Hull City boss Steve Bruce admits a decent FA Cup run has kept his squad players happy.

Bruce says keeping his fringe players onside is a tough task but that the FA Cup run has helped this since promotion from the Championship last season.

He said: "I always want to work with a smallish squad, because no matter what I say, to try to keep them all happy is the most difficult part of management these days.

"People like Abdoulaye Faye, Stephen Quinn and Matty Fryatt, it's difficult to leave them out because of what they've done for me.

"We're in an age when, and the players are intelligent enough to know, if we don't have the squad, you get blown away in this league."