STEVE Bruce believes Hull City are now halfway towards their Premier League survival target after making history with a famous 3-1 win over Liverpool.
The KC Stadium played host to arguably its finest hour yesterday as Jake Livermore, David Meyler and a Martin Skrtel own goal earned a first victory over the Merseysiders.
The richly-deserved win quickly banished memories of back-to-back defeats to Southampton and Crystal Palace and lifted City back up into the top half of the table in 10th, seven points clear of the bottom three.
Having set his side a target of 10 wins for survival on the eve of the new campaign, Bruce believes a fifth victory in 13 games this season has reinvigorated their plans for another season in the top flight.
"I don't think it's any fluke we're sitting in the top 10 of the Premier League. Let's hope we can continue it, that's the hard part," said Bruce.
"If we can get another five wins, 10 or 11 wins is usually enough in my opinion. We've won five and find ourselves in the top half.
"The other teams at the bottom on seven points and eight points, they've got a lot to do in terms of winning 10 games when they've only won a couple."
Bruce promised a reaction following the 1-0 loss to lowly Crystal Palace eight days earlier and his side duly delivered in style.
Outplaying a Liverpool side that had begun the day second in the Premier League table, the Tigers took the lead through Livermore's deflected shot from distance in the 20th minute.
England captain Steven Gerrard equalised with a free-kick soon after, but City eventually found the win their efforts deserved when Meyler pounced to make it 2-1 before Skrtel's own goal killed off the contest three minutes from time.
"You can talk about tactics and this, that or the other, but at the end of the day, it's the 11 players that are put out there performing to a level which I've grown accustomed to.
"It was important that we had a response and to be fair to them, I knew there would be.
"You've got Liverpool at home, one of the big teams, and you need a game like this sometimes. Thankfully, we've played really well on the day and deserved to win it."
City will now turn their attentions to Wednesday night's trip to league-leaders Arsenal with a revived sense of belief after defeats in four of their previous five league games.
A host of players, most notably the recalled Alex Bruce and Meyler, made their chances count and the City boss added: "It's always hard when you bring a team out of the Championship to give them that belief. There's a few of the players who haven't really played in the Premier League, and this should give them that little bit of self belief that they can play here as long as they're playing as they are.
"That's the difficulty of the Premier League, we've got to be at our best."
CITY will be without Curtis Davies for Wednesday's trip to the Emirates after he collected his fifth yellow card of the campaign yesterday.
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