Cool heads will benefit Hull City

The Tigers are embroiled in a desperate fight for survival near the foot of the Premier League after having won just twice in 18 games.

Hull are, thanks to a vastly inferior goal difference compared to fourth-bottom West Ham United, effectively two points from safety but have a golden chance tomorrow to lay down a marker in the relegation battle against a team that has been in freefall since the turn of the year.

Dowie said: "You can use any adjective you like – colossal, humongous, the importance is not in doubt. It is the biggest game of the season.

"That is not something we will be discussing with the players but it is (a fact) and we are aware of that. This game can fundamentally put a lot of things in our hands.

"This is the type of fixture that can shape our season. We said it before Fulham (when Hull won 2-0 last month) because I felt we had to win or we could become detached.

"Now we are in the shake-up and other teams are within touch. This could be a defining fixture. We were helped last week by Wigan and Bolton losing as, all of a sudden, a win in this game would make a huge difference. And we would still have a game in hand."

Burnley will arrive at the

KC Stadium with confidence levels at rock bottom courtesy of last Saturday's 6-1 drubbing at home to Manchester City, their 12th reverse in 14 games since Brian Laws took charge.

The former Sheffield Wednesday manager has come under increasing pressure in recent weeks but the Clarets' collapse actually pre-dates his arrival in January with the final nine league games of Owen Coyle's reign failing to yield a single

victory.

Burnley did, however, triumph in fortuitous fashion when the two clubs met on October 31 in a game that saw Geovanni have a perfectly good 'goal' from a free-kick chalked off by referee Mike Jones, who later added insult to injury by sending off the Brazilian.

Dowie, then out of work following his departure from QPR the previous season, was covering the game at Turf Moor for Sky Sports Television.

He said: "Hull were unlucky.

"All the fundamental moments went against Hull. Graham Alexander lashed one in and I thought the 'goal' Hull scored was perfectly good.

"I couldn't predict what has happened to Burnley since. Sometimes, you just get in a rut and it is really hard to get out of it."

Tomorrow's game is the first of four for Hull on home soil during the run-in and Dowie is calling for his side to show cool heads.

He added: "I think the atmosphere will be cooking, I really do. But the key is we have got to keep our cool.

"I have drilled that into the players.

"Every time there has been a foul in training this week I have blown the whistle and told them 'it is not good defending, it is rash'.

"The mantra of limiting set-pieces is something I drive into the players every week and in every season.

"It has to be fire in the bellies and ice in the head.

"What we can't afford is challenges that can get you booked or even sent off. There can be no rash tackles."

George Boateng seems unlikely to feature for Hull after being stretchered off at Stoke City last week, while Dowie's hopes that Stephen Hunt may be available have proved optimistic with the club's top scorer yesterday being sent for a scan on the injured foot that has kept him out since February 20.

The Hull manager added: "It is not settling down.

"It is becoming a bugbear. A frustration for me, him and everyone at the club.

"We have tried everything. We have tried rest and he's played with jabs before I got here but we can't pre-judge what the problem is.

"It is a slight thing that he does that gives him a degree of pain and it is a sharp pain.

"Hopefully, the scan will pick up nothing. If it does, maybe it is a different scenario. All we can do is hope that it does settle down."