Publicity hungry Phil Brown has been a dead man walking ever since Adam Pearson came back to Hull

By David Anderson in Mirror Football Blog

Published 13:06 15/03/10

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By David Anderson

When Adam Pearson succeeded Paul Duffen as Hull chairman five months ago, Phil Brown became a dead man walking.

And today his final appeal was rejected as Pearson wielded the axe on the most successful manager in Tigers' history.

Phil Brown sacked by Hull - exclusive  

Brown knew this day would come the moment Duffen, his staunchest ally, left the KC Stadium and he had been on borrowed time ever since.

He has paid the price for being unable to lift Hull out of the relegation zone and Saturday's last-gasp defeat to Arsenal left them three points below the safety line.

Brown had presided over just one win in Hull's last 15 league games and Pearson felt a change was needed to give the Tigers a chance of survival.

Hull, who have not won away this season, face fellow strugglers Portsmouth on Saturday in a must-win clash at Fratton Park and Pearson hopes the change in the dressing room will have the desired effect.

But beneath the veneer of results, it is clear that Brown has been sacked as much because of his style as his lack of substance.

Brown's huge ego never sat well with Pearson and the down-to-earth football executive, who considered sacking him when he took over, disliked his love of the limelight.

He was no fan of his publicity stunts, like his half-time team talk on the pitch at Eastlands last season or him grabbing the microphone and singing to the Hull fans when they stayed up on the final day of last season.

One of Pearson's first acts when he gave Brown his final warning was to tell him to ditch his trademark headset and tone down his antics.

Brown, 50, also reduced his media profile and for a time the changes worked as Hull took eight points from 12 during November to climb out of trouble to 14th.

But Brown could not maintain this run and from that point he managed just eight points.

What finally finished Brown off were two events on either side of the country inside the space of 24 hours.

First Hull were hammered 5-1 at Goodison Park eight days ago to slip back into the bottom three.

Then the following day came WI-gate as Nicky Barmby and Jimmy Bullard brawled in front of terrified pensioners underneath the Humber Bridge.

Brown says sorry to WI after Hull duo's public brawl  

That was it as far as Pearson and owner Russell Bartlett were concerned and Saturday's stoppage-time defeat to Arsenal just confirmed their belief that he had to go.

Bartlett felt he deserved better for his huge investment and the club's wage bill is understood to be around £39million, while 15 months ago they smashed their transfer record to sign Bullard in a £5million deal.

Brown must have known the axe was about to fall and used his programme notes on Saturday to make one last appeal to Pearson and Bartlett.

He spoke of the "need for perspective" on how far the club had come under him, reminding everyone that they were fighting to stay in the Championship when he took over in January 2007.

He kept them up that season, won promotion to the top flight the following year - for the first time in the club's history - and then kept them up last season on the final day.

But he could not pull another rabbit out of the hat and one of football's great mavericks has gone.

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