HULL boss Phil Brown claims to have saved the life of a suicidal woman while taking his team for a walk across the Humber Bridge this week.

Under pressure after a dismal start to the season, Brown has varied his training methods since last Saturday’s 6-1 thrashing at Liverpool in the hope of stimulating his team.

Among his ideas was for the squad to go ‘‘looking for clarity’’ by taking in some fresh air from Hull’s iconic landmark – but the manager got more than he bargained for.

‘‘We walked across there yesterday,’’ South Shieldsborn Brown said. ‘‘We saved a girl actually – considering her future, shall we say.’’ The Humber Bridge is a popular focal point for visitors but suicides have not been uncommon since it opened in 1981.

When asked how he managed to dissuade the woman from jumping, Brown spoke of ‘‘sweet talk’’ but then added that he did not really know if she was planning to end her life.

‘‘You don’t know do you, until someone jumps, whether they were actually going to do it,’’ he said.

The woman, who claimed ‘‘she was 40-plus but looked a lot younger than that’’, then ‘‘tootled off back to wherever she came from’’.

■ The FA have accused Arsenal fans of provoking Emmanuel Adebayor after giving the Man City striker a two-match suspended ban and £25,0000 fine for his controversial goal celebration.

Adebayor is now available for City’s Barclays Premier League trip to Aston Villa on Monday as the ban will only be triggered for a similar breach of FA rules before December 2010.

He has already served a three-match suspension for violent conduct in a separate incident during the game against his former club.