Davies prepared for Hull’s key period

They have already shown themselves to be up to the challenge of the Premier League, but Hull City captain Curtis Davies feels it’s the next run of games that will determine their season.

The Tigers have picked up seven points from as many games this season, following a run of fixtures that saw stern tests against Liverpool, Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal – all of which ended in defeat.

But victories over champions Leicester City – on the opening day of the season – and Swansea City gave a much-needed boost for side with an interim boss and just 13 fit first-team players to choose from.

Now, with the international break over and a platform to build on, Davies insists the hard work must be capitalised on as Mike Phelan looks set to carry on in the manager’s chair on a permanent basis.

“We’ve managed to get seven points on the board so far, a point per game which isn’t too bad given the fixtures we’ve had,” said Davies.

“Now we’re coming into a period that has our ‘big’ games if you like, the games against teams that are likely to be in and around us in the league table.

“We showed against Swansea that we can take our chances. Against Burnley we played very well and probably deserved more than the point that we got. Against Stoke, I know it was the cup but they still played close to their strongest eleven and we went there and beat them.”

(Photo by Ben Hoskins/Getty Images)

The fixture computer has thrown up a kind run at the KCOM Stadium, on paper at least, facing no side currently in the top eight until December 10.

But Davies feels the efforts up to the international break will only be worth it if they can continue to capitalise on the resilience shown so far.

He added: “We have shown our quality against the few teams in and around us that we’ve played and we need to show that again during this run of games over the next couple of months. Hopefully that will help to push us back up the table.

“Regardless of what we’ve done already, we need to start picking up points again now because otherwise people will start to doubt us again.

“We’ve got to be positive going into these games and get a win as soon as we can to get some momentum going.”