Hull City manager Steve Bruce has played down his spat with Sunderland boss Gus Poyet during Tuesday’s 1-1 draw between the two relegation candidates.

However, the Tigers boss has admitted he had been “stupid” for clashing with the Uruguayan.

Poyet was furious that Jack Rodwell had been booked for diving when he thought his side should have been awarded a penalty and was sent to the stands after kicking a drinks cool box.

The two managers then appeared to share a few words, with assistant referee Stuart Burt having to keep them apart.

Bruce admitted afterwards: “If I’m being honest I don’t know what I’m supposed to have done. We all do stupid things.

“We’ll wake up to stupid headlines, but to be fair it was handbags. I think Gus had seen it differently, but Jack Rodwell had dived to gain an advantage.

“By his reaction to that he must have seen it the other way. We’ll both regret it in the morning and we’ll get on with our lives.”

The incident livened up a tight game that was played on a difficult pitch but Hull thought they had done enough to secure all three points as they led for more than an hour thanks to Dame N’Doye’s early opener.

Rodwell headed the Black Cats level in the 77th minute to leave the Tigers five points clear of the bottom three, one point better off than Sunderland.

Hull are 3.03 to win their next match at Leicester City on 14th March while the Foxes are 2.20 to come out on top.