It’s a brutal game, says Tigers’ boss

Mar 13 2009 by Luke Edwards, The Journal

Phil Brown will not give Newcastle United’s demise a second thought, should they go down this season, but that does not mean he is a Sunderland fan. Chief sports writer Luke Edwards reports

PHIL Brown is a Sand Dancer and, like every young football fan from South Shields, he had a difficult, life-defining choice to make while growing up.

Like so many pockets of the North East, South Shields is the opposite to no man’s land because it belongs to both sides. It is where the enemy share common ground, where red-and-white mix with black-and-white on the street, at work and even at home.

As the manager of Hull City, Brown no longer cares about regional warfare on Ocean Road or tribal loyalties in his home town. For him, the choice is now simple: the only stripes he worries about are Tiger.

When Hull entertain Newcastle United on Saturday, Brown could either revel in beating the club he grew up to hate or he could grieve about the demise of the team he once supported. He will do neither.

If you ask Brown who he supported, he is deliberately vague. At times, in the past, he has claimed Sunderland, at others he has hinted at Newcastle, but none of it will matter at the KC Stadium this weekend.

“I’m an employee of Hull City Football Club and that’s all that concerns me,” he said. “There is no room for sentiment in football, none at all.

“All I’m worried about is trying to beat Newcastle United and I don’t care about their position in the table or whether they are struggling.

“At the end of the season, I might have a look at the table and see where they are, but ultimately we always knew there were going to be three teams who went down and three sets of supporters who were going to be hugely disappointed.

“I’ll have a glass of champagne with the ones who stay up and I’ll send my commiseration to those who go down. That’s just the way it is, it’s a brutal game sometimes, but I certainly won’t give Newcastle’s problems a second thought if we beat them.

“I’m from the North East, but when you’re involved in football, it doesn’t matter where you grew up, or which team you supported when you were a kid, none of it matters any more.”

Brown has already masterminded two wins over the Magpies this season, one in the Premier League and one in the FA Cup, but it is this next clash which has the most riding on it.