Hull City pinning promotion hopes on play-offs, admits Steve Bruce

The Tigers boss has seen his team slip 10 points off the pace in the race for a top-two finish following a dismal run of just two wins in the last 10 Championship games and he thinks the gap will be too much to make up in the remaining six matches.

Instead Bruce has switched his attention to ensuring the Tigers guarantee themselves a play-off spot, starting with Wolves’ visit to the KC Stadium on Friday night.

“I think, if we’re going to be honest, that (automatic promotion) has gone,” said Bruce.

“We’ve had an awful run just at the wrong time, although we’ll never give up of course. The run has disappointed us all and we have to try to find back a little bit of form and we’ve got six league games to secure a play-off place.

“That’s got to be the main thing on the agenda, find some form and go into the play-offs.

“We’ve got to win a few games and we’ve found that difficult over the last few weeks, where the previous seven months have been terrific.”