TO THOSE outside of his dressing room walls, Nigel Pearson comes across as a quiet man lacking charisma.

It's no surprise then that Hull City are currently pigeon-holed by the same list of adjectives.

Solid, unspectacular, even down right dull at times following the 47-year-old's summer arrival at the KC Stadium, the Tigers have undergone massive changes after an uneasy initiation back into the Championship.

But all along the way, they've got results.

Since Michael O'Connor steered the ball home from the edge of the box to seal victory for the Iron in the last minute of a tight and tense Humber derby in November, the Tigers have quietly climbed the table.

They go into tomorrow's fixture on the back of one defeat in 14 league games, though the fact that half of that run of matches have been draws illustrates just how unspectacular that form has been.

It's more tonic water than champagne football, but when it has lifted City to within touching distance of the top six, it's a tipple that has proved equally as palatable.

"There's been a massive turnaround in fortunes," explains former Tigers defender and current radio pundit Peter Swan.

"They're a lot stronger, much more settled as a team and very hard to beat – as the big clubs have found out recently.

"Building from the back is what Nigel Pearson has done and for me, that's got to be the way to go.

"Obviously being an ex-centre-half, I would say that, but Pearson has done it brilliantly and he's done it at his own pace.

"He's set his stall out to be hard to beat and then to go on from there and try to nick a goal. It's worked.

"The new owners have taken over at the right time for him, so when the transfer window opened, he went and got what we wanted rather than having to wait until the end of the month. He got the players in straight away.

"It's going to be a long process, but he knows that and he's spoken about it. I think the punters respect that it's going to take a bit of time.

"There's definitely been a massive difference from when the two teams last played."

To read about how the Iron can best go about getting another positive result against the Tigers, see a four-page match preview in Friday's Scunthorpe Telegraph.