Elabdellaoui confident belief is key to Tigers’ survival

Hull City picked up a vital three points with victory over relegation rivals Swansea City on Saturday, but full-back Omar Elabdellaoui is calling on his side to make the momentum count until the season’s end.

Victory over the Swans was a first in four for the Tigers, with a double from Oumar Niasse leading them to a vital three points despite Alfie Mawson’s late consolation.

That win took Marco Silva’s side to within one point of safety with ten games to go, though with a visit to high-flying to Everton to come on Saturday, Elabdellaoui knows his side have more to do to escape relegation.

But with the Toffees on a rich vein of form – losing just one of their last 11 top-flight games – the Norwegian knows his side have their work cut out ahead of the trip to Goodison Park.

(Photo by Richard Heathcote/Getty Images)

“Of course we are going to be in for a very tough game at Everton,” said Elabdellaoui.

“They are a good side in good form, especially at home, so it will be a big challenge for us. But our confidence is good and I feel that the confidence and belief has always been there.

“We weren’t happy with the couple of results before we played against Swansea last weekend, but we went out there with the belief that we could get a big result and we achieved that.

“We were compact and solid defensively, and we scored the goals that we needed to win the game. I felt we had good control of the game through the 90 minutes, we just needed to create the chances we needed to score and we did that in the second half.

“It’s always good to see strikers scoring goals and I think Saturday showed how important it is to have a strong bench. Oumar (Niasse) came off the bench to score twice and that was great.”