New manager Iain Dowie says he is relishing the “difficult” challenge of keeping Hull in the Premier League in the remaining nine games of the season (Hull 8/13 – To Be Relegated).

The 45-year-old former Charlton, Crystal Palace and Coventry boss was on Wednesday confirmed as the successor to Phil Brown and is charged with the task of preserving the club’s top flight status.

The second-from-bottom Tigers are three points adrift of safety on the back of a run of four successive defeats but Dowie is refusing to give on their survival hopes.

He told Sky Sports News: “I’m really looking forward to the challenge. It’s a difficult one but one that I can embrace and my favourite time is when I’m on the training ground – that’s what I love to do.”

Hull travel to take on basement club Portsmouth (Portsmouth evens draw 9/4 Hull 9/4 – match betting) on Saturday and Dowie accepts results have to improve.

He added: “We’ve got nine great games – five at home and four away – and some games with people in and around us.

“We want to get to a position where destiny is in our own hands.”