Scrappy win warms Bruce's heart

Hull ensured their future remained bright with a 1-0 win over Burnley even if manager Steve Bruce turned his attention towards a history lesson during a dire encounter.

Snow swirled in sub-zero temperatures at Turf Moor as both sides showed little enterprise, but Stephen Quinn produced a clinical left-footed finish in the 66th minute after substitutes Robert Koren and Jay Simpson combined in the game's one true moment of quality.

Bruce conceded the night's live television audience may not have been so thrilled. "I'm sure the Sky people were on demand in switching over to something on the History Channel because certainly by about 60 minutes I was ready to and all," he joked.

He added: "It was never going to be pretty on the type of night that it is and fair play to you lot (journalists) if you've managed to scribble anything down worthy of any note."

Victory ended Hull's dismal run of seven consecutive defeats against their opponents and Bruce was delighted to see his team move up to second in the npower Championship, three points behind leaders Cardiff.

He said: "It was a horrible, hard evening but if you're going to be successful and win leagues then you've got to sometimes come to places like this on a horrible night and get something. That's what we've done."

Having threatened a play-off push during their purple patch around the turn of the year, Burnley look set to play out the season in mid-table following a run of one win in nine.

Top scorer Charlie Austin, who spurned a late chance to level, is responsible for the Clarets only two goals in the past six outings and boss Sean Dyche believes they are being hindered by a fear factor after five without a win on their own patch.

He said: "There's too much fear in the group at the moment, (they are) playing with fear and you can't do that. There are too many playing in a constricted manner and it can come with a big expectations. There's is a big expectation here, a really big expectation of being better, being in the top six and I spoke to the players about that.

"It's not going to go away, they've got to learn to deal with it but still have that freedom to go and play. There's good players out there and they're just not performing at the level that we expect them to - no lack of effort, it's just misguided effort at times."