[Lord Snooty]

Huddersfield Town v Hull City
The Sky Bet Championship
Sunday October 9th - 12:00 ko
at the John McAlpharm Stadium

Huddersfield Town welcome Hull City Tigers to the John Smith's Stadium on Sunday afternoon for the first home game of the Mark Fotheringham era.

He seems to have been impressed with what he's seen so far. Only two games in and conceded six goals already, the defending certainly hasn't been impressive. Let's hope that can be remedied soon.

Attacking wise, we still look a bit light, even though we had both Jordan Rhodes and Danny Ward on the pitch at Luton on Tuesday. Thankfully, our dead ball demon, Sorba Thomas was back to his best in that match, having a hand in all three goals.

Fothers has teased us with saying there could be a surprise selection on Sunday, whilst talking up how impressed he has been with the Academy players. Well David Kasumu is suspended and Jonathan Hogg is injured. Could this be the call up for the petit Parisian, Brahima Diarra? Or the return of Aaron Rowe?

As for Hull, they don't got no manager. They sacked the last one last week. That was Shota Arveladze and it was looking like they were about to appoint Pedro Martins until that deal was halted on Friday morning. So it looks like Andy Dawson will still be in charge, having won his first caretaker game on Wednesday night, a 2-1 win at home to Wigan.

Here's what the big man had to say in the Friday presser.......

A brief history of Hull City: They were founded eventually in 1904, after several previous attempts at starting a football club were thwarted due to Hull being a rugby league city, dominated by the two clubs Hull FC and Hull Kingston Rovers. They started out playing at the Boulevard, home of Hull FC, but due to disputes with them, were forced to move in with Anlaby Road Cricket Club.

They were admitted into the Football League 2nd division for the 1905/06 season and finished their first season there in a creditable 5th position. Managed at the time by future Town manager Ambrose Langley (pictured), they consistently finished in the top half of the table, but never made it to the top tier. After the First World War, their fortunes sank and eventually in 1930, they were relegated to the newly formed Division 3 (North).

It was unfortunate then, that they had their best FA Cup run so far, reaching the semi finals, in the relegation season. They had knocked out footballing giants in the shape of Manchester City and Newcastle Utd, before coming up against Arsenal, managed of course by Herbert Chapman, in the semi at Bellend Road, Leeds. As we all know. Arsenal won because that was the year they beat us in the Final, but Hull took them to a replay, after a 2-2 draw in Leeds, the Arsenal won 1-0 at Villa Park.

They were due to move into their own new stadium, Boothferry Park, in the 1930s, but planning disputes and then the outset of the 2nd World War, delayed the move until 1946. Once settled in though, they soon got promoted to the 2nd division, in 1949. They were up and down between the 2nd and 3rd divisions for the next couple of decades, winning promotions in 1959 and 1966, but by the early 1980s they had dropped for the first time into Division 4.

Back up again in 1983 and up once more to the 2nd division in 1985, under the management of Brian Horton. Back down again in 1991 with Terry Dolan as boss and then down again to the basement division in 1995. They stayed there a while and were closer to relegation to the Conference than promotion most seasons.

They had hit big financial trouble as well and were at one time actually locked out of their home ground by former owner David Lloyd (the ex tennis player, not the cricket commentator). They did reach the Play Offs in 2001, but lost in the semis to Leyton Orient. Then over the horizon, riding a white charger, came their saviour in the shape of Adam Pearson and suddenly Hull City were on the rise again.

They moved into their new home in 2002 and never looked back. Promotion, under the leadership of Peter Taylor, came in 2004 and the next year as well and so they were back in the 2nd tier, now of course known as the Championship. It got better. Just five years after leaving the 4th division, they were promoted for the first time in their history to the top tier, the Premier League, with Phil Brown as manager.

They got there via the Play Offs, following a 6-1 aggregate demolition of Watford, they played Bristol City at Wembley, beating them by a goal to nil with that famous goal from hometown boy, Dean Windass. They started life at the top well and early on actually topped the Premier League, ten years after they had been rock bottom of the 4th division. Some achievement! Obviously it didn't last, but they did survive relegation on the last day of the season.

Relegated in 2010, they were back up again as champions of the Championship in 2013, with another Town connection, Steve Bruce, as boss. They reached their first ever FA Cup Final in 2004, against the team who beat them in the 1930 semi final, Arsenal. The match at Wembley started brilliantly for the Tigers as they went 2-0 up after 8 minutes with goals from James Chester and Curtis Davies. Obviously they scored far too soon and the Gunners had drawn level by the 71st minute and then won it with an Aaron Ramsey goal in extra time.

