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In an exclusive interview, the club icon looks back on a famous episode at Manchester City and outlines what Hull City must do to preserve their Premier League status this season.

When Hull City won the play-off final and reached the Premier League 18 years ago, Dean Windass was the main man.

Windass scored a stunning volley for his hometown club to beat Bristol City at Wembley, and then went on to be part of the squad that stepped into the top flight for the 2008-09 season.

Hull were widely expected to go straight back down, but they stunned everybody by winning six of their opening nine matches – after beginning with a victory over Fulham, they also won away at Newcastle, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.

There has been a sense of history repeating itself in the early weeks of the current campaign. After beating Middlesbrough in May’s play-off final, the Tigers defeated Manchester United in their first game back in the Premier League, then followed it up with a win at Coventry City to make it six points from six before this Saturday’s home fixture against Aston Villa.

“The best thing you can do is play a top team at home in the first game,” Windass told FFT. “Everyone starts with a clean slate, but nobody expected Hull City to win.

“The pressure was on Man U, because they didn’t really know what Hull City were about. I was at the game and Man U were very poor – you could see they were still trying to gel with Youri Tielemans and their new signings.

“To begin like that was fantastic. I knew Coventry would be a tougher match, but they got through it and won 1-0.

“But my advice to Hull City fans, and all my mates when I see them at the gym, is that it’s a long season. Villa will be a difficult test – every game in the Premier League is a difficult test.

“When I went up with Bradford, I remember Paul Jewell saying to us, ‘If we finish fourth from bottom in the Premier League this year, it’s a massive achievement. Anything above that is a bonus, and we’ve got to win the majority of our home games’.

“I know Lewie Coyle, Oli McBurnie and Matt Crooks there now, and from what I’ve heard from the outside as a supporter, they’ve got a good dressing room.

“They’ve signed a lot of players, but price tags don’t matter – they’re not proven Premier League players, so they are going to find it hard.

“But Stuart McCall used to say at Bradford, ‘We’ve got a good dressing room, we’ve got a good chance of staying up’.”

Bradford did stay up in their first Premier League season, and Hull managed the same in 2008-09, leading to Phil Brown taking a microphone and singing to the supporters on the pitch.

Windass spent the second half of that campaign on loan at Oldham – by then 39, his opportunities in the Premier League had become limited – but he saw enough to know that the Tigers’ togetherness was a major factor in their survival that year.

That unity was put under strain by a bad run of form and then a 5-1 defeat at Manchester City on Boxing Day. Hull were 4-0 down at half-time, and Brown reacted by keeping the players on the pitch during the interval and delivering his dressing-down in front of the travelling fans.

There may have been a feeling in some quarters that the manager lost the dressing room with that decision, but Windass does not believe that happened. He was taken off at half-time and it proved to be his final appearance for the club, yet the squad remained together and Hull eventually survived.

“He kept us out on the pitch, and that was his decision,” said Windass. “He’d given us Christmas Day off because it was a Boxing Day game, and we were fifth in the table, something like that, I can’t remember.

“You’re playing Man City – Robinho was playing for them, Vincent Kompany as well – they had a decent team. Sometimes you put your hands up and accept you’re being beaten by a quality side, and what Phil did was his choice.

“It didn’t damage the dressing room. The lads stayed together. I was coming towards the end of my career anyway, and I knew I wouldn’t be playing much – they’d bring me on now and then.

“Phil got the last laugh by singing on the pitch and keeping us up, and we had a good dressing room.

“We had George Boateng, Paul McShane, Ian Ashbee, Nick Barmby – good professionals. Whatever division you’re in, if you’ve got a good dressing room, you’ve got a great chance of success.”