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Second-half goals from Geovanni and Daniel Cousin ensured Hull joined West Ham United in being the only teams to beat Arsene Wenger's side on home soil since the club left the marble halls of Highbury two summers ago.

Ashbee, who joined Hull in 2002 when they were in the basement division, said: "I have done it the hard way to come here, to say the least.

"And it is pinch-yourself time when you are at places like Arsenal so, to win, you can't believe it can you? It is like a dream come true.

"This is as high as it can possibly be. (Winning the play-off final at) Wembley was an amazing achievement for the whole of the city but Arsenal was one for the boys and the fans that travelled down.

"It was a momentous day for us. No one gave us a hope in hell but we have proved people wrong. I think this ranks alongside anything in the club's history.

"I take pride in being the captain but with my football head on, we want more days like these so we will not get carried away."

Ashbee also revealed how a half-time dressing down from Hull manager Phil Brown had played its part in the win. He said: "The manager had a pop at us at half-time. I thought we had done all right to come off at half-time with the score 0-0 but he had a go at us because he sensed we didn't believe it enough.

"If the manager thinks that, then he has got belief in us hasn't he? We have played under no pressure, no one expected us to come here and get anything.

"We have come to Arsenal, gone a goal down and many teams would have caved in. But we showed a little bit of belief and, for the want of a better word, we showed balls."

Hull's third win of the season took their points tally to 11 from six games to further confound the critics who wrote them off.

Ashbee said: "We sat down (in the summer) and we dissected the season into parts, basically deciding what points tally we should be at and when.

"The gaffer loves those kind of meetings. He thinks that going into the 'War Room' (at the club's Cottingham training base) is better than being out on the training ground some days.

"We get things off our chest and say what we feel.

"We will go in on Monday morning and the gaffer will find something to moan about. I am pleased for the gaffer because it would have been him that got the stick if things hadn't worked for us."