Arsenal had already qualified for the Champions League, so by virtue of being FA Cup runners up, the Tigers had now qualified themselves for Europe for the first time as well and would play the next season in the Europa League. They didn't reach the group stage though, losing to Belgian outfit Lokeren in the last of the qualifying rounds.

They were relegated at the end of the season, but came straight back up via the Play Offs, beating Sheffield Wednesday 1-0 in the final, Mohamed Diamé getting the goal this time. Just for one season this time as they were relegated again to the Championship, just as Huddersfield Town were going up, so we never have played them in the top flight.

They got relegated to League One in 2020, but bounced straight back as champions and last season finished in 19th place in the Championship.

Head to Head



Town lead the head to head with 25 wins to City's 21, with 11 draws.

Hull were already there when Town were elected into the Football League in 1910 and so were one of our first opponents. Not quite the first, we didn't meet until January, with Town winning 2-0 at Leeds Road with goals from James Howie and Henry Hamilton. The return fixture in April was a 2-2 draw.

We did the double over them in our promotion season 1919/20 and so didn't meet in the league again until the 1952/53 season. We did meet up once in that time though. They were the first opponents on our road to the 1938 Wembley Cup Final. We beat them 3-1 at home with goals from Pat Beasley and Alf Lythgoe (2).

The next match of any significance was in the 1969/70 season when they drew 2-2 at Leeds Road on Easter Monday, temporarily halting our promotion party. A win would've seen us promoted that day, but we only had to wait one more day when another draw, this time up at Middlebrough, secured our top flight status.

We played each other again two seasons later as we were on our great drop down the leagues and didn't meet up again until 1980/81 as Mick Buxton had started our great rise back up again. We won 5-0 at Leeds Road, with goals from Brian Stanton, Terry Austin, David Cowling, Mark Lillis and Ian Robins. The return fixture was a 1-2 defeat at Boothferry Park and me and my mates got beat up on the way home. No not by Hull fans, but some pissed up Town fans as we stopped off en route for a drink. 

We did the double over them last season on our way to the Play Offs. Just about twelve months ago, we did them 2-0 at home with Tom Lees and Duane Holmes grabbing the goals. Then as we were getting towards squeaky bum time, we went to the KFC Stadium and won 1-0. Harry Toffolo bundling the ball home. This coming after the Tiggers played the whole of the second half with ten men after Tom Eaves was sent off for two yellows.

Wednesday night's line up at home to Wigan:





13 Nathan Baxter - In his 2nd season on loan from Chelsea.
2 Lewie Coyle - Club captain, ex Leeds and Fleetwood.
5 Alfie Jones - 24 year old defender, signed from Southampton.
4 Jacob Greaves - 22 year old centre back, came through their youth system.
3 Callum Elder - Auddie left back, signed from Leicester.
27 Regan Slater - 23 year old midfielder from Gleadless.
7 Ozan Tufan - 27 year old Turkey international.
33 Cyrus Christie - Right back, played in PL woith fulham.
20 Dimitrios Pelkas - Greek winger on loan from Fenerbahçe.
11 Doğukan Sinik - 23 year old Turkey international winger.
19 Óscar Estupiñán - Colombian striker, leading scorer.

Subs:
1 Matt Ingram - Played in goal for Luton in the Play Offs.
6 Tobias Figueiredo - Helped promote Forest, who repaid him with the elbow.
8 Greg Docherty - Scottish midfielder, ex Hamilton Academical.
15 Ryan Woods - Ex Brentford, Stoke, Millwall, Brum midfielder.
16 Ryan Longman - 21 year old midfielder signed from Brighton.
22 Tyler Smith - Striker signed from Sheff Utd.
24 Jean Michaël Seri - Ivory Coast international midfielder.





Hull in popular culture:











Recent form - last 6 matches:

Luton 3-3 Town
Reading 3-1 Town
Town 1-0 Cardiff
Town 1-2 Wigan
Town 0-1 Blackpool
Bristol C 2-0 Town

Hull 2-1 Wigan
Hull 0-2 Luton
Swansea 3-0 Hull
Hull 0-3 Stoke
Hull 0-2 Sheff Utd
QPR 3-1 Hull

Town are 23rd in the Championship table with 8 points. Hull are 17th with 14.


Leading scorers:

Terriers:
Jordan Rhodes (4)
Danny Ward (2)
Tom Lees (2)
Tino Anjorin (2)

Tiggers:
Óscar Estupiñán (8)
Ozan Tufan (2)