Hull manager Steve Bruce remains confident he has the quality in his squad to beat the drop ahead of Wednesday’s trip to face Everton at Goodison Park.

The Tigers are priced at 3.07 to be relegated this season and have now gone six games without a win heading to Merseyside, losing four in a row after the latest setback came in the 3-0 defeat at Manchester United on Saturday.

The loss at Old Trafford was in Bruce’s 700th game as a manager and he remains confident of turning things around after heavy investment in the squad this summer.

Bruce said: “We had a difficult start, especially away from home with the fixtures we’ve had, so we’ve got to make sure we try and accumulate the number of points we need.

“I’ve always said you need 10 wins. At the moment, going into December, we’ve only got two so we’ve got a bit of catching up to do.

“I still believe we’ve got more quality in the squad than we had last year and I still believe we’ll finish higher up in the league than we did last year.”

Bruce is boosted by the return of Tom Huddlestone for the trip to take on the Toffees after the midfielder was rested against Manchester United.

Striker Abel Hernandez has returned to England after travelling to Uruguay for the birth of his first child but will not be included, while his countryman Gaston Ramirez serves the second part of a three-match suspension picked up in the 2-1 loss to Tottenham.

Bruce has no fresh injury concerns.