Under-fire Hughes is running out of time

BELEAGUERED Manchester City boss Mark Hughes enters the festive double header having arrived at something of a crossroads.

With only one win from the last nine Premier League games — including a last-gasp 2-1 reverse at rock-bottom West Brom which kept City in the relegation places — and rumours doing the rounds of disruption in the dressing room centring around out-of-favour Brazilian star Elano, it is easy to see why many fans believe Hughes is on borrowed time at Eastlands.

Should his team fail to defeat Hull at Eastlands on Boxing Day and follow that up with a loss at fellow strugglers Blackburn two days later, the picture would certainly look grim for the City boss, despite the repeated public backing of super-rich Abu Dhabi owner Sheikh Mansour.

At the same time, a pair of much-needed victories could shoot City up into the top half of the table.

That would help paint a much rosier picture ahead of the club's likely multi-million outlay to revolutionise the playing staff come the January transfer window, which Hughes hopes to be in place to oversee.

City last won at home when putting Arsenal to the sword 3-0 just over a month ago and will bid to improve that record by inflicting a second consecutive defeat on Phil Brown's visiting Hull side.

Tigers centre-half Michael Turner was part of the side hammered 4-1 by rejuvenated Sunderland at the KC Stadium on Saturday and he is also hoping for a change in fortunes, following a run of only one success in the promoted side's last nine top-flight matches.

"Saturday has gone, it's behind us now," said Turner, whose form has seen him tipped for an England call.

"We'll work hard as we always do when we've had a setback. We lost 5-0 to Wigan here and we bounced back very well from that. We'll work hard from today onwards and get ready for Manchester City.”

Despite their loss to Sunderland, Hull are likely to be anything but pushovers at Eastlands.

Only Chelsea have bettered the Tigers' goal tally of 17 on the road, with Brown's men creating a reputation as an exciting outfit with ex-City midfielder Geovanni pulling the strings behind two strikers.

City's Blackburn trip on Sunday will also test the managerial capabilities of Hughes to the full. Having brought in former Bolton boss Sam Allardyce to replace sacked manager Paul Ince, Rovers kicked off their new era with a comprehensive 3-0 home dismissal of Stoke.

It was the club's first win in 12 in the Premier League, a sequence which saw them sink to second-bottom of the league and which cost Ince his job.