Hull boss Phil Brown admits guiding the club to a first Wembley appearance and to the brink of the Premier League is the pinnacle of his football career.

The Tigers will face Bristol City in the Championship play-off final on May 24 for the right to join West Brom and Stoke in the top flight next season after completing a 6-1 aggregate win over Watford in the semi-finals.

Goals from Nick Barmby, Caleb Folan, Richard Garcia and Nathan Doyle completed a comeback over Adrian Boothroyd's side in the second leg and secured a 4-1 victory after Darius Henderson's opener had briefly stunned a packed KC Stadium.

Promotion would represent an incredible turnaround for Brown's men, who finished last season fourth from bottom, and the 48-year-old is well aware of the magnitude of what has been achieved over the last 12 months.

"As a coach and a manager obviously it is a massive high," said Brown.

"As a player I've played at Wembley and been involved in play-offs and promotions, but nothing tops this. It means a lot to everyone."

It was Barmby's 43rd-minute close-range header which swung the tie firmly back in Hull's favour and cancelled out Henderson's 12th-minute opener.

Brown was full of praise for the integral part the 34-year-old former England international has played.

Brown added: "I thought Watford catered for him very well in the first 35 minutes, but I call him the maestro. He's a little wizard, he's a genius with the football.

"A lot of players at this football club during the course of this season - Nick Barmby being one of them - have been written off by a lot of individuals, but he's responded again."

The attention now switches to Wembley a week on Saturday as two sides described by Brown as "outsiders" prepare to clash.

"It's been a very unusual season," observed Brown.

"The hacks out there have all written that anybody can beat anybody and that has been the case.

"Bristol City have defied everyone this year and rightly so. There's a fantastic team spirit at Bristol City and it's going to have to be broken in 90 minutes of football if we possibly can.

"We might have surprised one or two, but I've looked at the experience that we've got in the team and there's one or two players who have been there, seen it and done it and maybe they want to sample it again.

"There's been a lot of drive and determination as a collective and we've got one more game to go now."

Boothroyd will now instigate a minor squad overhaul at Vicarage Road and reassess the team's style of football in light of his side's dismal form since the turn of the year.

"I think we need to change around a few things and certainly need to shift one or two people out and I think we need to change the way we play," said Boothroyd.

"I thought in the last two games some of the football we have played has been outstanding, but without the end product.

"Overall, the message is that we don't want to go out in the semi-final.

"We've got to make sure that we bounce straight back next season. I won't be sulking and we'll get on with it, we have to.

"I'll pick out the positives from the season and look at what we have to change and I think change is a word we will need to do."

Sporting Life / Eurosport