New Hull City boss Nigel Adkins has outlined his ambition to see the club "challenging at the top end" of the Championship table.

The 52-year-old has become the Tigers' fifth new manager in 17 months after signing an 18-month deal at the KCOM Stadium along with his assistant Andy Crosby.

Adkins took charge of his first training session on Thursday following the departure of Leonid Slutsky on Monday, and will look to steer Hull further away from the bottom three.

"Where we are in the table is something that we need to address and I'm really looking forward to working with the players, getting to know the staff and engaging with our supporters," Adkins told the club's website. "We all need to work hard together to improve the situation that we're in at this time.

"When you look at the group of players that we have here we have experience, we have internationals with some of them going to the World Cup next summer, we have players that have played in the Premier League and we have some hungry, young players that have come through the Academy and have done ever so well this season.

"We score a lot of goals and that is a positive that needs accentuating, but we have conceded too many goals and we have to address that collectively. We need everybody pulling in the same direction because we all want the same thing – for Hull City to be challenging at the top end."

The former Southampton and Reading boss, who had been without a managerial role since being sacked by Sheffield United in 2016, will take charge of his first match when Hull host Brentford on Saturday afternoon.