Former Hull defender Michael Turner has denied Tigers boss Phil Brown lost the respect of his squad with his on-field dressing down of the team at Manchester City last season. Some critics have claimed that was a turning point in the Tigers' season, with a dismal second half of the campaign following and relegation only avoided on the very last day.

But Turner, who is now at Sunderland,, claims the players accepted the events of last December.

He told the Daily Mail: "There's no way he lost the dressing room. I'm not sure it actually had that much of an impact on the dressing room. The week before we'd lost badly to Sunderland, and we were taking another tonking.

"I know how I felt that day, dazed. We were 4-0 down. I wasn't thinking: "What the hell's he doing keeping us on the pitch?" I was more worried about what the hell had just happened.

"I had my head between my knees. I can hardly remember what the manager said. There probably was a bit of bitching about it but Phil Brown's the manager and the players respected that. He makes the decisions. There's no way he lost the dressing room.

"We were a team that was new to the Premier League and you get swings in form like that. We started well but then we struggled, and yet did enough to stay up. Phil Brown's a good coach and he was a good manager for me."