Bruce bonus can swing race in Hull’s favour, says Quinn

The Tigers moved back into the automatic promotion places on Monday night with a hard-fought 1-0 victory at Burnley.

Quinn netted the all-important winner as Hull returned to second place for the fourth time in the past three months.

Watford, Crystal Palace and Leicester City – the three teams sitting directly below Hull in the table – have all occupied second spot in recent months along with Middlesbrough to underline just how competitive the promotion race has been this season in the Championship.

With nine games to play, the 
Tigers are now in a strong position to push on in the quest to seal a return to the top flight and Quinn believes Bruce’s experience will be a major factor in the club’s favour.

He said: “The manager is so decorated in the game and has seen it all and done it all before. That is a massive help to us.

“The lads have so much respect for him. We take every word in. The same with Steve Agnew and the rest of the coaching staff.

“The gaffer is vital in taking the pressure off us. He is always stressing that we have to go out and enjoy it as a chance like this might not come along again.”

Bruce has twice won promotion from the second tier in a career that has, over the past decade or so, been spent mainly in the Premier League.

His capture last summer by owners, Assem and Ehab Allam, was seen as something of a major coup and the one-time Manchester United defender has justified that belief by transforming Hull into a team full of attacking intent thanks to rampaging wing-backs Ahmed Elmohamady and Robbie Brady.

On Monday night, however, a very different approach was taken as the Hull manager looked to make his side much more solid in the wake of back-to-back four-goal defeats on the road – a tactic that paid off handsomely as Burnley were beaten 1-0.

Quinn, whose strike against the Clarets was his first since October 2, said: “The gaffer’s philosophy all season has been for us to play the game in a way we enjoy. That has been fantastic.

“But sometimes you have to dig in and defend for your lives like we did against Burnley. That shows how adaptable this team is.

“The boys showed great resilience. Before going to Burnley, we had conceded a lot of goals away from home. So, it was important we shored up the defence. In that respect, I thought we had a great shape and the lads really defended well.

“Maybe going forward, we didn’t have enough shots in the first half. It was something we spoke about at half-time and the gaffer addressed it.

“We then had a couple of early shots and, luckily enough for me, one of them paid off. The gaffer has been on about me to have more shots because it was such a long time since I’d scored so it was great to get the goal.”