The Tigers will contest the world’s richest game of football next Saturday
Regan Slater celebrates victory on the shoulders of Matt Crooks at The Den(Image: Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
It’s almost 2am in Greenwich, having just got back from The Den, which was being locked up, the gates closed, and one lone steward shouting ‘good luck at Wembley’. Hull City had come into the Lions’ Den, brushed them aside and dominantly roared into the Championship play-off final on Saturday week. A place in the Premier League, now just one game away.
Surviving on nothing but a couple of bits of toast at about half 10 on Monday morning, and the pure adrenaline that Hull City Association Football Club have created, sleep was almost impossible. The excitement, pride and sheer happiness were incredible.
For Hull City and their supporters, it’s a night you don’t want to end, and it’s ‘only’ a semi-final. The Tigers still have one hell of an assignment ahead of them on Saturday week, but for now, that can wait.
Let’s enjoy the moment, and the next few days of what will be a magical build-up, the stuff of dreams once again. For those lucky enough to have seen City’s previous two final wins at Wembley, this may be another one to remember, but for legions of others, this may be their first.
Sergej Jakirovic’s squad have given their adoring public a couple of unforgettable days in the past week. For most clubs, days like the final day success over Norwich City, and then Monday night at Millwall, don’t come around too often. You have to cherish them, revel in them, because they make up for all the low days, the sacrifice, the 12:30 kick-offs in Swansea, the drubbing at West Brom back in March, losing at Bramall Lane. Relegations, financial struggles, issues with former owners, moments like this are why we do it, and why we keep coming back for more. It’s a rite of passage, a way of life. It’s in our soul, and we can’t get enough.
Nights like this are why.
This was not supposed to happen. Hull City were relegation fodder, almost disregarded as an entity. From the start of the season, to kick-off in the semi-final second leg at The Den, everybody had written off this football club, almost in the same way as the great city of Hull is always written off.
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Hull City might not do things the easy way, but you write them off at your peril. Monday night proved that even in a hostile environment, Millwall fans, frothing at the mouth, venting their vile abuse at Kyle Joseph, being carried off the pitch, having been forced to pick up pieces of his ankle from across South London, they rose above it.
And rise above it they did in some style. After a resolute first half, City dominated the second and were worthy winners. In many ways, it was fitting that Mo Belloumi, with all the injury troubles of his Tigers career, should score and create the goals that took the club back to Wembley after 10 years.
A team of misfits, some would say, a group of players thrown together under different managers, varying styles, but with one common goal: leading this club back to the Premier League. Their heart, desire, grit and determination as strong as you could wish to see. A group of proud, hardworking men led by a man already written into club folklore, under an owner who finally gets the day he has long craved.
City have the promised land in their sights, but for now, those supporters can revel in the fact that they have a little over 10 days to prepare for a trip to Wembley. Their club back on big stage, in front of the world, and a chance to deliver the impossible dream, again.
Here’s to you, Hull City, you adoringly bonkers, yet absolutely wonderful football club. We’ll see you on Wembley Way next weekend.
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