Hull City skipper Curtis Davies says they cannot afford to lose to Sunderland.

Sunderland are bottom heading into the game, five points adrift of third-bottom Hull.

"Sunderland had a great win against Bournemouth before the break and we know that they'll have rolled their sleeves up and be up for a fight," Davies told Hull's website.

"They'll probably see the game on Saturday as a chance to get kick-started, but we don't want to be their catalyst for that.

"We want to be the ones who kick on and push ourselves on in the table, and if that also means putting more distance between ourselves and Sunderland that can only be a good thing as the season progresses.

"We're ready for a big period in the season. We know we let ourselves down during the run of games after the last break up to the Southampton fixture.

"We had games that we knew we could be competitive in, but we weren't. Fair play to the team for the way we came back after going behind against Southampton and we probably deserved the win on that day.

"We have to take the momentum and confidence from that win forward with us now."