Hull's history maker

Brown: famous win for Hull

It's obviously the best result of our season so far - and probably in Hull's history.

Phil Brown
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• Hull City

It was arguably the shock of the Premier League season so far as Hull City travelled to the Emirates Stadium and beat mighty Arsenal on their own patch.

Not many people would have backed the newly-promoted Tigers at 14-1 against Arsene Wenger's team of superstars, but Phil Brown's side fully merited their 2-1 victory which was earned with goals from Geovanni and Daniel Cousin.

Tigers boss Brown, who is no stranger to the Goals on Sunday sofa, spoke to Ian and Kammy on the phone on Sunday morning to talk about how his team were able to pull off their surprise triumph.

He explained that the famous win was down to a mixture of surprise attacking tactics, impressive defending and a little bit of luck.

"It was a fantastic day for Hull City Football Club yesterday to go to a magnificent stadium like the Emirates and not only hold our heads above water in terms of the game of football, but also coming out with three points. It was a fantastic achievement," he said.

"We thought we might just catch them out with the formation that we set out. We know that on any one given day Arsenal have got a plethora of great players and we expected them to be playing great football.

"Because they pass and move so much you can't really cater for the shape they play, so you've just got to stick to your game plan.

"Geovanni's grabbed the headlines, Cousin's grabbed the headlines, but on a defensive note I think to a man everybody did their job when Arsenal had the ball.

"We rode our luck at times, but you've got to."

Trio

Brown used a trio of forwards in last week's 2-2 draw with Everton and was so impressed with their efforts he decided to adopt the same attacking philosophy at the Emirates Stadium.

He continued: "I think the secret of the football of the good football we played against Everton was the few guys up top and I wasn't going to go to the Emirates and drop one of them because of the way they played against Everton.

"The shock that everybody got yesterday was the fact that we decided to play three up top with Geovanni behind the front two.

"That could have backfired, of course it could. If you catch Arsenal on a good day they'll tear world-class teams apart, so we rode our luck but we surprised one or two with the way we can play."

Brown also paid tribute to the travelling Hull faithful who are clearly enjoying their club's first ever spell in the top flight of English football.

And having already equalled Derby's points total of last season, Brown said the team were already exceeding their own pre-season expectations.

"Our fans were absolutely fantastic. We've taken an average of between 3,000 and 4,000 to every game so far, I think we took about 5,500 to Blackburn and they're getting their money's worth to say the least.

"We've set ourselves a target and quarterly targets as well and we're ahead of schedule for this first quarter because of that great result yesterday."

Massive

Brown presided over one of the biggest days in Hull's history when he led them to play-off glory against Bristol City at Wembley last May as Dean Windass' wonder goal sent the Tigers into the Premier League.

But Brown feels that this weekend's win might just have surpassed that result as the biggest in the club's history.

"It's massive," he concluded.

"Obviously there were some fantastic games and some fantastic results last season, none more so than the 1-0 win at Wembley.

"But to travel to three venues at Blackburn, Newcastle and now the Emirates, it's obviously the best result of our season so far - and probably in Hull's history."