Hull City’s prospects of retaining their EPL place took a significant turn for the worse when they lost 2-0 at home to Aston Villa this midweek.

This result, the humiliating 4-1 defeat to fellow-strugglers Burnley in their previous KC Stadium outing and the uninspiring 0-0 draw at Birmingham City at the weekend have left the Tigers deep in the relegation mire.

They are three points behind fourth-bottom West Ham but effectively need at least four points from those games to overhaul the Hammers because of the East London outfit’s vastly superior goal difference.

City’s remaining fixtures are home games with Sunderland and Liverpool, sandwiching a trip to lowly Wigan Athletic. Boss Iain Dowie’s famed “bouncebackability” will have to be in evidence like never before if Hull are to avoid the drop.

 

Hull provided Burnley with their first away win of the season, despite Kevin Kilbane heading the opening goal for the Tigers after just two minutes, conceding two penalties among a catalogue of defensive mishaps.

They were far more solid at St. Andrews against Birmingham but created only one clear chance, Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink’s near-post header which was brilliantly saved by Blues’ much-vaunted keeper Joe Hart.

However, the Dutch striker suffered a worse fate against Villa when a clash of heads with opposing centre-half Richard Dunne shortly after half-time left him unconscious for five minutes.

The 31-year-old was stretchered off shortly after coming to. And he spent Wednesday night in hospital. A CT scan, however, gave him the all-clear and he could return to training next week.

Dowie claimed afterwards: “We outperformed Aston Villa in every department except goals. But,” he added: “how many times have we seen that this season?”

Turning to Saturday’s game against the in-form Black Cats, Dowie admitted it “is now a must-win game, simple as that. We can’t dress it up any other way.”

The Tigers hope to have Anthony Gardner fit for the game. The former Spurs defender has been out of eight weeks with ankle ligament damage but returned to full training at the start of this week.

Hull’s precarious financial situation hit the headlines again after chairman Adam Pearson used his Villa matchday programme column to divert blame for any forthcoming relegation onto his predecessor Paul Duffen.

He accused Duffen, who resigned as chairman last October, of being “extremely short-sighted, lacking in business sense” and having a “lack of moral responsibility” during his two seasons in charge of City’s finances.

Pearson wrote: “The problems which were apparent throughout 2009 should have been at the forefront of the summer transfer and business dealings.

“Instead, the wage bill was increased even further, the safety valve of pragmatic realism was cut off and the club under Mr Duffen spent money it didn’t have.”

Pearson’s views were backed by comments this week from football business expert Professor Wyn Grant of Warwick University who said: “When you look at Hull’s wage bill…and the money going out of the club, it could well be heading for administration.”