We would have kept Hull safe from drop, says Brown

The 51-year-old Preston North End manager will make his first visit to the KC Stadium tomorrow since being fired by the Tigers.

Brown was axed in mid-March with Hull sitting second bottom in the table, a position successor Iain Dowie was unable to improve on after winning just one of his nine games in charge.

Hull’s subsequent relegation had huge ramifications for the club, only the arrival of the Allam family in December preventing financial meltdown.

Tomorrow’s return will be an emotional one for Brown, who remains the only manager to take the Tigers into the top-flight following the play-off triumph at Wembley of 2008.

The Preston manager told the Yorkshire Post: “I am looking forward to going back, even though to me it is basically just another game – albeit an important one that we want to win.

“I had a lot of happy times at Hull and I still have a lot of friends in the area. Brian (Horton, one-time Hull assistant now fulfilling the same role at Preston) is the same. We are both looking forward to it.

“We firmly believe that Hull City would still be in the Premier League if we had stayed, though that is probably an argument for another day.”

Brown took charge of Hull in December 2006, after a short stint on then manager Phil Parkinson’s coaching staff. He inherited a side sitting second bottom in the Championship but led the club to safety on the penultimate weekend of the season.

A year later, the celebrations were for clinching Hull’s first promotion to the top flight in their 104-year history after Dean Windass netted the only goal of the 2008 Championship play-off final at Wembley.

Brown, who took charge of Preston last month, said: “I look back with pride on what we achieved as a club. Hull had only been in League Two a couple of years earlier so it was a challenge but one we relished.

“I was very fortunate to have a great team around me. Brian has had it twice over at Hull, having managed the club in the Eighties.

“We achieved good things at Hull and it could not have happened without that team working together. That backroom staff, in my opinion, was why we got the success that we did.”