Hull City manager Mike Phelan has admitted that his players are "depressed" after they slumped to a sixth straight Premier League defeat this afternoon.

The Tigers had been heading for a point from their encounter with Watford until skipper Michael Dawson deflected the ball into his own net with eight minutes remaining at Vicarage Road.

The result left the side stranded in 18th place in the Premier League and, speaking afterwards, Phelan bemoaned the "cruel" twist that denied his men a positive outcome.

"It's very hard to take. I have got a depressed dressing room after the work they put into the game," he told reporters. "The winning goal is a cruel one, it flashed across the box and hit someone on the leg and gone in. It could have gone anywhere. If it is a worldie then you can hold hands up.

"We were competitive enough in the game. We created probably the best chances in the game, but were are on the end of another defeat. We have to react to that and I am sure we will do next week.

"To win a football match, you have to score goals and try and get that from forward play and forwards, everyone has to weigh in with goals and, at the moment, it is not happening."

Hull next host Claude Puel's Southampton at the KCOM next weekend.