Home form key to Hull's survival, says Clucas

REUTERS - Midfielder Sam Clucas has said relegation-threatened Hull City must maintain their impressive home form since the turn of the year if they hope to stay in the Premier League next season.

Hull, who are unbeaten at the KCOM stadium this year, have five home fixtures remaining, including against relegation rivals Middlesbrough and Sunderland.

"It's vitally important that we keep our home form going," the 26-year-old told British media.

"We've got five games left at home and, if we win all of them, we've got a hell of a chance of staying up. In the next few games we've got teams who are in and around us... these games are massive for us."

Hull, who are 18th out of 20 in the league, have banked on Oumar Niasse and Abel Hernandez for goals in recent weeks but Clucas urged his team mates to ease the scoring burden on the strikers, starting with Saturday's trip to face seventh-placed Everton.

"We need to get more goals from different areas of the pitch... We need to chip in," Clucas said.

"We need to spread the goals out and are working on that in training. Hopefully it'll come to the fore in the games to come."

(Reporting by Aditi Prakash in Bengaluru; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)