SAINTS manager George Burley has hit out at Hull City for their treatment of Phil Parkinson.

Writing in his exclusive Daily Echo column today, Burley said it was "very sad" to see the former Dell trainee sacked in the wake of Saints' 4-2 success at Hull last weekend.

Amazingly, Parkinson was the EIGHTH managerial casualty in the Championship this season.

Burley wrote: "I said last week before our game at Hull what a good young manager Phil Parkinson was.

"Therefore, it was very sad to see him get the sack on Monday.

"I know that after the brilliant job he did at Colchester Phil had opportunities to go and speak to other clubs but decided to go with Hull.

"Hull paid £400,000 in compensation to Colchester to get him, so you would have thought they would have given him time to show what he can do.

"Five months is not long enough and it was always going to be a difficult season for Hull because they couldn't be expecting to finish in the top six.

"As a manager, you want a fair chance and when you see a manager hasn't got that it's disappointing.

"Being a manager, I believe clubs have got to realise they have got to give them a fair crack of the whip. That's not been the case for Phil.

"It seems to be worse in the Championship than anywhere else.

"Clubs can see a big pot of gold with promotion and it's a very competitive league.

"There's a lot of big clubs in the division and the number of managerial casualties - eight - there have been so far have shown that."

For more of Burley's exclusive column, don't miss today's Daily Echo