No strangers to debt and disappointment, Hull City and Liverpool will be grateful to bring the curtain down on a season of dashed hopes. It is definitely Hull’s last Premier League game for at least 15 months and could well prove the final fixture in charge of these clubs for both managers. While few at Liverpool expect Rafael Benítez to remain at Anfield for much longer, no one knows whether Iain Dowie will get his wish and be kept on at the KC Stadium next term. Expect tears at the final whistle. Louise Taylor

Venue KC Stadium, tomorrow 4pm Tickets Sold out Last season Hull 1 Liverpool 3 Referee A Marriner

This season’s matches 27 Y96, R9, 3.89 cards per game

Odds Hull 6-1 Liverpool 8-13 Draw 3-1

Hull City

Subs from Myhill, McShane, Sonko, Cooper, Olofinjana, Bullard, Geovanni, Barmby, Fagan, Folan, Ghilas

Doubtful Bullard (ankle)

Injured Hunt (foot, Aug), Marney (ankle, Aug), Garcia (knee, Aug), Zayatte (knee, Aug),

Ashbee (knee, Aug)

Suspended Altidore (second of three)

Form guide DLLDLL Disciplinary record Y66 R6

Leading scorer Hunt 6

Liverpool

Subs from Babel, Skrtel, Ngog, Degen, Cavalieri, Darby, Ayala, Pacheco, El

Standy in here

Natasha Dowie can’t hide her excitement. She is exhausted, but cannot keep the wonder from her voice. On Monday, the 21-year-old striker scored a goal in the last minute of extra time which won Everton a first FA Women’s cup in the club’s history – and time inflicted the first cup-final defeat on reigning champions Arsenal. And after a night of celebrating she still cannot believe her luck. “It’s like a dream. As soon as I connected with it [the ball] I knew it was going in. I just ran into the crowd and hugged some random boy – I don’t even know if he was a supporter.” The rest of the team were, of course equally ecstatic at the win. “We didn’t even shower,” Dowie laughs, “we just went straight out in our tracksuits into Liverpool. I was still wearing my flip flops. I must have got in about four o’clock this morning, so I’m struggling a bit, but it’s worth it.”

The only cloud marring the win, was the fact that on the day her family and friends were cheering her victory, a more famous Dowie – her uncle Hull manager Iain – was watching his team drop from the Premier League. “It’s a shame because he’s a terrific guy,” she says. “But he’s done his best in Hull it’s probably not worked out the way he wanted it to, but he will kick on and do well wherever he goes. “And she says, he was still one of the first to congratulate her after the game – after getting home in time to catch her winning goal. “He texted me and rung me to tell me how proud he was. He didn’t talk about his own game he was more focused on me and how proud he was of me which was lovely.”

Now she says, she is just pleased that playing for Everton means she is closer to the former striker, who lives in Bolton, and who has been a “massive influence” on her. “I always ask his advice when I see him,” she says. “I was quite young when he played, but I watched tapes of him and he was a terrific striker.”

It’s the second time Dowie’s professional path has crossed her uncle’s. In 2006 (CHECK) she played at Charlton Athletics Ladies while Iain Dowie coached the men’s side. Yet hearing her talk about holding down a full time job coaching at Stevenage Borough football club’s academy, getting lifts from her father and “scraping for pennies”, it’s obvious her lifestyle cannot compare with players involved in the men’s Premier League. Does the difference annoy her? “It is frustrating when you see what kind of money the men are on a week,” she agrees. “They train two hours a day and we are training probably more than they do. We are all holding down full time jobs. It’s very tiring, I’m not going to lie. Mo [Everton coach Mo Marley] helps out with travelling expenses, but we don’t get paid to play so it is tough. But days like yesterday (Monday) make you realise why you play the sport. “

But she hopes the new Women’s Super League due to be launched in 2011, will helps change things. “I’m very excited. Hopefully more people will come and watch us play, and if we get paid we might have more time to train. It’ll be more competitive and it might even attract foreign players.” And she says the fact more girls than ever are taking up the sport should also help. “When I was at school I was only girl playing, but now it’s 50 50. The boys didn’t even like me playing with them in the playground. When I was 14 we were in a 5-a-side tournament and our team got through to the final. I scored most of the goal but the boys complained so I wasn’t allowed to play in the final. I wasn’t the most confident kid when I was younger and I found it quite hard but I loved playing football so any chance I had I would play.”

For now though her mind is on one thing – the Premier League title. On Thursday Everton will play Leeds and on Sunday they will face Arsenal again. “I’m getting alot of attention people wanting to know me now! It’s nice and I’m going to make the most of it as we are back in the League on Thursday so I am going to enjoy it while I can. We have three games in less than a week so it’s back to business.”

Women’s footballWomenIain DowieEvertonArsenalHull Cityguardian.co.uk

What a good day to be a Premier League manager on gardening leave. Whatever Phil Brown was doing yesterday it seems fair to assume that Hull City’s departing manager had a much more enjoyable afternoon counting his wages in the sunshine than the 26,669 spectators who had the misfortune of paying to watch this soporific match.

Aesthetics will matter little to Iain Dowie at this stage of the season, and in particular in the wake of a 4-1 drubbing at home by Burnley last Saturday, but the man with the grand title of Temporary Football Management Consultant must surely realise that Hull will have to be much more ambitious in their final three home fixtures if they are to secure Premier League survival.

In most circumstances a draw at St Andrew’s, where Birmingham are unbeaten since September and have taken points off the Premier League’s top six clubs, would be a result to celebrate. But Hull’s parlous league position – they are in effect four points adrift of safety because of their vastly inferior goal difference and have only four matches remaining – means this could well be viewed as a missed opportunity come the end of the season.

That feeling was reinforced in the closing stages, when Hull appeared belatedly to realise that a mid-table Birmingham side, whose minds seem to be on their summer holidays, were actually there for the taking. Having forced only one save from Joe Hart in the previous 85 minutes, when the Birmingham goalkeeper brilliantly repelled a glancing header from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink just before the interval, Hull threatened three times late on and came within inches of grabbing a winner in injury time when Craig Fagan’s vicious volley from the edge of the area fizzed past Hart’s near upright.

How the travelling supporters must have wished that Hull had broken free from the shackles that a 4-1-4-1 system imposed and attacked with more menace earlier on in the game. Dowie defended his tactics afterwards but it seemed curious that, given their predicament, he decided to replace one striker, Vennegoor of Hesselink, with another, Jozy Altidore, rather than play the two together for the final 15 minutes. “I just think we are not set up to go gung-ho,” said Dowie. “Look at our record and we often concede goals.”

There was little danger yesterday. Matt Duke, who replaced the dropped Boaz Myhill, made only one notable stop, when he beat away a sweeping shot from Lee Bowyer in the first half. Otherwise Birmingham were disappointing, with this result stretching their run of matches without a win to seven. “We didn’t quite have the imagination and creativity in the final third today but I am proud of the guys and the way they bounced back [from the 5-1 defeat at Manchester City last Sunday],” said their manager Alex McLeish.

Dowie had also demanded a response from his players following a poor result, although he had adopted a more forthright approach to get it. “I had a conversation this week with the boys, ramming home exactly what Premier League survival means to the area, the people that work at the club and the fans,” said Dowie, who described the midweek home game against Aston Villa as “pivotal”.

“Hull’s a working-class area and they demand to see the lads put a shift in. It’s a response today and we’ll see how good a point that is at the end of the year. But I thought, given Birmingham’s good home record, it was a display to be proud of. What we now need to do is respond to a really good away point with some points at home.”

Premier LeagueBirmingham CityHull CityStuart Jamesguardian.co.uk