Hull City midfielder Stephen Hunt rates this season as the biggest of his life.

The Republic of Ireland international knows he has to keep performing and stay in great touch as next year's World Cup approaches as well as helping the Tigers remain in England's top flight.

"This is the biggest year of my life," he told the Hull Daily Mail.

"I'm back in the Premier League, trying to get Hull as high as possible and qualify for the World Cup finals then hopefully I can have a good finals at the end of the season.

"That's the aim. The fans will take to me even more if I play even better.

"Hopefully they will get behind the team - even during the 5-1 result (defeat at home to Spurs) I was surprised how good they were and how they stayed with us.

"I wouldn't have been that good if I had been watching in the stands. I thought: 'Jeez, if we do get some result the place will take off and they could really take off and hopefully we will get some results and get the feel-good factor back'."