Returning guest columnist Simon Harris delivers his views on Hull City and their last day Premiership survival. Perhaps just a bitter supporter or maybe an honest football fan. You decide…
So we have reached the end of another dramatic season of football in England. At the climax of the last two seasons, I have experienced utter heartbreak as a football fan. On 24th May 2008, I travelled to Wembley to see my beloved local team Bristol City come up against Hull City for the right to play in the Premier League. On that day, Bristol City dominated for long periods, hemming Hull back in their own box, but were never able to find a breakthrough. In truth, it was a freak wonder-strike from Dean Windass which gave Hull that all-important first goal to send them into the Premiership. Needless to say it was a devastating end to such a promising and surprising season for Bristol City, and to this day it is the most heartbroken I have been at the result of any football match.
This season, Bristol City have been stuck in the mid-table of the Championship and never really looked like challenging for the play-offs, except for a brief surge up the table at the start of 2009. Instead, it was the other team who I support that were involved in end-of-season drama. Whereas Bristol City have and always will be my number one team, I have always had a soft spot for Newcastle ever since I began to support them after Alan Shearer’s brilliant performances at Euro 96.
I have spoken about Newcastle in the past, and have no complaints that they were relegated this year- as Shearer stated himself, over the 38 games, they quite simply have not been good enough. This is through no real fault of the managers this season, more just an accumulation of everything that has gone wrong at the club over the past 5 years. Inevitably, they were heading for relegation. What is ironic is that on 24th May 2009, exactly one year on from when they beat Bristol City at Wembley, it was Hull City who survived at Newcastle’s expense.
I think it is perfectly natural for me to feel bitter towards Hull- as a football fan it is horrible to watch the opposing fans celebrate jubilantly whilst you are absolutely devastated. And I have experienced this two years on the bounce now to the same team. Newcastle deserved to go down, but did Hull really deserve to stay up?
This was a side who had picked up just 8 points from a possible 60 after such a promising start to the season. I always thought Hull were punching above their weight whilst they were at the top of the league, because they quite simply do not have enough ‘Premiership players’ in their ranks. Phil Brown put his side’s plummet down the table partly down to bad form, and partly down to bad luck. This amazed me- Hull have had anything but bad luck this season. Let us just consider how they actually accumulated 27 points in their first 18 games in the first place.
The first reason they managed to get so many points on the board is Geovanni. On the opening day of the season, Hull were 1-0 down to Fulham, before a wonder goal from the Brazilian inspired a turnaround. Soon after, they lost 5-0, yes, 5-0, at home to Wigan- a clear sign that they did not really possess enough quality to compete at this level.
Their next win was at Newcastle, whom they were fortunate to be playing at a perfect time- a time when Newcastle’s own fans wanted their side to lose just so that Mike Ashley would sell up. Newcastle’s players had just been in shock after Kevin Keegan’s departure, and their frustration was clear to all when Danny Guthrie inexcusably got himself sent off for a brutal challenge. But Hull were playing them at the perfect time, and hence cruised to a comfortable 3 points.
Impressive wins at Arsenal and Spurs followed for Hull- but on both occasions again, it was an absolutely incredible bolt-from-the-blue strike from Geovanni which won them the games. Normally you see such incredible goals for your club maybe once a season, but Hull had now won 9 points thanks to these quite frankly unbelievable strikes. This wasn’t good football that was beating sides- it was simply one man scoring freak goals. People will say ‘so what- take the best player out of any team and it would make a difference’. However, Geovanni showed no signs of this sort of form from November onwards- a clear sign that perhaps he was not all he had been cracked up to be, and that these wonder-goals he had been scoring were simply moments of random inspiration that will rarely happen again. Yet crucially for Hull, there were just enough of these spectacular strikes to earn some crucial points.
Confidence kept their points tally ticking over, before eventually quality began to become evident, as Hull went 6 games without a win through November. Then came another crucial three points- at home to Middlesbrough. Boro were 1-0 up with 8 minutes to go, when David Wheater was sent off as a result of giving away a penalty. The penalty decision was a correct one, as Wheater had fouled Geovanni. However, when the original pass had been hoofed forward to the Brazilian, he had been at least two yards offside. Hull got away with it, play continued, and Wheater got sent off just seconds later. The Tigers then went on to claim all three points on that day- imagine the table that we could be looking at now if not for that huge slice of fortune?
