Jeers ready to turn to cheers if former chief Pearson helps Hull up

Come Friday night, Hull City fans will be cheering on Nigel Pearson – someone they have mercilessly jeered on the last four occasions their club has met his Leicester City side – in the hope he can do them a huge favour in the promotion race.

The Foxes host Watford in front of the live Sky cameras at the King Power Stadium and a home win will be enough to clinch a Premier League return for Hull, who go into the penultimate weekend four points clear of Gianfranco Zola’s men.

If, however, Watford draw or win then City will have to match that result on Saturday when they go to Barnsley to prevent the fight to join champions Cardiff City in next season’s top flight going to the final weekend.

Tigers chief Steve Bruce will spend time trying to ease the pressure his players have struggled under in their last two games, a 1-0 defeat at Wolverhampton and Friday’s dour goalless draw with relegated Bristol City.

“The expectation got the better of us,” admitted the Tigers chief. “We forgot how to play the game.

“We knew Bristol City was a big, important game for us all. And one thing we have done over the past three months is handle the occasion.

“That was the disappointing thing. The reason why we have got where we have got to is because we get it down and play with a freedom.”

The first half of the season certainly saw the Tigers play with a “freedom” that lit up the Championship. Such an attacking approach delighted fans who had considered the route taken by Pearson during his 16-month reign at the KC to be overly negative.

Hence why the four meetings since Pearson’s acrimonious departure in November, 2011, have seen the air filled by chants of ‘we’re not boring any more’ and ‘boring, boring Nigel’.

The Foxes manager has had the last laugh, however, by winning two of those contests and claiming a goalless draw from another. Whether Pearson can do the Tigers a huge favour remains to be seen but Bruce is adamant that his own players will be ready to do their own jobs at Oakwell. “We will be better (at Barnsley),” said the Hull manager, “because, to be brutally honest, we couldn’t be any worse (than last Friday).

“We probably tried too hard and forgot how to play our normal game. But that is what the Championship is. It is why everyone has found life so difficult this season.

“It is all to play for still but we are still in a wonderful position and a win away from getting where we want to be.”

Crystal Palace’s faint hopes of pipping City to the second automatic promotion place ended on Saturday with a 2-2 draw at home to Leicester.

Bolton’s win at home to Middlesbrough meant they leapfrogged over the Foxes, who would return to the play-off places with a draw at home to Watford on Friday.