Silva backs his Tigers for a response
MARCO SILVA is convinced his players can bounce back and secure victory at Crystal Palace today to keep their Premier League survival hopes alive.
Belief has been the buzz word at Hull’s training ground in Cottingham following last week’s home defeat to Sunderland, a huge setback which plunged them back into the relegation zone with two games to go.
The Tigers, who have won just one league game on the road all season, had hoped their home form under Silva would be their salvation. But his side must win away for the first time since August to give themselves a fighting chance going into the final day.
“It’s like two cup finals now to us,” said Silva, whose contract runs out at the end of the season.
“We’ll play it like a final and after we’ll look to the next week, but we continue to believe and that’s the most important thing.
“The players have worked really hard during the week. We haven’t changed anything but, of course, we have analysed the last game.
“We understand what we need to do differently, but we keep all together, we keep going together and we keep fighting. I believe we can win the next game.”
Silva, who neatly side-stepped the suggestion at his conference that he would extend his stay at the KC Stadium if he kept Hull up, said his players have got last week’s 2-0 defeat to the already-relegated Wearsiders out of their system.
Swansea’s home win against Everton lifted the Welsh club out of the bottom three, one point above the Tigers, but Silva insisted his players were ready to go again.
“What you need to do after a bad result is react and react fast and the players have shown me a good attitude during the week and are ready to fight,” he added.
“During the week we talked about our last game, of course we analysed it.
“We had a lot of chances to score against Sunderland and I think in the last moment, our finishing let us down.”
Silva will be without on-loan Liverpool winger Lazar Markovic (ankle) for the last two matches, but right-back Omar Elabdellaoui, sidelined since mid-March due to a back problem, is available.