Whenever I am playing football, I know when I have had a bad game. I appreciate sometimes that you need a kick up the backside, but as a player you know if you aren’t doing well enough. It is hard enough to take criticism when you know you haven’t been at your best, but what Phil Brown did was truly ridiculous. Let’s not forget that the team they were playing had spent £32m on one player over the summer. I wonder how many Hull City’s that money could have bought? Brown’s team SHOULD have been getting outplayed by a team with the spending power of Manchester City.
If they had been losing 4-0 to a West Brom, then maybe, MAYBE, this was excusable. But humiliating your players for the whole of England to see was quite frankly an idiotic thing to do, and in my opinion was an attempt by Phil Brown to shift the blame to his players as opposed to taking it on his shoulders. He arrogantly claimed after the game that his talk had worked, as they ‘had drawn the second half 1-1’. I don’t think that worked Phil, you lost the game 5-1. And you just damaged your players’ confidence in the worst way possible. The one player who had given Hull a spark, Geovanni, no longer looked interested after that moment.
Hull didn’t win again until March- their final win in the Premiership this season. By this time their fans were already becoming concerned about their plight, but Phil Brown continually decided to deny they were in trouble. The win at Fulham was most certainly fortunate- they were absolutely battered for 92 minutes, before Manucho struck a winner in the 93rd minute with their only shot on target in the match. These were three absolutely massive points for the club, and once again three largely fortuitous points.
The Tigers didn’t win again. Phil Brown put it down to bad luck. This was not the case- he was just looking for excuses as to why his side had fallen down the table so fast. The difference was they weren’t having good luck. It wasn’t that they were having bad luck- they just weren’t having the incredible good fortune that their early season scores had been a result of.
There is an old cliché that luck evens itself out over a season. I really don’t believe this at all. It maybe evens itself out over the space of 3 or 4 seasons, but not over the same season. For example, Bristol City last year had a lot of luck in getting to Wembley, winning many a game that they did not deserve to, whereas this year was the complete opposite.
Newcastle had appalling luck all year. Hull had incredibly good luck for the majority of it. And this was still evident on the penultimate weekend of the season, when Newcastle were denied the point that would have kept them in the league when Howard Webb bizarrely ruled out Mark Viduka’s header against Fulham. Simulaneously, Hull’s equaliser at Bolton came as a result of a truly horrendous error from Danny Shittu, virtually leaving the goal on a plate for Craig Fagan. When did Newcastle ever get that sort of opportunity to score a goal? Never. Yes, Hull were denied all three points by one great save from Jussi Jaaskelainen, but they were dead and buried in this game until the error from Shittu.
I don’t want to turn this into a report to defend Newcastle, because they fully deserved to go down. I can have no complaints about that. But Hull City survived this year on luck, and luck alone. I personally found Phil Brown’s celebrations on Sunday embarrassing. He serenaded his fans, pretending that his side, who had picked up an absolutely pathetic 8 points from 20 games, had nothing to worry about.
Call me bitter, call me what you like, but the truth is his side has fortuitously got success against my sides two years on the bounce. But stats don’t lie. Hull won just 1 game out of their last 22 in the Premier League this season, and they were incredibly fortunate to win that one. A similar return over 38 games next year would see them pick up 15 points- certain relegation. Geovanni will not be scoring so many wonder goals next year- who knows if he will even stay at the club after his decline in form, attitude and confidence.
They may have survived by the very skin of their teeth this year, but in my opinion Hull are the worst side in the existence of the Premier League to have survived in it. They are a side in massive trouble, who will go into next season worrying about how poorly they ended this one. I cannot see any way whatsoever how they can possibly survive again. They should enjoy the celebrations whilst they last, for what surely awaits next season is a campaign of doom and misery.
Bookmark with:
Comments (28)
Subscribe to this comment's feed...
The whole thing is, the club and fans were going to settle for 17th place at the start of the season. We spent less than any other club, and had 3 players who played regularly who had come all the way from the bottom division and a number of others who had never played above Championship level. So achieving 17th was objective reached for us.
We had a bad end to the season. Stoke had a bad start. but we both, to the pundits surprise, survuved. A pity for some of the Premier League snobs who think certain clubs aren't worthy. Well, tough. Hull City has the potential to be much larger and if the stadium is expanded people will see this. Over 19,000 of the 21,500 season tickets were renewed before we knew we had survived. Many games could have had 10,000 and more in the ground on top of the 24,900 we did have if it were large enough.
