MIDFIELD playmaker Tony Carss reckons Town will put some tough lessons to good use against Hull City at the Galpharm tomorrow (noon).

The 28-year-old suffered a knee injury against Peterborough last weekend and sat out Monday's gruesome 2-1 defeat by Doncaster at Belle Vue when Town were second best in all departments.

Carss is hoping to be available for the visit of high-riding Hull, who suffered a surprise home defeat themselves on Tuesday to Bradford, and reckons Peter Jackson's squad are ready to bounce back.

"Even if we had scraped a draw out of it at Doncaster after Jonny Worthington's goal, we would still have known we needed to vastly improve," said Carss, who has been under intensive treatment from physio Lee Martin.

"To be fair to Doncaster, they played very well on the day and they are a strong side at home, but we just didn't seem to have our usual spark.

"The lads have been talking about it and remarking on the fact we need one or two people to take control in those circumstances, maybe to start shoving people around so the opposition don't dominate in that way.

"It happened in the final 10 minutes on Monday when we came to life, but it was too late. A 2-1 defeat was about as much as we could have expected with the way things went.

"I have always been a firm believer that you learn an awful lot from defeats - every bit as much as you learn from a win - and as long as we learn from it as individuals and work hard, we can go into tomorrow's match determined to make amends.

"Nobody will be more up for it than us.

"I know people have said Hull will be determined to bounce back from the Bradford defeat, but we know if we get things right tomorrow we will get a good result."

Carss has been Jackson's first-choice this season, being replaced after his injury by Fowler in the 2-1 win against Peterborough.

Fowler - who flew back last night from Wales Under 21 duty in Azerbaijan - retained his place against Doncaster, when Jackson also made changes in attack and defence.

Andy Booth and Nat Brown were brought into the starting line-up, and it will be interesting to see what changes are on the cards tomorrow.

"Hull is a massive game for us," explained Carss.

"It was the same last season, when we beat them 3-1 at our place, and this is no different, even though the loss at Doncaster seems to have put more emphasis on it.

"There will be a big crowd and a lot of interest and it's vital we get three points and start heading in the right direction in the League.

"It won't be easy. In fact, it will be tough, but we have to be strong and be winning the vast majority of our home matches, so this will be our biggest test so far."

Carss played in the opening six League and Cup matches and added:

"We are still trying to find our best form - certainly consistently.

"We have played well in patches in most of our games while Leeds in the Carling Cup was probably our best 90 minutes in terms of performance.

"From start to finish we were passing the ball well, getting our feet into tackles and closing them down, and we will certainly have to do all that against Hull tomorrow to get the result we want."

On his injury, Carss revealed he was very worried when he hobbled off after 32 minutes against Peterborough, with all the crowd wondering what had happened to him.

"It was only five minutes into the game when I slid in to whip a ball down the line and my left knee twisted a bit and then locked," he explained.

"It freed itself up and I was able to run around again, although the joint did feel a bit loose and not as stable as usual.

"Unfortunately, it locked up another two or three times before I came off and I was worried, because it did feel a bit alien.

"On Sunday, it was very sore but, thankfully, as the week has gone on it has eased a lot and hopefully I'll be okay.

"Lee Martin (the physio) isn't exactly sure what caused it. There are tendons and bursers all down the side of your knee which can become inflamed and it's probably something like that, but it seems to be okay.

"I've done some strengthening work over the last couple of days, so we'll see how it goes."