Town boss Paul Jewell says he has a lot of respect for Hull City’s head of football operations Adam Pearson, who was his chairman during his time as manager at Derby.
Despite their recent disagreement over the share of Jimmy Bullard’s wages that the Blues are paying, Jewell says he enjoyed working with the Hull chief: "There’s a bit of a misconception that I knew him before I went to Derby but I’d never met him.
"He’s a top, top class fella to work for and we both worked our tails off at Derby, but it just didn’t happen for whatever reason.
"I’ve got a lot of time for Adam, a lot of respect, he’s a good operator. We had a great working relationship, but it just didn’t happen on the pitch for us.
"He’s one of the best around. He’s a football man, loves his football, he’s passionate, a hard worker and backed me all the time at Derby. I’ve got nothing but respect for Adam.”
This afternoon Jewell’s Town face a Hull side managed by Nigel Pearson, who he says has started to instil his ideas into his team in recent months: "Normally when you go in as a manager it takes a while to get over [what you’re trying to do].
"I think the relegation hangover can last quite a while and I think sometimes the fans can take a while to get used to the Championship because they are used to the Premier League and the razzmatazz that goes with it and the Championship is a lot more low key.
"I think the manager’s doing a good job there and they’ve got some good players, so it’s not going to be easy. They’re just taking a little bit of time to adjust to life outside the Premier League.”