-
- -3
-
-
...
-
- +0
-
-
...
-
- +3
-
-
...
-
- -4
-
-
...
He fails to mention all the points lost because of bad luck and bad Refs
-
- -4
-
-
...
-
- +7
-
-
...
Obviously Hull do have some diehard fans but i wonder how many of this clubs great supporters were down at Boothferry Park week in week out when Hull were languishing at the bottom of League Two in the late 90's? I'm sure many of Hulls current avid fans have or used to have a Premiership/Division One team they supported as a child when Hull were another bit-part lower league northern club?
-
- +10
-
-
...
-
- +8
-
-
...
Shots on Target: 6-4
Shots off Target: 8-7
Shots Blocked: 5-3
Corners: 2-1
Possession: 50.9-49.1
And perhaps most significantly, Territorial advantage: 60.8-39.2
When you are up in so many of the stats, I think it can be considered that you certainly made more of the running at least, and probably deserved to win... but the one crucial stat is goals scored. But I do agree entirely with what Eddie said.
-
- +9
-
-
...
It is clear to see that he is not defending the shambles that was Newcastle Utd, but is merely stating that Hull are a team which can count themselves extremely fortunate to be in the position they are in. I think it is hard to argue against this perspective. Hull had an incredible start to Premier League life, having somewhat fortuitously scraped past Bristol City at the Championship Play-Off Final a few months previously, thanks to a Windass wondergoal. It seems Geovanni continued this trend; he could have had MOTD's 'Goal Of the Month' to himself in Hull's first few games.
But from December onwards, there is no defending it, Hull showed that they really aren't Premier League standard. And this is not meant as a derisory comment - look at their squad - it's just not made up of Premier League names. They started performing as their lack of quality really suggested - 1 win in 22. And that win was also highly fortuitous, against a Fulham side that battered them for 90mins.
No doubt, it is in an incredible achievement that they still have Premier League status, but I think that a lot of people's gripes with Hull is that Phil Brown has somehow tried to claim that they deserve to be there in terms of their general performances and quality. They had a huge chunk of good fortune at the start of the season and have been degrading ever since, and for Phil Brown to arrogantly claim that he has worked wonders and Hull have been brilliant etc. has riled many football fans that I know. Again, you can't fault Hull's effort and fighting spirit, but Phil Brown is living in some sort of dream-state to think that his side were not highly fortunate to escape relegation. I actually do think Phil Brown is part of the reason why a lot of people dislike Hull. I do agree with the author of this piece that Hull are the worst team to have avoided relegation from the Premiership.
For the record; this 'second team' chat -- I can't believe so-called football fans are slating others for having a 'second team'. Sure, I understand that you are 'one team til you die', and I totally agree with that. This is the case with me; I support my hometown club irrespective of any outside factors. However, I am a FOOTBALL fan - which means not only do I love my hometown club, I also love football as a whole. I love to see the game played well. Even though I support a team outside of the Premier League, I still watch as much of the Premiership as I can, simply because there's great football on view. And it's then only natural to begin to appreciate certain players or certain teams. I imagine Arsenal are a good case-and-point - people like their style of football, and even as a so-called neutral watching an Arsenal match, they may still want Arsenal to win, simply because they play good football. Thus you have this 'second team' idea coming in. Again, we can cite the Champions League Final, and how despite Barcelona being a non-English club, many wanted them to win as they played the better football.
I can totally understand how - in the case of this author - having supported England in Euro 96, a fan of football in general could appreciate how well Alan Shearer performed, and thus took a liking to his club side, Newcastle Utd. Particularly if your local team is languishing miles down the Football League. So yeh, having a 'second team' doesn't make you any less loyal to your hometown team, it only means that you also take interest in another side.
-
- +10
-
-
...
-
- +9
-
-
...
-
- +4
-
-
...
And if you were a true die-hard Hull fan, perhaps you would have realised that Hull played Newcastle FOUR times this season actually, winning twice and drawing twice, because the FA Cup game went to a replay.
-
- +7
-
-
It brings joy to my heart that Hull City have brought despair to your guest columnist not once, but twice consecutively.
Maybe the lesson to be learned is that instead of hating the quality/luck of the team that has soundly rounded on you twice now, is to examine the reasons why you'd support a team because one of their players did well on the international scene. Messi did well last night, perhaps we should all support Argentina now?
Real football fans see tourist supporters like you as the scourge of the modern game.