FA Cup: Canny Bruce aiming for perfect end to sterling Hull season

Andy Brassell
13 May 2014

Can he shock Arsenal this Saturday?

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Though a lowly league position suggests a poor season at the KC Stadium it has been anything but, says Andy Brassell, and Hull remain capable of pulling off an FA Cup upset...

"Bruce did superbly with other teams’ cast-offs. Tom Huddlestone’s excellent form, especially in the first half of the season, showed just what he could do with a team built around him."

The narrative has, apparently, already been written. Arsenal are to save their season via a first trophy win in nine years by returning to lift the FA Cup; which was also the last trinket to chill the incumbent captain's hands.

To make this assumption is more than recognition of Arsenal's quality and return to health in recent weeks. It completely overlooks the excellent work of Hull City and their manager Steve Bruce in this campaign - a season in which many, including me, assumed that they would be spending this week preparing for a return to the Championship rather than a trip to Wembley.

It might seem unusual to declare a season in which they ended up with an average of less than a point per game as a success, and given the poor quality of the Premier League's bottom third, the argument that they survived through the shortcomings of others is not entirely without merit.

Yet Bruce, always a disarmingly blunt interviewee, was dealing in reality rather than excuses when he talked after the season closer against Everton of the "human" reaction of letting guard drop with safety assured and the cup final to come. So much has gone into a season that has defied expectation in so many ways that a certain drop-off is entirely natural.

That Bruce got them this far is a tribute to his canny management of resources. He has done it largely without a consistent goalscorer, even if the winter purchases of Shane Long and Nikica Jelavic saw them over the line. Their four goals apiece left them as the team's joint top scorers in the Premier League. They also give City something to build with next season.

In this, Bruce did superbly with other teams' cast-offs. Tom Huddlestone's excellent form, especially in the first half of the season, showed just what he could do with a team built around him. His drop in form - concurrent with that of his team - might be explained by the fact he has played more than 30 league games for the first time in four seasons.

Meawnhile Curtis Davies might have wondered, at 29, if his days as Premier League defender were behind him. The last time he featured regularly in the top flight was for Aston Villa - back in 2008-09. It is a significant leap from consistent performances in the Championship with Birmingham to becoming one of the top-flight's more accomplished defenders, but that's what he pulled off. Both Huddlestone and Davies ended up being suggested as England picks, talk that would have inspired disbelief 12 months ago.

Bruce's management of the Tigers' FA Cup campaign has been masterful, too. Hull negotiated the early rounds - no pushovers, we must add, with away trips to Middlesbrough and Southend - with a generous rotation of his preferred XI, with Premier League survival clearly the priority. What he got out of Matty Fryatt, Aaron McLean (who subsequently joined Bradford) and Nick Proschwitz (who ended the campaign on loan at Barnsley) gave City the platform for this historic day.

That Bruce has guided them there despite the long-term injury absences of Robbie Brady in midfield (who started his debut Premier League campaign very brightly indeed), James Chester and Paul McShane is another aspect of his achievement. That he has done it against the background of the Assem Allam naming controversy is little short of outstanding, given that club unrest blew fellow promoted side Cardiff - who spent more heavily last summer - out of the water.

At least Allam has let Bruce get on with managing the team. He has been wise to do so. All the focus may be on Arsène Wenger on Saturday, but his opposite number is more than worthy of note, and few neutrals would begrudge him a trophy to accompany European qualification.

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