Since he took over from Neil Warnock in the first week of December 1999 the player-boss has had a real rollercoaster ride of it.

Administration, relegation, play-offs, the death of his second in command, Billy Ayre, and a massive reduction in the club's wage bill, have given the 36-year-old the kind of grounding in soccer management few will have experienced.

But Preece believes he has come through it a wiser man and is enjoying every minute of it.

"I've gone through every sort of emotion over the four years and it's hard to believe I've been in the job so long," he said.

"It's been a really great ride with some really tough times and good ones too.

"Over a length of time like that you know you are going to have your ups and downs but we've had more than our fair share at this club.

"It's been a great learning experience for me and the club is now progressing financially.

"I felt last year we had built a team that could go on and get promoted but we lost a lot of players in the summer.

"Now we have to do it again and feel we are on our way.

"We're putting together a team with a lot of young players that can, potentially, be very important to the club over the next few years.

"But, every victory means more and more, and I get the same buzz from picking up three points as I did the first time.

"I have great feelings for the club and my big ambition is to get us back into Division Two."

Preece's side head for Humberside tomorrow hoping to get back on track after last weekend's disappointing defeat at lowly Macclesfield Town.

Prior to that they'd embarked on an impressive run of four consecutive league wins and hauled themselves to within two points of the play-offs.

It won't be an easy task.

Tomorrow's opponents have slid out of the top three places after picking up only seven points from a possible 21 in recent weeks.

The sequence includes four draws, two defeats and only one victory - against Lincoln City - and in that run they have been despatched from both the FA Cup and the LDV Vans Trophy.

With that in mind boss Peter Taylor has said this week that he may need to 'toughen up' to kick his side out of their mid-season slump.

The game has been re-arranged from March due to both teams making early exits from the FA Cup.

"When the game was brought forward I think Hull thought they could get an advantage on the other teams at the top and pull a few points clear," added Preece.

"Even so, a win would put them into the top two again.

"But we have our own agenda. We can go eighth or ninth if we win and that would give us a massive boost.

"We're on a good run and they are stuttering a bit but it won't be long before they are back as they have a lot of quality in their squad."

Preece reports a clean bill of health personnel-wise with only Simon Whaley and Harpal Singh missing.

And he's hoping that last week's performance was a blip and the club's recent improved away form can continue.

"Against Macclesfield we weren't tuned in like we had been for our other games," he said.

"None of the energy, commitment and desire was there and we need to get it back.

"We've talked about it quite a lot in training this week and we know we'll have to be focused at Hull because we could have a tough afternoon ahead."