Phil Brown has called for the character in his Hull squad to come to the fore during Sunday's Championship play-off semi-final at Watford.The Tigers narrowly missed out on automatic promotion and now head to Vicarage Road for the first leg desperate not to let a remarkable season end in further heartbreak.

Brown helped stave off the threat of relegation last season and has since transformed the fortunes of the club by masterminded a third place finish.

Adrian Boothroyd's out-of-sorts Hornets, who have won one of their last 14 games, now stand between Hull and a trip to Wembley later this month, and Brown can draw on plenty of first-hand experience of the agony and ecstasy of the play-offs, both as a player with Blackpool and Bolton and as a coach with the Trotters.

"Strength of character is now important," said Brown.

"When the going is tough your characters stand up and are counted and I think we've got enough strength of character in our changing room.

"It's never over [in play-offs]. I was beaten 3-0 at home by Bradford [in May 1996 while playing for Blackpool] having beaten Bradford 2-0 at Valley Parade in one play-off.

"I've been to Wembley and been beaten in the final, I've been to Wembley and won in the final.

"I've been to Cardiff and won in the final and been beaten in the semi-final as a coach.

"There's a lot of experience there but what it counts for on Sunday is nothing really. It's all to do with relaxing the players and getting them to focus on the job in hand.

"It's the mindset and brain space of the players that cross the white line that's paramount.

"The job in hand is making sure we've got something to hang on to coming away from Vicarage Road and bringing them back to fortress KC Stadium, which is easier said than done."

Hull will train at Arsenal's London Colney training ground in preparation for the game and Brown admits his players are shaping up well as they bid to bounce back from last Sunday's below-par 1-0 defeat at Ipswich.

"We spent three days away from each other and then we've had them on the training ground the last couple of days and they've been in tremendous form," added Brown.

"They look sharp, they look bright, they look as though they want to play for this football club and play in the play-offs and I can only pick 11 unfortunately."

Brown has hinted winger Richard Garcia and the vastly-experienced Henrik Pedersen could both be involved this weekend after returning to full fitness from shoulder and calf problems respectively.

Jay-Jay Okocha, however, will miss out due to a knee injury, but could return for the second leg at the KC Stadium on Wednesday.

"Richard Garcia and Henrik Pedersen have trained," said Brown.

"Jay-Jay has worked as hard as I've ever seen anybody work with regards to the physio, but he's not trained with the first team so I think he is not going to be available for Sunday."

More Football News from TEAMtalk