Hull City boss Phil Brown is convinced the Tigers will retain their Premier League status despite their alarming slide down the table.

City are just three points above the drop zone after slipping to their lowest league position of the season - 16th - following Saturday's 1-0 defeat at Sunderland.

But despite suggestions that the Tigers are in freefall, Brown fully expects them to stay up.

"I think people have started to write us off in the last three or four games" he told the Hull Daily Mail.

"But I keep saying it, this is still in our hands to stay in this division. Our destination, as far as I'm concerned, will be to be in the Premier League for a second year.

"It's people's jobs as pundits to give assumptions on who they think will go down, I've got no qualms with anyone predicting us to go down - just so long as it's no-one from Hull City.

"If we get that level of commitment between now and the end of the season, I'm sure we'll be fine.

"I asked for the commitment and I got it. But we're down to the last five games and we're still not in the bottom three."