Darren Huckerby revealed his derby day despair after returning to the Norwich City starting line-up at Hull on Saturday. The flying winger was back in his familiar position on the left flank at the KC Stadium and delivered the cross that led to his side's fortuitous late equaliser.

Darren Huckerby revealed his derby day despair after returning to the Norwich City starting line-up at Hull on Saturday.

The flying winger was back in his familiar position on the left flank at the KC Stadium and delivered the cross that led to his side's fortuitous late equaliser.

Home midfielder Stuart Elliott might have got the final touch, but that didn't worry Huckerby who just pleased to be back in thick of the action again after being named as a substitute in the home defeat against Ipswich eight days ago.

“I was devastated to be left out,” said Huckerby, who was restricted to a 45-minute run out from the bench in the East Anglian derby.

“I don't pick the team, the gaffer does and I'll abide by his decisions and respect his decisions. But that's two derby games on the trot where I haven't made the starting line-up and I wasn't happy at the time.

“So it goes without saying that I was delighted to be back in the starting line-up today. I don't think I got the ball as much as I should have, but I thought I was dangerous when I got it and it was good to play a part in our goal.

“I crossed the ball in and Macca (Paul McVeigh) got a touch on it. After that I am not really sure what happened. I've got a feeling it was on own goal, but it doesn't matter too much. The important thing was that it ended up in the back of the net.

“Now I am looking forward to building on this, starting against Brighton on Tuesday night.

“We have now got two home games to look forward to in the space of five days - and it's vital we make full use of them.

“The new lads are beginning to settle in now, and we have got Saf (Youssef Safri) back which is a huge bonus for us. Hopefully we can now get the team playing how we know they can.”

Huckerby was the first to admit that Saturday's game had been no classic - and was just happy to have come out of it with a positive result.

“I don't blame the fans for being frustrated because it probably wasn't the most exciting game to watch,” he said. “They got a set-piece goal and didn't want to attack after that.

“They sat back, formed two banks of four in front of us and made it as hard as possible for us to break them down. We just stuck at it and got what we deserved in the end.

“It was a very tough game on a horrendous pitch. We battled well and although we should be creating more than we did I thought we were well worth the draw.

“After being behind for so long we're happy with a point - but we'd would obviously have preferred all three.”