A year ago, my beloved Hull City A.F.C. were relegated from The Championship to League One. Hull City supporters far and wide felt as sick as parrots. However, twelve months later and we are walking on air with beaming smiles. After a great season in which The Tigers have won twenty six games and scored seventy seven goals, we met fellow promotion contenders Lincoln City at Sincil Bank yesterday and beat them by two goals to one.
I have been supporting Hull City for close on sixty years. Lord knows how much money, time and emotional energy I have spent upon them. So many ups and so many downs. The progress of my club matters a great deal to me. It has been very different from supporting Liverpool or Chelsea or Manchester United. In comparison, being a fan of such clubs is so easy.
But Hull City, Scunthorpe United, Tranmere Rovers, Rotherham United, Sunderland, Reading, Bristol Rovers... - fans of clubs like these know what it means to support a proper team - taking the rough with the smooth, remaining loyal in spite of everything.
One of my biggest thrills in life is to see The Tigers score winning goals. In those orgasmic moments, the troubles of ordinary life completely disappear. The exquisite joy releases me. There is no time for dissection, no time for pondering - the joy is everything. If you have ever supported a football team you will understand what I mean.
Congratulations to our current manager Grant McCann, his support staff and all the lads who donned the amber and black shirt this season. Maybe next season I will get to see some games back up in The Championship. Up The Tigers!
To use the loaded English word, there are some 'fit' looking lads there.
ReplyDeleteYes. Hull City's training regime lads to a high level of fitness.
DeleteIt is exciting to bond loyally with a team through ups and downs, then have them do well! I gave up on the Mariners long ago(baseball), but am still an on and off Seahawks fan. (American football)
ReplyDeleteIn a small restaurant in Olympia in 2014, our waitress was dumfounded when I showed her a picture of a seahawk that I had taken that morning. She thought that "Seahawks" was just a made up name for Seattle's American football team!
DeleteI imagine that she would not be the only one. :) Olympia is a fun and quirky town to hang out in. I have several friends who live there.
DeleteI loved the "feel" of Olympia.
DeleteSeeing a friend happy makes me glad, too, even if I am not interested in the game or the progress of any team.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, and hopefully the time for attending games in the stadium will return soon.
I guess I have saved myself quite a lot of money this season - by not being allowed to attend live games.
DeleteAs a mere female I struggle to understand the appeal of football, although it does seen to dominate the media channels so must be very popular. Therefore I shall add my benediction for your team ...
ReplyDeleteUp the Tigers!
I hereby anoint you as The Mere Chairwoman of Hull City Supporters (Isle of Man Branch). I trust that you will take your responsibilities seriously.
DeleteNow let's hope that next year they don't have to play Barnsley.
ReplyDeleteAye, best wishes to Barnsley in the play-offs. They have done remarkably well this season.
DeleteLike my last post, this comment is but a place-holder. I know NOTHING about football. Nothing at all except that it engenders rabid fandom and although I do not understand that in the least, I understand that it does.
ReplyDeleteAnd I will say for you- Hurray Tigers!
I appoint you as The Secretary of The Hull City Supporters Club - Lloyd FL branch.
DeleteSometimes it's better to play in a division that you excel in and win most weeks. Congratulations on your promotion.
ReplyDeleteYou are probably right Dave but at least we have tasted The Premier League and made it to an FA Cup Final.
DeleteCongratulations all round YP - worth coming back from the "dead" then!
ReplyDeleteAye lass - those cows could not rob me of that!
DeleteWe was robbed.
ReplyDeleteSo sorry about that Sue. You should have switched your alarm system on.
DeleteYou must have paid close attention to this scandalous attempt by some of the major football clubs to break away and form their own new league. I must admit I didn't really understand it all since I don't give a whit about football myself, but I know it was a big deal for some people.
ReplyDeleteThe greedy, power crazy men who hatched that scheme are probably contemplating a new strategy. I know you will find this hard to believe but one or two of them are Americans!
DeleteLove for the beautiful game runs deep in my family as we grew up on a diet of the previous week's Big Match games on Sunday afternoon tv and the Shoot magazine (always about 6 weeks behind as it came by sea). Dad had been a successful goalkeeper in his youth and loved watching his boys play on a Saturday morning whatever the weather. Those boys were also very good at tennis and basketball but football has remained their greatest love. The next generation produced a national league and NZ junior player before illness ended his playing days but his genes live on and his 8 year old can't get enough football with his Grandad. My other brother's 16 year old left NZ last year for a contract with Esbjerg fB in Denmark with hopes of making it as a professional. He certainly has the size, skills and determination required but lady luck will also be needed.
ReplyDeleteWhen you follow players and a club over as many years as you have, you are entitled to shout your success from the rooftops. So much toil, sweat and tears along the way and so much self belief required to get there. Enjoy your moment.Stay true to the Tigers!
Cheers from Granny Adele
Perhaps one day, Charlotte Grace will play for the NZ women's team with Granny in the stands cheering like crazy.
DeleteBig Club fandom is a jaunt in the park on a sunny day.
ReplyDeleteTo be a supporter of Hull City, Scunthorpe, Rotherham, Sunderland is to walk in faith, to suffer doubts and agonies, to gaze down into the bleak kettle-holes of your soul. No wonder these fans go into a place like Sheol when things get bad.
Years ago my brother Brian (Doc Soccer I called him) talked about this.
*There are men who say, My life is crap, I have nothing going for me except my team, and when my team is getting a tanking, I suffer. Can you not understand that?*
It was like a cri de coeur, the way he said it.
From his eyrie in Upper Norwood, London, Brian surveyed English soccer through his oriel windows. He took many struggling clubs to his heart like orphaned bairns.
Before he died I found a copy of a book he loved in his youth, *The Football Man* by Arthur Hopcraft, the journalist and television dramatist.
I enjoy football but I know more about Miss Marple's Sunday bonnet than I do about leagues and players.
Brian was a walking encyclopedia. You would have liked a blether with him about The Tigers. He was a very withdrawn depressed man and had an extraordinary presence and a laugh you never forgot. Like Wittgenstein he said, *Tell them I had a happy life.*
Haggerty
Brian and I could have huddled in a pub and yakked for ages about the beautiful game and the things we remembered while you attempted "The Times" crossword with occasional lecherous thoughts about Barbara the barmaid.
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