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| Fraizer Campbell scored the opening goal after eight minutes |
When you are a lifelong supporter of Hull City AFC, it is difficult to recall matches in which our beloved team scored six goals. But that is what happened yesterday. We were playing Birmingham City in the English Championship. The score was 6-1. We hammered them and I didn't mind a bit having to rise from seat number W313 six times to salute our lads with the rest of the Hull City tribe.
When you are a football supporter, there's no feeling like the moment your team scores. It's beautiful. For two or three seconds you forget everything else as an electric surge of unbridled joy pulses through your veins. Money? Politics? Health? Family? Who cares? City have just scored.
Would you like to know who scored for Hull City yesterday? I'm sure you would. Well here goes.. The first came from Fraizer Campbell who has recently returned to the club. The second was a penalty by Irish international David Meyler. The third was a thirty yard low driven shot by twenty year old Jarrod Bowen, his seventh goal of the season. Second half goals came from the Swede Sebastian Larsson, Polish wingman Kamal Grosiki and Norwegian midfielder Markus Henricksen who had just come off the subs' bench.
After the match, I caught one of the packed "park and ride" buses back to Hessle where Clint was waiting to whisk me home to Sheffield. When The Tigers have won, that eighty minute journey is delightful but when they have lost the drive home is grim - almost funereal.
I have been a supporter of Hull City since 1963. Through thick and thin. I have been with them when they were bottom of The Football League and with them when we finally made it to The Premiership (2008) plus our one and only appearance in an FA Cup final back in 2014. It has been a hell of a ride filled with drama, elation and misery. I hate to think how much I have spent following them - the match tickets, the travel, the football programmes - a king's ransom I am sure.
If I die on a Saturday afternoon, I am sure my dying words will be, "What's the score?" Hopefully, we will have scored six once again.
I like your loyalty!
ReplyDeleteWhen you talk about the journey home after the match, all I can think of is an incident that happened here many years ago where a train full of football fans collided with another train. Fans had been to an away game and died on the way back into Sydney. Did their team win that day?
I tried to find out about that tragedy via Google but somehow couldn't reach the information I was after. In answer to your question I don't know if their team won or not.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cowan_rail_accident
DeleteIs it true that "Hull" rhymes with "pull"? If so, I'm finding it difficult to pronounce because I'm not accustomed to Yorkshire vowels.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations of your wonderful Saturday. I hope the feelings of joy last all week.
Have you heard of The Isle of Mull? Hull rhymes with Mull and yes, it also rhymes with "pull".
DeleteSports of most kinds have never had any allure for me, but something I've noticed even from my particular vantage point is how teams are made up of many nationalities yet they pull together. Hmmm . . . interesting, innit?
ReplyDeleteIt's good to have a driving interest in something besides money, politics, health or even family - it is. We all need something.
When I first supported Hull City ALL of our players were British. Now half of them are from foreign lands. We have recently signed a Canadian player who was born in Calgary -Oluwafikayomi Oluwadamilola "Fikayo" Tomori.
DeleteIt is true, then, what I have heard about you, that you may not be much of an athlete but you are certainly an athletic supporter.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, congratulations on the big win when it counted most.
Even though another metaphorical stabbing was attempted, you saved the day with your second sentence.
Deletelol
DeleteAt one time I was an avid sports fan. Not anymore. Sport casters were part of what turned me off. Other life activities took over. However, being a sports fan does many things for a person. I found that out by reading your blog.
ReplyDeleteI hereby choose you to be the secretary of the Hull City Supporters Club (Red Deer Branch). You will need a Hull City shirt with "RED" printed on the back.
Delete🙄 Birmingham City will be embarrassed that a team like Hull City have put six past them. They will get a huge bollocking about that. Your readers will all be scratching their heads right now and thinking to themselves 'who are Hull City?' It's a question many people have asked in the past. Everybody has failed to find an answer to that question.
ReplyDeleteIt was a weekend of football grand finals here. The AFL on Saturday (Aussie Rules). I have little interest in it and am not fond of the game, so I didn't watch the GF, but the NRL (Rugby League) Grand Final was on Sunday evening. I watched it because I prefer League to the rest. And, two of my favourite teams were in the GF...The Cowboys from North Queensland...and The Storm, who are based in Melbourne, but have quite few Queenslanders in the team. So, I was sitting on a padded cushion on the fence...a leg either side.
ReplyDeleteThe Storm won and I was a happy little Vegemite. I would've been happy if The Cowboys had won...too bad there is no such thing as a draw these days!