It was a very big day yesterday. After 110 years, Hull City played in the FA Cup final for the first time. Its still incredible to me that The Tigers are in the Premier League and an FA Cup was simply the icing on an already desirable cake.
I was pretty nervous. Arsenal are a team whose squad is worth many many more times that of Hull City. They are a big club and they play good football. Classy even. I had in the back of my mind a 3-0 or 4-0 drubbing to be honest particularly since Hull City hadn’t played so well the last few weeks. In the two games against Arsenal, we lost 5-0 on aggregate in the league. Imagine my surprise when within 8 minutes of kick off Hull City were winning 2-0! I was shaking so much I had to go and get a whiskey….. more of that later.
I knew if we could score 1 more goal it was probably our game. Two is not enough. Within 15 minutes, we almost did score that third as Alex Bruce had his header cleared off the goal line. I think it was at that moment that I knew how the game would turn out and sure enough, Arsenal scored shortly after. It was then only a matter of time and to hold on until penalties was probably the best we could hope for. In the end, you could see how tired the players were and you just knew arsenal would score before the end of OT.
I guess the best way to look at it is we drew 2-2 and lost in OT. I am proud of the team and proud to be from Hull.
By the time the game was over though I had polished off a half bottle of whiskey! I had no idea as the game went on I suppose I was drinking without thinking…..
I have a very sore head today.
My only issue with the whole thing is that Arsenal have some truly obnoxious followers. I don’t know why. Big club, successful, history, money – they have everything Arsenal. But some of their fans are ungracious and I put it mildly. Rabid people, ungracious in victory and defeat. Not all of them I will say but I can think of no other team whose supporters are so bad and I hope Hull City fans never get that way.
However, I’m not going to let some silly Arsenal fans spoil my day – the whiskey did that for me already…..