Intro:

Steve Bruce talks ahead of match with Sunderland

Script:

SOUNDBITE: (English) Steve Bruce, Hull City manager (Q: Is it good to have a match so soon after the Stoke City disappointment?)

"Yes, especially a big one like it is. It gives us a wonderful opportunity to try and put a little bit of daylight between ourselves and Sunderland, in particular, and of course if we manage to do that, then it gives us that cushion above the bottom three too which is always good with only ten games to go."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Steve Bruce, Hull City manager (Q: You face Leicester in the game after Sunderland and still have fixtures with key relegation opposition. How important are they?)

"Big, huge games. We talk about it every week but it's now coming down to, after Tuesday, it's coming down to ten games to play and if we can go and win on Tuesday and put seven or eight points above us and the bottom three, there's a possibility that could happen, then that's huge with only ten games to play. So a big, huge couple of weeks coming up and lets hope we can go and win it."

SOUNDBITE: (English) Steve Bruce, Hull City manager (Q: Is it key to keep a positive attitude at this stage of the season?)

"Well I think you've got to be. When you're a club like ours, and you're in the bottom half of the division, what you have to do and it's not easy is you have to accept that you're going to get beaten more than you win. And that's always difficult when you're managing a team. For me, and I've done it for the last ten years in the Premier League, is to stay positive when you know that you're going to lose more than you win. I wish it was the other way round where I was at a club where we were going to compete at the top end of the division, but it's not that case. So you have to remain positive, remain upbeat, don't beat yourself up too badly. On Saturday night I went home with a face like.... But you have to recover and get over it because we had an outstanding chance of taking something from the game and didn't quite grasp it. We weren't quite good enough on the day. However, another game tomorrow and lets hope we can be like we were a couple of weeks ago and get the result that we need here."