Leonid Slutsky: 'Hull City confidence is draining'

Hull City boss Leonid Slutsky has admitted that his side's confidence is suffering after the club slipped to their second successive league defeat against Fulham on Wednesday night.

The Tigers equalised through Jarrod Bowen after Floyd Ayite had given the hosts the lead, but the Cottagers snatched all three points with a goal from Stefan Johansen.

"We must look forward positively. It's a normal reaction when you have a new team and new players when you have two defeats in a row, especially when losing one game 5-0," Slutsky told reporters.

"Of course we have lost confidence but my target is to change [this] and bring back confidence. Everybody here is a good player and we have a really good team. But we must show our maximum level in a short time.

"It's a really difficult time but we need to solve all of our problems together. Team, club, supporters, everybody."

The Tigers' latest result, which has left the club 16th in the table, came after a thrashing at the hands of Derby County last Friday.

Slutsky continued: "We played more defensively because it was a reaction to an unbelievable defeat on Friday. We thought more about defence in the first half but in the second half we played much better."

The club host Sunderland on Saturday looking to avoid three straight league defeats.