The Tigers will go for promotion to the Premier League this weekend
John Egan caught Phil Brown’s eye in the famous win at Millwall last week (Image: Warren Little/Getty Image)
Former Hull City promotion-winning manager Phil Brown admits watching his old club in the second leg victory over Millwall brought memories of 2008 flooding back.
Brown was covering the game for local radio at The Den, and says the performance was so good in the second half that it will matter little who Sergej Jakirovic’s side face, if they perform that well.
Mo Belloumi was the star of the show, scoring a wonderful opening goal before he teed up Joe Gelhardt to rattle in the second and seal a deserved 2-0 win, to set up a final showdown with Southampton at Wembley this weekend.
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“I thought the performance was about clarity,” Brown told the 1904 Club podcast. “It was about a group of players that were probably thinking, we’re lucky to get away with that on Friday. Now, this is what we really look like, and I thought, if that’s what Hull City really look like, it doesn’t matter who you’re playing at Wembley, you bring that to the party, it’s Premier League all day long.
“When you’ve got John Egan in the middle of the three, wow, all day long, I’d have been playing three centre-backs all season. Don’t get me wrong, you’ve got to have the ability to change these days, certainly in the Championship, cos there’s so many tactically aware players, as well as management.
“There’s so many tactically aware players, and I think Johnny Egan’s one of the best. But for John to step in, he was doing it back in the day at Southend, and I’m like, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? Yes, I’ll go with that. Whoa, whoa, yes, I’ll go with that.’
“He plays a pass, and he follows the pass. He wants to score a goal. He goes back to playing football in the playground; that’s a simple analogy. John was like, I’m playing centre half, I wanna score a goal here. That’s what got the grip of the game in the first 15 minutes.”
Brown famously guided City to the Premier League for the first time in the club’s history 17 years ago when Dean Windass belted in the winning goal against Bristol City.
Ahead of celebrating his birthday later this month, the 66-year-old watched on as Jakirovic’s tactical masterplan saw City overpower Alex Neil’s Lions inside a stunned Den, aside from the 2,100 or so from East Yorkshire.
“A million words could come out of my mouth, but not one of them would have the feel that I felt on Monday night, not one of them. The feel I felt was down to a guy I’ve never met, to a chairman I don’t know and met for the first time (before the game). It’s that moment when you cross the white line, and you’re a player, a coach, or a manager, and you achieve something.
“I felt very, very close to what Sergej would have been feeling. And I’m in a box 100 yards behind him, high up, watching Canary Wharf and an incinerator behind Cold Blow Lane.
“That’s my life at the moment, describing how the Hull City fans (would be feeling). London’s Calling, when the Clash came on. When the Clash came on, London’s Calling, I said, Wembley’s Calling.
“And Wembley was calling, Wembley was calling for that group of players and for the Hull City fans, and you’re there. I just really can’t explain how I felt. I didn’t feel over-elated.
I just felt, it’s 2008. I’m back to when I achieved what I achieved, and when we achieved what we achieved. I was floating, I was just floating around the place.”
You can listen to the full podcast with Phil Brown herewatch on YouTube
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