PHIL Brown has told his Hull players to lay down a marker for the rest of the season in tomorrow’s match against Everton at Goodison Park.

The Tigers will be playing only their third match in four weeks and are looking to take their first points from the last of a three-game away run.

Defeats at Blackburn and West Ham took their record away from the KC Stadium this season to ten defeats and four draws from 14 matches.

Brown’s side find themselves back in the relegation zone ahead of the trip to Merseyside following Bolton’s win over Wolves last weekend.

With a home match against Arsenal to come next Saturday, Brown said: ‘‘We are 18th in the Premier League. We understand what’s to come.

We’ve got two tough games coming into the final 11 matches.

‘‘Probably no-one expects us to get anything; the pressure’s off us to an extent.

Hopefully we can raise our game better than we did at Upton Park and take that to Goodison and give Everton a game.

‘‘The performance at West Ham wasn’t acceptable – by our own standards, by Premier League standards, by anybody’s standards – and we’re here to address that.’’ David Moyes’ team have had an up-and-down month, with victories over Manchester United and Chelsea balanced out by a Europa League exit at the hands of Sporting Lisbon and a 2-1 defeat by Tottenham last time out.

Possibly the low point of Everton’s season came in the first half at the KC Stadium in November, when Hull were three up inside half an hour.

The Toffees recovered to pull two back but could not prevent Hull claiming the three points, and Brown admitted the match encapsulated the Tigers’ season.

‘‘I think that result will be on David’s mind,’’ he continued.

‘‘What we are capable of was the first half at the KC Stadium.

‘‘The ugly side of us is what happened in the second half at the KC Stadium.

‘‘We’ve got to make sure we perform to our maximum at Goodison and hope Everton don’t bring that quality they can bring.

‘‘We can put down a marker with 11 games to go. Hopefully for us it’ll be a positive one. Any points between now and the end of the Arsenal game will be a massive bonus to us.’’ Goodison Park could see the return to first-team action of Hull playmaker Jimmy Bullard, whose latest knee injury has kept him out since December.

Brown opted not to risk the 31-year-old against West Ham but he has since played for the reserves.