Hull gained a vital point in a 1-1 draw at Bolton and are now one point above the drop zone. Tigers boss Phil Brown believes the draw gives his side a big psychological boost as they take on Premier League champions Manchester United in the final game of the season.
Craig Fagan's strike cancelled out Bolton's first-half opener from Gretar Steinsson and, but for the brilliance of home keeper Jussi Jaaskelainen, would have taken all three points.
"We have got a point, we are out of the bottom three. It could possibly be the first time we have started climbing up this division which psychologically means a lot to me," Brown told Sky Sports News.
"The goal we scored, the timing of it was perfect straight after half-time," added Brown.
"We asked them for a massive effort, Nicky Barmby if you want to talk about individuals was almost on his knees coming off having done 60 to 65 minutes of good hard work.
"We had a lot of chances today, I don't know how many times Jussi (Jaaskelainen) has made saves, but I think we must have had 15 or 20 shots on goal and we have hit the target a number of times today.
"He (Jaaskelainen) has been called upon and he has done his job once again for Bolton Wanderers, but that stands in the way of Hull City of being in the Premier League but it got us a point."
Wanderers boss Gary Megson told the club's official web site: "I'm happy that we're now mathematically safe and we're in this division because it has been a while coming," he explained.
"The actual performance today I thought was better than our previous two games. I think the fact that we have had a cushion between ourselves and the bottom three, we've taken our foot off the gas, but I was pleased with the goal we scored.
"I thought Elmander played with quality, Muamba has tried to run past him and we've managed to get Steinsson up field and it's a good goal from our point of view."
Megson praised his keeper's contribution.
"Jussi is top class. At one point in the second half, I turned around and had a go at Fred Barber because I thought he made a hash of a simple save, where he spilled it and Giovanni got on the ball. But, from that point onwards, it was a little bit of a wake-up call and he made some real top class saves after that.
"It was not too dissimilar to his performance against Wigan, where he made a mistake but after that was terrific. We wouldn't swap him for anybody and he's a terrific lad. I hope on August 8 at Jussi's testimonial that there's a full house for him."
