Hull City No2 Brian Horton insists there was nothing wrong with Phil Brown's public halftime rant at Manchester City last season.

Brown dodged yesterday's pre-match media briefing ahead of his return to the City of Manchester Stadium.

But Horton said: "What Phil did that day will probably stay in the history of football. Is that a bad thing? No, I think that is a good thing.

"I did crazier things than that. I nearly killed one young lad when I threw a Vicks bottle and it hit him right on the temple. When I was a player I also had one of my managers, Alan Mullery, threaten to run us over - and he meant it by the way!

"We ended up winning the last four games to stay up, so he called it good motivation. Phil did not threaten anything like that at Eastlands last year.

"I think the criticism he received after the City thing was unfair. Footballers are big boys. We need characters in the game and Phil is certainly a character.

"You'd have to ask him if he regrets it but all I can say is that you try lots of different things in football to try and turn things around when they are not going your way."