PHIL BROWN is backing his Hull City side to buck the recent trend of the play-offs and make home advantage pay tonight.

The Tigers go into the semi-final second leg tie against Watford in a commanding position after winning 2-0 at Vicarage Road last Sunday.

Goals from Nicky Barmby and Dean Windass have left the club within sight of a first trip to Wembley in the Championship final on May 24.

If this is to become reality, however, City will need to avoid becoming the latest victim of what in the past three seasons has become something of a home hoodoo for clubs competing in the play-offs.

Of the 31 ties that have taken place across all three divisions, just six have been won by the home team with a further seven finishing as draws.

Brown is well aware that the visiting sides have enjoyed the upper hand, as illustrated by Hull, Bristol City and Carlisle United and having all won on foreign soil in the past few days.

Despite that, the Tigers manager is adamant his players will not buckle tonight as Watford look to overcome a two-goal deficit.

He said: "It (the away teams doing well) has not surprised me. It could be significant that teams are feeling under pressure more (at home).

"However, what surprised me the most about last Sunday was that there was only (a crowd of) 14,000 at Watford.

"They can't have felt any more pressure as a result, and really they should have felt less pressure. The fact we had 2,500 fans there showed that our players respond to the pressure.

"There will be 23-25,000 at the KC for the second leg and that is something we will embrace. Our mentality all season has been that we are in football for when the hairs stand up on the back of our necks.

"We want the pressure situations, the big games – all things that will be synonymous with the second leg. If a player doesn't feel like that, he can go and sign for someone else."

Anyone who has visited Kingston-upon-Hull since the weekend will know that Wembley fever is very much alive and well.

The Tigers are the talk of the city with even those whose preference is for the oval ball having become swept up in the club's push for the Premier League, as was illustrated during the recent Millennium Magic weekend when fans of Rovers and Hull FC avidly followed the final day defeat at Ipswich Town live on television in the pubs of Cardiff.

Should City go on to finish the job tonight and book an historic trip to Wembley, expect interest levels to soar even further with the club's 36,000 ticket allocation sure to be snapped up in record time.

Brown is delighted to see Hull gripped by a growing sense of excitement even if, as a wily old campaigner who has tasted the highs and lows of football during a career spanning three decades, he is keeping his feet firmly on the ground.

Asked what reaching Wembley would mean to the club and city, the 48-year-old smiled before adding: "That question is slightly ahead of itself. Ask me after the game."

Looking to tonight's tie, the Tigers manager said: "Watford will be really mentally up for it and aggressive. They will have had three days to prepare for that moment when they come out of that tunnel.

"They will want to be in our faces. The good thing for us is when anyone has been like that, we have always responded with a roll up of the sleeves. That is why we finished where we finished in the league."

Brown knows just how precarious a two-goal lead can prove to be in a play-off semi-final, the City manager having been in the Blackpool side that missed out on a trip to Wembley in 1996 after being beaten 3-0 on the night and 3-2 on aggregate at Bloomfield Road in the return.

Sam Allardyce was sacked as Seasiders manager a few weeks later but Brown is adamant his side will not fall into the same trap tonight.

He said: "A 2-0 half-time score is something I have been through before in the play-offs, though I got my hand slapped by Sam for mentioning the Bradford game too many times (last weekend). He was manager at the time and it was not nice because he got the sack.

"After getting a team to the play-offs, that was unbelievable. But I think the way this club is run, I can't see it (an aggregate defeat) happening again. But we have to guard against it."

City welcome back Dean Marney and Henrik Pedersen to the squad along with Jay-Jay Okocha, the trio having come through a behind-closed-doors game at the KC yesterday.