Yesterday was the end of the
Premiership season and Manchester City were crowned champions in a closely run
title race. The football calendar has
not ended because the play-offs, the Champions league and Europa league finals
are still to be played and the World Cup is to be held in Brazil over the
summer! However, first things first (as
opposed to first things second), as it is the weekend that the Giant Killing
Adventure has been waiting for since 17th August 2013.
It is of course the FA Cup final between Hull
City and Arsenal.
V
Blog guest Tim Webster has once again got us tickets for the final and despite our efforts to take a large group of blog reunion guests we have only managed to get our hands on two tickets. It is still going to be great.
Arsenal finished their season in
the Premiership in a comfortable 4th place which means that they
enter the qualifying round for the 2014/15 Champions League. Hull City or the Tigers (due to their striped
shirts) as they have been known finished in 16th place and were only
5 points above the relegation zone.
These two teams have been battling at different ends of the table and
this will of course make Arsenal favourites to lift the cup – but let’s
remember, Manchester City were huge favourites to lift the trophy last year and
these things don’t always go to plan.
Hull is a City on the river Hull
upon the Humber estuary around 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a busy ferry port with regular trips
to and from Holland. The Humber bridge
is the seventh largest suspension bridge in the world and provides valuable
road links between the north and south of the Humber. Hull is the only UK City to have its own
independent Telephone network company (since 1902) and phone boxes in Hull are
a cream colour as opposed to the standard red seen in the rest of the UK.
Pop groups ‘The Housemartins’ and
‘Everything but the girl’ originated from the City.
Hull City was founded in 1904 and
originally played at Hull’s Rugby League club ground The Boulevard before
moving to their own ground on Anlaby Road. Their previous best run in the FA Cup
came in the 1929/30 season when they reached the semi-final and were knocked out
by Arsenal of all teams (if anyone is old enough to remember that match I am
sure they will be seeking revenge in the 2013/14 competition). In 1932/33 they had their biggest FA Cup
victory as they beat Stalybridge Celtic 8-2.
In 1946 they moved to a new ground
called Boothferry Park and in 1948 they had their highest attendance as
Manchester United knocked them out of the FA Cup 0-1 in front of 55,019 fans. In
1966 they reached the FA Cup quarter final and were knocked out in a reply at
Chelsea 3-1. In 1982 the club was hit by a financial crises and the club went into receivership and have since had to make their way back up from the old 4th Division. In 1994 they were hindered again by financial problems and in 1996 they were relegated back into the bottom tier of the football league and the club still struggled financially as they owed money to the Inland Revenue in 2001 and the club was once again placed into administration.
After being saved, the club moved to a new stadium called the KC Stadium in 2002, which was close to the site of the original home on Anlaby Road. The stadium is shared with their rugby League neighbours Hull FC.
Support
levels began to rise and the club’s fortunes began to turn and by 2005/06 they
were competing in the Championship (English football’s second tier). Within the next 9 years they’d reached
promotion to the Premiership, got relegated, and then promoted again.
The
FA Cup of 2013/14 is a real David V Goliath battle as Arsenal have had
stability and success both on and off the pitch whilst Hull have spent most of
their 100 years or so in the lower leagues whilst being saddled with financial
problems – the Tigers’ seem settled now and the past 5 years have been the most
successful in the clubs history. Let’s look at how they got to the final:
Semi Final... They beat Sheffield United 5-3 on 13th April 2014
In the Quarter final on 9th March they played at home in the KC Stadium
In the 4th Round Proper they travelled 205 Miles south to play Southend United
And they beat Southend United 0-2 on 25th January 2014 at the Roots Hall Football Ground. Hull had travelled 385 miles in their FA Cup adventure.
On 4th Jan
they beat Middlesbrough 0-2 at Riverside Stadium
We can’t go any lower than this for Hull's side of the draw
as both Middlesbrough and Hull were only entered at the 3rd
Round stage of the tournament. Hull's side of the river travelled 472 miles in it's journey to Wembley...
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