Dowie reaches point of no return for launching Hull towards safety

Two home games this week, starting with Villa tonight, offer the Tigers a chance to escape the relegation zone

Dowie has just a few games to make a difference (PA)

It does not take a rocket scientist to work out what Hull City need to survive relegation once again, but the ironic fact is they went ahead and appointed the man who is football's nearest version to one in the shape of Iain Dowie.

The much-travelled manager, who has a Masters degree in mechanical engineering and has spent time working for British Aerospace, should in theory be able to devise a formula to reach safety, yet earning enough points to stay in the Premier League is proving difficult.

Hull, who have won just one game since Dowie succeeded Phil Brown last month, are third from bottom in the table and three points adrift of West Ham United in 17th ahead of tonight's crucial visit of Aston Villa to the KC Stadium.

Dowie might have been a controversial choice by chairman Adam Pearson, not least considering the former Northern Ireland international striker had been out of the game since his spell helping Alan Shearer try in vain to keep Newcastle in the Premier League at the end of last season, and the immediate challenge seemed beyond him.

Crushing defeats to Portsmouth and Burnley in recent weeks seem to support this theory, while some of his players have spoken privately of finding his training sessions too demanding and tiring. A disciplinarian, Dowie has attempted to shake up the dressing room by recalling the likes of Caleb Folan and Ibrahima Sonko to the team after they were frozen out by Brown, while at the same time adopting unorthodox methods to lift morale.

It remains to be seen if, like Brown, Dowie has also indulged this players in passages from motivational books such as Chicken Soup for the Soul, or posted random notes on the walls of the training ground demanding more effort from them and questioning their belief.

It appears to be the case that both Dowie and Brown are quite similar in terms of their quirky approach to the game. But what will concern Pearson and his fellow Hull directors is that the end result also seems to be very similar.

The Tigers have four games to save themselves, three of which are at home, yet even Dowie admits relegation will be a certainty should Hull fail to win one of the next two, against Villa tonight and Sunderland on Saturday. He said: "This week has got to bring a win, we're at that stage of the season now.

"It would give us the chance to put the pressure on West Ham. I know what it's like to play under pressure there and it's not easy. But we can't worry about West Ham or Wigan, or Wolves or Bolton, we have to focus on ourselves. Three points against Villa would change the whole picture," he added, "and that's what we've got to look at doing."

The odds might be stacked against Hull but Dowie is refusing to lose faith and believes he has characters in the dressing room with the strength to avoid relegation. "I think the supporters have a great deal of belief in the players," he said, "but you can imagine what Saturday would be like if we were able to get a win under our belts.

"If we were able to put back-to-back wins together at home then all of a sudden we're cooking on gas. That's something that we're capable of doing, why not? It's what this game's about – pressure. It's about those who think clearly. We will try and be quite relaxed and positive. There is a good buzz around the place. It's about taking care of what needs to be done and we hope we've got the people to cope."