Who’d have thought it? Gary Clark*, found by Salut! Sunderland at the Hull fans’ site City Independent, certainly didn’t and he’s so Hull daft he’s written a book about them and sold his business to be able to follow them throughout their Premier League campaign. But there they are, the Tigers prowling at the top end of the league, refusing to conform to logic, precedent or Brand Supporter disdain. Which makes it all the harder for clubs like ours; we’d sort of seen this season as one in which the promoted clubs would be so weak that we wouldn’t have a care in the world. Brings back memories of Peter Reid’s two seventh top finishes, including the season when we were virtually safe by Christmas. Gary, like last week’s Baggie, totally ignores the normal format of the Who Are They? series so there is, once again, no questionnaire, though our questions are answered in his upbeat piece….

For Hull City FC to be in the top six of the Premier League in December is quite remarkable considering this time last year most Tigers fans would have given their right arms to creep into a play-off place in the Championship.

Not that we’re all pessimists in East Yorkshire, we are just not used to winning anything. City havn’t spent much on brasso over the past 106 years, in fact the only picture I have of a Hull City captain holding up a trophy was Andy Davidson holding up the Sunday Mirror Giant Killers Cup in 1966.

We went trophy mad that year by also cramming the Third Division Title Winners trophy into the otherwise empty trophy cabinet. Since then we have toyed with promotion to and from the old second division and back down to the old third and humiliatingly down to the basement league and nearly out of it altogether.

(more…)