Amongst the games that didn’t make it are an FA Cup Quarter Final victory, our first since 1930, a League Cup semi-final win over Manchester United, three wins over Liverpool in the Premier League, Dean Windass’s first City hat-trick in 13 years, Jon Parkin’s televised brace against Sheffield Wednesday, the opening game win over Hartlepool on Boxing Day 2002 and one of my favourite late winners ever – Ian Ashbee’s towering header against Crystal Palace to keep automatic promotion hopes alive in 2008.
15- Hull City 2 Leeds United 0 – 29/12/2012
Steve Bruce’s first season had many highlights and the win at Elland Road was one of them. It was topped off by City doing the double over Leeds with this outstanding team performance. Corry Evans and David Meyler beautifully finished off lovely moves and the two-goal deficit was the least City deserved.
14- Hull City 2 Swansea City 0 – 07/08/2010
This is more memorable for a moment than the game. The newly relegated Tigers went into the game after a tumultuous summer (a now overly familiar situation) and stunned Swansea with one of the best debut goals I can remember as John Bostock, on loan from Tottenham, unleashed an unstoppable shot from 30 yards. Ian Ashbee put the cap on an impressive win which proved a very false dawn. City were in the bottom three by November. We eventually recovered and finished 11th after the Allams bought the club from Russell Bartlett. Swansea won the play-off final and have been a Premier League club ever since – most recently at our expense.
13- Hull City 3 Everton 2 – 25/11/2009
November 2009 was the month Jimmy Bullard returned from injury suffered on his debut at West Ham and briefly sparked City’s season into life. Very briefly. Though after beating Stoke and drawing with West Ham at home, the latter with ten men, he was left out for a midweek game with Everton. That wasn’t a problem as Stephen Hunt and Dean Marney struck either side of an Andy Dawson free kick to give City a 3-0 lead in half an hour. Kamil Zayatte’s weekly own goal and a penalty from Louis Saha – conceded by Zayatte – made it 3-2 but City held on for a first win against Everton since 1952.
12- Hull City 3 Burnley 0 – 26/12/2015
The promotion season of 2015/16 saw City win a lot of games but most unremarkably. We tonked Middlesbrough in a top of the table game in November and then did the same to our “bogey team” Burnley on Boxing Day. Jake Livermore opened the scoring, Abel Hernandez cut in from the right wing to curl in a beauty and Sam Clucas knocked in a third in a very impressive win. Despite being top going into March, we’d fall away and need the play-offs while Burnley ran away with the league.
11- Hull City 2 Leicester City 1 – 03/12/2011
Just two and a half weeks after Nigel Pearson left City to re-join Leicester, the Foxes were the visitors at the KC Stadium in the feature match on ITV’s Championship highlights show (try and get “What a beautiful day…” out of your head now.) Matty Fryatt gave City the lead from the penalty spot after Matt Mills fouled Aaron McLean and was sent off. Paul Konchesky equalised with a daisy cutter and a frustrating second half ensued but revenge was gained sweetly when Robert Koren hit an absolute beauty with his left foot in the dying minutes.
10- Hull City 2 AS Trencin 1 – 07/08/2014
When the KC Stadium opened in 2002, the chances of it hosting European football came down to the possibility of the Anglo-Italian cup returning only for Serie C and D sides or the FA offering an Intertoto Cup spot for sides whose name has no letters you can colour in. Regardless of how aggrieved you feel that City’s run in Europe was too short, the fact that we hosted a Europa League tie, having qualified as runners-up in the FA Cup is still remarkable to me. Goals from Ahmed Elmohamady and Sone Aluko gave City a 2-1 aggregate win after a 0-0 draw in Slovakia but the game was less relevant than the occasion.
09- Hull City 4 Oxford United 2 – 17/01/2004
The first truly outstanding game at the KC Stadium was a top of the table clash in the third division. Oxford would eventually fall-out of the promotion picture but were formidable foes going into the game. City swept them aside with a fantastic second half performance in a game that was 0-0 for nearly an hour. Ben Burgess curled in a sumptuous goal after a brilliant Stuart Elliott dribble and Danny Allsopp scored twice after lovely link-ups on the edge of the box. Steve Basham and ex-Tiger Matt Bound scored for Oxford either side of an own-goal by current City assistant manager Andy Crosby that sealed the win.
08- Hull City 6 Tranmere Rovers 1 – 18/12/2004
A ridiculous game best remembered for Tranmere emerging for the second half with City-great Theo Whitmore in goal. Their keeper Achterberg was hurt in a challenge with Stuart Elliott and sub Howart was injured trying to stop Ian Ashbee opening the scoring. The glee was palpable at the KC as Theo went in goal with no-one knowing how it would turn out but certain it was going to be a “car crash”. Stuart Elliott scored a second half hat-trick while Nick Barmby and Allsopp added to the score-line with Eugene Dadi very briefly making it 2-1 with one of three goals in three minutes. The goal that brought the ground to tears of laughter was Elliott’s hat-trick sealer from the penalty spot. Whitmore looked like a little kid facing a big kid in a school PE lesson as he tried desperately not to get anywhere near Elliott’s thumping pen. A crazy afternoon.
