Joy for Brown after vital win

Posted Saturday, October 03, 2009 by PA

Hull manager Phil Brown admitted his side had claimed a "big three points" by beating Wigan.

The Tigers claimed only their second win of the Barclays Premier League season as second-half goals from Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink and Geovanni secured a 2-1 win at the KC Stadium.

Scott Sinclair set up a tense finish with an 87th-minute reply but Hull held on to ease the pressure on Brown.

Hull had won just two of their previous 29 games in the league and were thrashed 6-1 at Liverpool last week.

Brown said: "It's a big three points for everyone's confidence, everyone's mentality.

"We had to get back to the basics of being difficult to play against. It is getting both ends of the field right and today I thought we got the majority right.

"I'm pleased for Jan, getting his first goal for the club, and the little magician has got himself another goal."

Brown called his squad in for extra training after the loss at Anfield and worked them hard throughout the week.

He added: "It was not just the performance but the week's work. It gained its reward by being not nice to play against.

"They have worked hard this week. Privileges were taken away, not petulantly, but they were just taken away.

"You have to earn the right to anything you get in the game and I think we got away from that."

Brown, however, denied the removal of privileges went as far as denying players the use of the training ground canteen.

"No, I wouldn't do that," said Brown, whose motivational work this week also involved taking his squad for a walk over the Humber Bridge.

When asked whether he was relieved to have claimed a victory, Brown said: "No. Joy springs to mind - I don't feel relief. It's more that I'm pleased for the players."

Hull started the game brightly and were denied an early penalty when Nick Barmby's shot struck Maynor Figueroa's arm, an action Mark Clattenburg deemed accidental.

"It was a decent shout," Brown said. "Mark's maybe decided it was too early in the game to make such a clear-cut decision.

"If that was outside the box he gives a handball but he didn't give it, end of story."

Wigan boss Roberto Martinez felt his team produced an assured performance but were caught napping for both goals.

The result marked a big reversal in fortunes for the Latics after beating Chelsea last week.

Martinez said: "We knew Hull were going to get a reaction in front of their own fans after what happened last week.

"We had to be prepared for that and it was important to take the sting out of the game. I felt we did that and we imposed ourselves with our possession.

"We weren't creating as many chances as we would like but I think we were slowly growing into the game and then had two lapses in concentration. We let ourselves down in that respect.

"We couldn't get anything out of the game through our own mistakes and that is very disappointing."