HULL’S MCCANN CREDITS FERGIE FOR HIS REVIVAL

ON Grant Mccann’s Twitter feed is footage of him scoring for Peterborough to seal victory in the 2011 League One play-off final as manager Darren Ferguson celebrates on the touchline.

A decade on from that 3-0 win over Huddersfield (above) and the pair are going head-to-head in the battle to win promotion from League One.

Mccann’s Hull lead Ferguson and Peterborough in second by three points, while the Ulsterman’s other former club, Doncaster, are also in the mix.

Mccann (below) was Ferguson’s captain at Posh and the Hull boss is quick to praise his part in his own development as a manager.

“He was great for me, Darren,” he said. “I probably played my best football under him, particularly when he first came in.

“We played a diamond, I played at the bottom of it and he gave me a lot of licence to create.

“I learnt a lot off Darren – the way he goes about things on an everyday level, the way he thinks about football, the way he sets his teams up.

“Ultimately, you’ve got to have your own style but it’s important to take little bits off everyone. They say managers are thieves and they’re right.”

Mccann, 40, spent five years with Posh as a player and two as a manager before they sacked him in February 2018, and he still lives in the area. His 15-year-old son Bayley is at their academy and recently made his debut for the Under-18s.

“He’s doing well,” said Mccann. “He came on for the Under-18s the other week, which was really pleasing for us. Peterborough are in the mix, Doncaster are in the mix – it’s good to see and in an ideal world all three of us would go up.”

Hull are the form horse in the race, having won five and drawn one of their last six games ahead of today’s home clash with Gillingham.

Promotion would help erase the painful memory of last season’s relegation when Hull collapsed, taking just six points from their last 20 games.

Mccann is grateful to the owners for sticking with him and says he and the Allam family have a long-term plan for the club.

“I owe a lot to the football club for sticking by me,” he said. “I’m old enough and ugly enough to know if you don’t get results you can end up losing your job.

“We were disappointing last season, what we did wasn’t good enough. You learn from failures and this season we have shown that fight, desire and hunger to get back to where we want to be.”