Tigers are warming up for their crucial month in promotion bid

The Tigers flew to Portugal on Sunday and are not due back to Yorkshire until Thursday.

With Hull having endured a disappointing January that brought an exit from the FA Cup and a haul of just two points from three league games, Bruce says the chance of a return to the training complex where the squad spent part of pre-season last July was just too good to turn down.

The Tigers manager said: “Our preparation was difficult throughout last week because of the snow. That is not an excuse by any means (for Saturday’s Cup defeat to Barnsley) but a full week of training (in Portugal) will do us the world of good.

“It is a huge month coming up in terms of the league, but we have given ourselves a right good chance.

“We were disappointed to go out of the Cup but, at least, now we have got no distractions.

“As we saw against Barnsley, there is a question mark over whether the squad is big enough to cope with (two competitions) and we do have bigger fish to fry.”

Hull’s struggles in January have come as something of a disappointment at the KC Stadium, 
especially considering how well they finished 2012 to earn Bruce the manager-of-the-month award for December.

But with six games and 18 points to play for in February, Hull have a chance to make amends. Bruce, though, admits they will have to improve markedly on their efforts against Barnsley on Saturday when confidence seemed low.

The Hull chief, who is resigned to missing out on QPR striker DJ Campbell, added: “After a bright first half, we didn’t have too many chances in the second half or play well enough. Our brightness ebbed away after we missed the chances.

“We didn’t deserve to lose the game, but we went a bit too gung-ho towards the end, rather than being a bit more calculated. We were in complete control in the first half and that was more like us.

“The big thing in any football match is a goal and at the moment we can’t buy one. That has got to change for us to turn things around again.”