Hull City manager Mike Phelan insists his side are still upbeat despite being bottom of the Premier League ahead of Friday's clash with Everton.

"I don't see any signs of heads dropping"

With the Tigers slumping to their third straight defeat against Manchester City, Phelan reassured the press, fans and the general public that the team are still up for the fight of avoiding relegation.

“I don’t see any signs of heads dropping,” he said, despite his team's dire form.

Phelan insists while there needs to be club-wide improvement, the players are still hungry to stay in the top flight.

He explained: “We’re pretty open as a group of staff and [we're] honest with the players.

"They understand that we need to do better when it comes to trying to win matches and the players have shown a great appetite and passion for playing in the Premier League.

“It has been difficult for them, but I don’t for one minute think that they have dropped away from the challenge."

The Friday clash with the Toffees offers Hull the chance to close 2016 on a high note as the Tigers boss looks to couple performances with points.

Phelan declared that his players are "all ready and willing to take it on again" and then go "into the New Year", vowing: "We will keep going and if we can keep our focus and determination, then we can move forward. At the moment, we’re getting performances but we’re not getting results."

"The players are giving everything and the supporters are seeing it"

Phelan believes the players are still giving maximum effort and that the club and supportes will navigate through this difficult time together.

He told reporters that his players are "giving everything" and that the supporters are "seeing" that, insisting that there will always be "up and down days" but that the club will "get through it together."

“The support that we’ve had as a team in the last three or four weeks has been magnificent," continued Phelan. "It’s vitally important that, if we do go a goal behind or have a difficult five or ten-minute spell, that the supporters rally round and show confidence in the group of players to lift them to another level."

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John Lupo
I am a writer and photographer. I have two Instagrams: @lupojohn1 is my personal account while @dslr_transit_photos is my photography account as I do transit photography in my hometown of New York City.