´We got away with that´, says Phelan

Hull City manager Mike Phelan admitted his cautious approach was to blame for his side’s poor first-half showing, as they drew 1-1 with West Brom at the KCOM Stadium.

The visitors led at the break through Gareth McAuley’s header, with Hull failing to produce a single shot on goal in the opening 45 minutes.

However, Phelan’s men improved after the restart and deservedly levelled through Michael Dawson, and their manager later took responsibility for the slow start.

“I’m always pleased with that group because of their endeavour,” he told a post-match news conference. “The first half was down to me being a bit cautious. I thought it was important to make sure we were in the game.

“We’ve been value for money, though, and showed real endeavour to come from a goal down. I thought we had the better of the second half as far as our play went.

“I could be sitting here talking about a defeat but we got away with that. We’re still in virgin territory a little bit. We have to concentrate for 96 minutes and get that mentality into our game.”

West Brom manager Tony Pulis gave credit to Hull for their response in the second half, although he felt the hosts had benefited from playing two days earlier last weekend.

“I thought we played really well in the first half and we restricted them a lot, but you have to give them credit in the second,” he told BBC Sport.

“Having said that, we came again and had the best chances. We are playing with more swagger recently.

“We should have created more chances, but we played on Monday [against Burnley] so we are 48 hours behind Hull in terms of preparation.”