I Can't Help Falling in Love by Gregory Whitaker;

Author:Gregory Whitaker;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent Publishers Group
Published: 2019-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

2008–2014

The Seven-Year Itch

Premier League? We’re having a laugh

Hull City 2–1 Fulham – 16/08/2008

GROWING up, my summer holidays were all identical. Without real exception, they all went something like this:

• An exciting first three weeks away from school – watching World Cup or European Championship matches every other year.

• Two weeks away on holiday with my family, usually on the Costa del Sol.

• One or maybe two concluding weeks at home in which I would dread the inevitable start of yet another school year as it crept ever closer.

However, the summer of 2008 was different. It was different because Dad and I decided it had to be different. Hull City’s first match in the Premier League – the start of a maiden season in the top flight for the Tigers – was to kick off at the KC on 16 August, and there was not a chance in hell we were going to miss it.

Despite what Mum says, it’s a funny story. My parents had booked our flights to Spain in the February, ready for our annual family holiday in Mijas set for the first two weeks in August. In previous years this meant potentially missing the first Hull City game of the season, depending on how weekends fell that specific year – a particular bugbear of mine, and one that became progressively more obvious as I entered my moody teenage years. After our Wembley victory in May, however, I recall Dad gleefully pointing out that the Premier League season kicked off a week later than the Football League, meaning we would be home in time for City’s historic first top-tier game. Imagine Dad’s horror then when in the middle of June the fixtures were revealed and it was announced that City would play Fulham at the KC Stadium on 16 August – the day we were due to be travelling home from Spain. This couldn’t be happening.

Before Mum could be made aware of the situation, Dad changed our flights at the last minute, telling my mum that our two-week holiday would now be happening a week earlier than first planned. He said he was expecting to be asked to attend a ‘very important meeting’ at the Department for Education at short notice, likely to take place in the second week in August. Mum begrudgingly agreed. Safe to say the meeting never happened, but come three o’clock on 16 August, Dad, Steph and I were sat in our seats at the KC, Viking fish and chips in hand. Mum was livid.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about City’s prospects going into that season. After all, just months earlier our play-off winning predecessors, Derby County, had finished rock bottom of the Premier League with a record low 11 points and just one win from their 38 league fixtures. While I didn’t think City could possibly be that bad, the national media were less convinced.

Brown strengthened his squad considerably, bringing in the likes of Bernard Mendy, Peter Halmosi, George Boateng,

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