Brown uses self-promotion to rise from humble origins

Not so long ago, a top-flight chairman looking for a new manager would scour the divisions below to find one. It is how George Graham, Ron Atkinson and Howard Kendall got their chance. Not any more. Nineteen British and Irish coaches managed in the Premier League last season. Just one was plucked from the Football League, David Moyes, whom Everton recruited from Preston six years ago.

Five were given their top-flight debut after impressing in international management (Mark Hughes, Lawrie Sanchez, Alex McLeish), European competition (Alex Ferguson) or overseas (Roy Hodgson). Three were the incumbent assistant manager (Sammy Lee, Chris Hutchings when with Bradford, Harry Redknapp when at West Ham). Another was a player of international standing already at the club (Gareth Southgate). The remaining nine first reached the elite by gaining promotion. For most budding domestic managers it is the easiest, almost the only, way into the Premier League.

That was the prize for Gary Johnson and Phil Brown yesterday. Johnson said beforehand that Graham Taylor (who himself reached the elite by winning promotion with Watford) had told him: "To manage in the Premier League you may have to take a team into it". Johnson has never been linked with a Premier League job, yet he has won three promotions, lifting himself from the Conference to the Championship via Yeovil and Bristol City, and impressed as manager of Latvia.

Brown spent more than a decade as Sam Allardyce's right-hand man, at Blackpool and Bolton, before branching out on his own at Derby. There the job was quickly made impossible when Grzegorz Rasiak, County'sleading scorer, was sold to Spurs 10 minutes before midnight on the last day of the transfer deadline. Brown's team foundered and he was sacked.

Brown got a second chance after a successful spell as the caretaker-manager at Hull following the departure of Phil Parkinson, whose assistant he had been, in December 2006. This time, backed by the board, he flourished.

So yesterday afternoon these two, the 48-year-old Geordie and the 52-year-old East Anglian, stood on the brink not just of their technical area but also of a rare shot at glory.

Both spent the entire match cajoling their players and, in Brown's case, berating the officials. Johnson was the more composed. He used to struggle to control his anger, but by working with a sports psychologist he learned to control his emotions.

That may be fortunate, because he had to endure an afternoon of unremitting frustration. He lost Jamie McCombe, his centre-back, to illness before the game and his right-back, Bradley Orr, to concussion during the first half. His team did not get going in that period, and when they did, in the second, clear chances proved elusive.

Johnson went for it, putting on Ivan Sproule, then Darren Byfield, and going to 3-4-3. Bristol City, guilty of overplaying for the first hour, finally put Hull under pressure but the Tigers defended with a tenacity they will have to repeat for nine long months next season.

At the final whistle, as Brown hugged his staff, Johnson waitedpatiently to congratulate him. Then he went to his team. Brown matched Johnson's dignity, consoling his dejected opponents.

He has a summer of tough decisions ahead of him. Historysuggests Brown will have to let many of yesterday's heroes go, or at least consign them to the margins, if Hull are to survive. Dean Windass could be among the casualties. But being a successful manager is about taking ruthless decisions. It is how the likes of Bill Shankly, Don Revie, Brian Clough and Terry Venables flourished. That quartet also reached the top flight only by taking a team into it.

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