but we were very much the better side in the first half. We had very little defending to do and Ross Wallace, recalled at the expense of Junior Stanislas, was involved in just about all our good work.

It was Wallace who set up the goal for Dean Marney, the former Hull midfielder scoring much to the displeasure of the home fans, for what proved to be the only goal.

It really should have been more than one at half time. Martin Paterson saw a shot saved by David Stockdale, Jason Shackell had a good chance and Charlie Austin was twice close to getting onto rebounds, one of them when the ball came back off the bar.

He might have done better, but Austin was outstanding in this game, the first time we'd won a game without him in 10 months.

We looked comfortable with that lead for some time during the second half but then Hull threw the kitchen sink at us. Sean Dyche described it later as being a little harem-scarem but we got blocks in, got tackles in, had a bit of luck once or twice and it proved to be enough as we hung on for a win.

It was a fourth successive win there and the first time we'd done that at any ground since we'd beaten Blackburn in successive seasons at Ewood Park from 1962/63 to 1965/66. We've since equalled it at Derby.

The teams on that last visit to Hull were;

Hull: David Stockdale, Ahmed Elmohamady, James Chester, Abdoulaye Faye, Alex Bruce (David Meyler 45), Liam Rosenior (Nick Proschwitz 69), Seyi Olofinjana (Robbie Brady 45), Stephen Quinn, Robert Koren, Sone Aluko, Jay Simpson. Subs not used: Eldin Jakupovic, Paul McKenna, Corry Evans, Aaron Mclean.

Burnley: Lee Grant, David Edgar, Michael Duff, Jason Shackell, Ben Mee, Brian Stock (Sam Vokes 75), Dean Marney, Chris McCann, Ross Wallace (Danny Ings 76), Charlie Austin (Marvin Bartley 89), Martin Paterson. Subs not used: Brian Jensen, Luke O'Neill, Danny Lafferty, Junior Stanislas.

Previous Games against Hull

Click HERE to see all previous results against Hull (no cup games shown prior to season 1986/87)