TO HULL AND BACK, AND BACK AGAIN
I WATCHED the Championship play-off final between Hull City and Sheffield Wednesday with more than a passing interest on Saturday.
A moment of genius from midfield powerhouse Mohamed Diame earned the Tigers a place back in the Promised Land, with a return to the Premier League reputed to be worth at least £170 million to the club.
I’ll readily admit that Hull City is a club that wasn’t on my radar until they gained promotion to the top flight for the first time in their history in 2008.
The celebrations from their 1-0 play-off final win over Bristol City thanks to a Dean Windass goal hadn’t even died down when I questioned how they would cope with the top division and asked ‘will Hull take Derby’s unwanted title as the worst team ever in the Premier League?’.
My slightly scathing thoughts on the Tigers prompted one Hull City supporter to send me an e-mail saying I was missing the point entirely.
They had never played at Wembley, waited 104 years to win a chance to compete in the top flight and both happened on the same glorious day.
If they happened to get terrorised by the best players in the world and got hammered 5-0 at Old Trafford or the Emirates, so be it, he mused.
The biggest shock for me was that my column had made it to the north east of England, but that was something that our old friend fate was entirely responsible for.
My new-found Hull City acquaintance visited Wexford in the summer of 2008 for a wedding and was taking a leisurely stroll on Rosslare beach when a bearded beachcomber handed his friend a drawing wrapped in newspaper.
Coincidentally the sheet of newspaper happened to contain my article, which resulted in the unexpected e-mail, and eventually yours truly featuring in ‘Tiger Mag’, the newsletter of the official supporters’ club. A small world indeed.
I penned the original article with no intention to ridicule Hull City as a club or their fans, but just to vocalise how annoying it was that the gap between the have and have-nots was widening with every season, and you won’t get teams like Nottingham Forrest or Derby County winning top flight league titles in England again.
Well, a certain Leicester City definitely proved me wrong on that front!
I’ve kept an eye out for Hull City results ever since and even sent my new cyber-pal a message of goodwill in the run-up to the final. I’m delighted for David Meyler in particular that they’ll be dining out at the top table next season.
However, my allegiance wasn’t completely cut and dried at the weekend as I also have a bit of soft spot for Sheffield Wednesday.
The Owls captured the imagination when they reached the FA Cup and League Cup finals in 1993, only to lose both to Arsenal, and I remember going to see them playing Shelbourne in Tolka Park in 1997 with the exciting Benito Carbone in their ranks, who was soon to be joined by compatriot Paolo Di Canio.
The mad as a box of frogs Di Canio went on to manage the club that are a shackle around my own ankle, Swindon Town, and since my team of choice have had their own fair share of play-off final heartache in recent years I’m well aware that it’s an excrutiatingly painful game to lose.
After a full season of hard slog, blood, sweat and tears you can almost taste and touch that glorious promotion, only to see it agonisingly snatched away from you at the last moment when you’re just about to tighten your grasp, and you have to start all over again the following August.
Eight years ago when I wrote about the Tigers’ historic promotion I said their fans would be taken to Hull and back but this time I’m a believer and maybe, just maybe, they might get to taste a little slice of heaven. The status quo will more than likely return next season, but now is a time for thinking about reaching lofty heights and not stamping on sky-high hopes.
We can all dare to dream.