Nigel Adkins said his Hull side should have scored even more goals after they beat Reading 3-1 at the KCOM Stadium.
Kamil Grosicki scored twice and Marc Pugh also netted in reply to Lewis Baker’s fine first-half strike to leave the Tigers five points off the play-offs with six matches remaining.
Reading are just a point off the bottom three and Jose Gomes’ side are well and truly involved in the fight against relegation.
Adkins said: “The expectation was for us to get relegated, bottom of the league in October, and we have been on a great run.
“We are playing exciting football, scoring goals. We have got six games to go and we are right in the mix.
“We started the game ever so well. We changed it after half an hour. That little bit of quality we know we have got, we just didn’t put the ball in the net.
“We are very good at home, we scored three and we should have scored more. For me it was some good football.”
Grosicki stepped up with two fine finishes as the normally accurate Jarrod Bowen had an off day but Adkins felt the Polish winger should have had a third after missing his easiest chance.
Adkins added: “Kamil should have had a hat-trick. He was through one-on-one. We are really pleased that he scored the two.”
Hull started the game on the front foot but paid for not making their dominance tell as the visitors grabbed a shock lead.
Reading went ahead against the run of play as Baker found space 20 yards out and hit a rising left-footed shot into the roof of the Hull goal in the 17th minute.
Hull were level eight minutes into the second half as Grosicki curled a low shot around Emiliano Martinez and in off the far post after running on to a pass from Fraizer Campbell.
Hull were in front with a well-worked goal in the 65th minute as captain Markus Henriksen fed Bowen and he flicked on for Grosicki. When his low cross found Bowen his shot was saved by Martinez and Pugh pounced on the rebound to fire home from three yards.
Grosicki grabbed his second in the 77th minute and Campbell again played a part. The forward sent the winger clear from halfway and he fired past Martinez from the edge of the area to wrap up the victory.
Gomes was left to rue a game which got away from his side having taken the lead on a day when teams around them picked up points in the battle to stay up.
Gomes said: “We lost, our direct opponents won and we are not the worst team in the world. On Wednesday we have the chance to play again.
“Two games can change everything for a team that can go to the play-offs and a team fighting against relegation. That is why football is amazing and everybody loves football. It will be a big fight until the end.
“In the first half my players really controlled Hull City. We did very well, had very good focus and very good defensive organisation.
“In the first 15 minutes of the second half we lost our focus. We gave the two goals to Hull.”
