Delighted Brown

By Tiger Tim
February 13 2009

Phil Brown is happy at the feedback received from the players after spending time in Dubai doing warm weather training. Brown Believes the time away will set Hull up for a positive end to the season."The only way you can measure these warm-weather training camps is by how we perform on Saturday and a lot of people will be looking at that," said Brown.

"But for me, it's not about Saturday, it's about the bigger picture. I remember saying to Adam Pearson when we took the team to Portugal and came back and lost to Leeds on a Tuesday night that it's not about the first game, it's about the bigger picture.

"The bigger picture that year was to survive in the Championship. Last year, the bigger picture was to get into the Play-Offs and get promoted. This year, it is to make sure we stay in the Barclays Premier League.

"The last 12 games of the season will tell us whether the trip has been a success or not.

"But as far as I'm concerned, our last two games have shown a turn-around in fortune and a turn-around in people's belief, mentality and confidence.

"We took the confidence we got from the 0-0 draw with Chelsea to Dubai, had four or five days training in temperatures of 28 degrees and for me, it was a good time of year to do that.

"The feedback from the players has been tremendous. The positivity when the players were collecting their bags at Heathrow was great and there were plenty of smiling faces, even though they had been sat on a plane for six hours."

Freezing temperatures and snow back in the East Riding meant that City's Cottingham training base was out of commission this week and with snow covering the pitches and making them unplayable today, Brown says the Club did the right thing by seeking warmer climes.

"I spoke to my PA who was back at the training ground on Monday and she told me the temperature had gone as low as minus four and then we came back to three or four inches of snow yesterday.

"It was the right decision to go away and the Chairman needs to take full credit for putting his hand in his pocket and allowing us to go across to a beautiful country."

Before flying out to Dubai, there had been talk of City arranging a practice game against one of the local sides.

Although that didn't materialise, Brown was more than satisfied with the work his players got through during their five-day trip.

"Al-Jazira, Al-Wasl and Al-Ain were all champing at the bit trying to get a game against us, but the earliest they could play was on Wednesday night.

"That would have impinged on our preparations for Sheffield United and for me, the most important part of the trip was to come back and make sure we're prepared for whatever comes out of Sheffield United's changing room.

"We had a fairly condensed programme out there. Sunday was all about rest and recuperation after the Chelsea game.

"The work started in earnest on Monday and we had two sessions every day. We didn't get that much time to enjoy the country, but we did enjoy the hotel and the facilities. We'd like to thank the Royal Meridien hotel because the service was fantastic."

With Dubai being renowned as a playground for the rich and famous, Brown was able to meet some well known faces while away, as well as plenty of Tigers fans.

"If you're talking about rich and famous, I did a show-time television programme with Harry Redknapp, Steve Bruce and Peter Reid out there and we had a bit of fun with that.

"We also bumped into Jim Davidson in the hotel. The Chairman and I had half-an-hour of great entertainment from him over coffee one afternoon.

"There are also a number of Hull City ex-pats out in Dubai and they came to watch our training sessions. They enjoyed the experience of getting amongst the lads and casually bumping into them in the hotel.

"We were accessible to a lot of people out there, but that is the beauty of the life we lead. There are fans all over the world wearing their Hull City shirts with pride."