STEVE Bruce insists Hull City's prospects of winning promotion out of the Championship have not suffered any lasting damage, despite losing 1-0 to their nearest rivals Watford at the KC Stadium last night.
City blew a golden chance to open up a seven-point gap as Troy Deeney's wonderful goal settled the automatic promotion showdown four minutes before the break.
Victory means the third-placed Hornets are now back to within just a point of the Tigers and again firmly in contention for second spot with six games remaining.
Bruce will need to rally his deflated side for the visit of Middlesbrough on Saturday, but has seen enough this season to believe his troops will respond quickly.
"It's the job of me and my staff to lift them," he said. "They're disappointed but the one thing they've done all season is bounce back from adversity.
"If we play like we did in the second half then we'll not be far short.
"I've been at the club for eight months and know now that we're not going to do things easy, and I've never done things easy either. If we're going to do it, we're going to do it the hard way.
"Even with six games to go there are still twists and turns in it. We live to fight another day and we're one point ahead going into Saturday.
"We'd have loved to be seven points clear, let's not lie about it, but it's not been our night. We've got to accept it and move on to Middlesbrough on Saturday."
In the most eagerly-anticipated game witnessed in these parts since the Premier League adventure ended in 2010, the Tigers failed to produce a performance to match the occasion.
An attack-minded system, with Gedo, Jay Simpson, George Boyd and Robert Koren all included, lacked balance and invited Watford to capitalise.
David Meyler, missing through suspension, was a telling loss, but Bruce defended his tactical approach.
"With the injuries and the couple of knocks we've had, and obviously Meyler suspended, we just thought we'd go with it at home. It's no more than we've done all season with two strikers.
"We had enough forward-thinking players but we couldn't get the breakthrough.
"Their best player was their goalkeeper and the one bit of quality in the game was their goal. I thought a draw would have been a fair result, but it was two teams evenly matched."
While Bruce had cause to rue a flat night from his side, counterpart Gianfranco Zola was thrilled to see his men blow the automatic promotion race wide open.
Zola said: "We wanted it desperately. I am a very passionate man in football and it meant a lot to me.
"We played some very good football in the first half and scored a very good goal but the game was a rollercoaster. In the second half they built up pressure but our defenders were outstanding.
"It was so emotional towards the end but we came away with three points, so I am very proud."
