WHEN Steve Agnew left Hull City last December, it is unlikely he would have envisaged a scenario where he would head back to the KC Stadium with Middlesbrough later the following year attempting to gain the upperhand in the promotion race.

Firstly, after accepting the offer of a return to the Teesside club, he would have liked Boro to have finished off the drive to the Premier League at the end of his first five months.

And secondly Hull City were seemingly destined for relegation at that stage so, despite Steve Bruce’s best efforts to keep them in the top-flight, the Tigers dropped down a level.

Ultimately, though, Boro came up short in their pursuit of promotion – and are now faced with having to overcome a Hull team more than capable of staying in a top two spot come May.

With the exception of James Chester and Robbie Brady’s departure to West Brom and Norwich for a combined £17m, Bruce has kept the players he wanted on Humberside.

It is a squad which bears a startling resemblance to the team which finished in the Premier League in August, with Moses Odubajo, Sam Clucas and Chuba Akpom the only players in last week’s starting line-up at Brentford not to have ended last season at Hull.

Continuity has proven hugely beneficial in Bruce’s attempts to lead them straight back up and they have not lost since the defeat at Brighton on September 12; form which has lifted them up to the pinnacle of the division albeit on goal difference from Burnley.

Agnew told Boro winger Stewart Downing months ago that Hull are strong enough to stay in the mix and so far he has been proved right.

“I was speaking to Aggers about it,” said Downing. “He was saying ‘Don’t worry about Hull, they will be there or thereabouts because they have a strong squad’.

“And I can’t disagree. If you look at them, they have good players throughout the squad, a good manager in Steve Bruce who knows the division and what it takes to get out of the Championship.

“It takes something to drop down a division and try hard to keep things intact and that’s what Hull have tried to do. I know Mo Diame is still there and I knew him when I was at West Ham. He is a really good player who they have kept and they have kept most of the squad together to try to go straight back up.”

The outcome of this afternoon’s trip to the KC Stadium will not determine whether Hull or Boro go up. However, the bigger picture is that come May it could be a point or three which determines an automatic promotion spot from a play-off place.

In the past Boro have had fewer peaks than they have troughs against promotion rivals, and last month they slipped up at Reading.

“For the people on the outside they will see this as a game between two teams expected to be challenging for the top and we both are at this stage,” said Downing. “We have to beat teams that are in and around us if we want to stay there.

“People will see it as the two strongest teams in the league. When the transfer window shut in the summer, Hull kept their players, they are like a Premier League club in the Championship, but we have good players too and we are playing well enough to get a result.

“It will be a tough place to go, Hull always is. It would be nice to go into the international break on the back of a win.

“The league is starting to take shape. People expected the teams up there to be where they are. But we have to keep nicking points. It was a big win for us on Tuesday against Rotherham, Hull will be better than them but we have to be confident.”

It was 12 months ago when Downing forced his way back into the England squad. His final West Ham appearance before the call-up was to help the Hammers come from behind to claim a 2-2 draw at Stoke.

A call from Roy Hodgson is not even in his thinking going into this weekend, but he hopes there are similarities.

Downing said: “Last year was a turning point in our season as well at West Ham. People said we couldn’t come back from two down and we did at Stoke, it was pleasing for us and we built on from there.

“Hopefully the last few games have been a turning point for us too. We have a strong team here and we can get promoted. We just need to keep going.

“We are starting to settle now because there was a lot of getting to know each other in the first few months. I feel like we know each other a lot more now so hopefully we will go on and win more and more games to keep us in and around the top of the Championship.”