Hull City v Fulham

Posted Friday, March 26, 2010 by Football.co.uk

Hull City's Premier League survival hopes could be given a timely boost if they can beat a Fulham side with one eye on their Europa League quarter-final clash against German outfit Wolfsburg.

Iain Dowie lost his first game in charge of the Tigers, at Portsmouth, after being appointed in place of Phil Brown on March 17 and the second from bottom outfit had succumbed in their previous five league fixtures.

They have won just once in their last 16 games and sitting three points from a place outside the relegation places and their brief two-season tenure in the Premier League could be coming to an end.

However, they may take hope from the fact Fulham have lost back-to-back fixtures in the league recently, going down to both Manchester outfits United and City.

They also dropped out of the FA Cup quarter-finals in midweek, losing 3-1 at Tottenham Hotspur and with Premier League survival more than guaranteed, their attention may shift to their fantastic European exploits once again.

Knee victims Kamil Zayatte and Amr Zaki will miss out for the hosts as will ankle duo Stephen Hunt and Anthony Gardner.

Long-term absentee Ian Ashbee (knee) will not return before the season comes to an end but on-loan Villarreal striker Jozy Altidore (hamstring) is pushing for a recall.

Fulham forward David Elm has been laid low with a virus and he could struggle to feature. Andrew Johnson and John Paintsil (both knee) are ruled out.

Hull should cast their eye back to their first Premier League fixture on August 16 2008.

They beat Fulham 2-1 on that day at KC Stadium, making a dream start in the top-flight with Geovanni cancelling out Ki-Hyeon Seol's opener before substitute Caleb Folan's late winner sent the home crowd wild.

Craven Cottage also proved a happy hunting ground last season as Hull grabbed a fortunate 1-0 success, despite being on the backfoot for much of the contest.

Manchester United loanee Manucho scored the winner, ending a run of 11 games without a win and they scraped survival despite not winning any of their final ten fixtures after the narrow success at Craven Cottage.

However, Fulham scored a 2-0 win to gain a little revenge earlier this season as goals in either half from Bobby Zamora and Diomansy Kamara caused the damage.