07- Hull City 2 Cardiff City 2 – 04/05/2013
Speaking of crazy afternoons! You all know the story. City need to win or match Watford’s result to seal automatic promotion to the Premier League. Already promoted Cardiff are the opposition and take the lead through former City striker Fraizer Campbell. At Watford, visitors Leeds are also playing party-pooper but an injury to Watford’s goalkeeper creates a massive delay that means their game will finish 15-20 minutes after ours. It’s all irrelevant when goals from Nick Proschwitz and Paul McShane turn the game around and we’re coasting to promotion. We’re given the chance to seal it with a last-minute penalty, as they go down to ten men, which Proschwitz MISSES and then Cardiff get their own penalty in stoppage time, score and leave us on the pitch waiting for the game at Watford to finish. After several agonising minutes, Leeds score a second and we all cheer it (ugh). Only City could win a historic automatic promotion while giving you a heart attack.
06- Hull City 6 Fulham 0 – 28/12/2013
At half time, this was a fairly nondescript game against would-be-relegated Fulham. It was two days after City put in a monumental effort to lead Man Utd 2-0 before we eventually succumbed to a 3-2 defeat and the legs looked heavy. The second half was wonderful though with Tom Huddlestone putting in by far his best performance for the club to that point. He ran the game and there were starring roles for old favourites Robert Koren and Matty Fryatt who both scored, Koren twice, along with Elmohamady and George Boyd and Huddlestone himself who then got a haircut on the touchline having been growing his mop of hair until his next goal. His previous one was two and a half years earlier.
05- Hull City 1 Leeds United 0 – 01/04/2006
The 2005/06 season was City’s return to the second tier for the first time since 1991. It was an enjoyable but unremarkable season for the most part with City bobbing along just above the relegation places for most of it and the really enjoyable games coming away from home such as the wins at Coventry and Luton and the 3-0 win at Stoke in which Bo Myhill saved two penalties. Then came an early kick-off on a gloriously sunny day against Leeds United which drew the biggest crowd of the season. With a quarter of the game remaining, Stuart Green lofted a cross to the far post and Jon Parkin rose like a whale from the water to head home and prompt a roar from the crowd that I’ve never heard beaten.
04- Hull City 2 Leicester City 1 – 13/08/2016
Hosting the League Champions on the opening day of the season after you’ve won promotion, failed to strengthen at all, lost your Wembley match winner, lost your manager and injuries have left you with eleven fit outfield players isn’t a recipe for a good start to the season. In amongst the chaos of the most ridiculous pre-season I can remember, City somehow beat Leicester in the Premier League curtain raiser with the whole world watching. We were unscathed in the first half and scored on the cusp of half-time when Abel Hernandez and Adama Diomande completed the Premier League’s first ever synchronised bicycle kick. Leicester equalised from a Mahrez penalty that never was but ten minutes later Robert Snodgrass swept in a lovely goal and despite not being able to make a substitution – City held on. We beat Swansea away a week later to go top of the table. And the rest isn’t a happy story.
03- Hull City 1 Swansea City 0 – 30/09/2003
Despite everything that’s happened since including wins over most of the biggest teams in the country, this game is still amongst my absolute favourites of this modern era. The KC wasn’t at full capacity with the whole North Stand reserved for the handful of away fans which wasn’t an issue with the gates that season. Then Swansea came to town for an evening game between two sides who’d started the season very well. There were queues outside the ground, people complained that they were locked out, the works. Unseen at City in my time. Perhaps heard of in the bygone days when gates reached almost 50,000 at Boothferry Park. The crowd was up over 7,000 on the previous home game (the excellent 6-1 win over Kidderminster). The game was a good one too - very hard fought. It was settled by Stuart Elliott’s thumping header that sent the majority of the 20,903 in the KC into rapture.
02- Hull City 4 Watford 1 – 14/05/2008
The away leg of this play-off semi-final is right up amongst my favourite ever away days. We won 2-0 and just had to do the job at home to reach Wembley for the first time in our history. It was a nervy KC Stadium though, fearing typical City, and it didn’t get any less tense after Henderson’s early goal for Watford. On the stroke of half time though, Nick Barmby bundled the ball over the line at the South Stand end and worries were eased. The KC was well into party mood when Caleb Folan sealed it and late goals from Richard Garcia and Nathan Doyle, in between premature pitch invasions, just added to a surreal occasion. Wembley. Maybe Premier League. Beyond our wildest dreams.
01- Hull City 2 Fulham 1 – 16/08/2008
Choosing between this and the Watford game is like picking your favourite from your children but today, I’m going with this as number one. I can’t remember a game I’ve ever anticipated more after the release of the fixture lists and the significance of this being our first top flight game ever, coming off the play-off final with that squad of players and the way the game went makes it near-perfect. Only the subsequent fall from grace of Paul Duffen leaves me a little cold in hindsight.
The KC was rammed in the sunshine but fell a bit quite after Seol gave Fulham the lead. Then Geovanni rifled in the fourth best goal we’ve scored at the KC** and it was party time again. A draw would have been fine but Craig Fagan picking a defender’s pocket and sliding across for Folan to slot in the winner was the icing on the cake on a fantastic day.
I can’t think of what could possibly top this. A big night game against a real giant of European football – which we win – perhaps? Or winning a league title, something we’ve not done since 1966. Highly unlikely bit all I can think of that would top this.
** 1. Elliott vs. Brentford, 2. Delaney vs. Rochdale, 3. Bostock vs. Swansea
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