Saturday, July 24, 2004

Hull City FC

Hull City 2 Tottenham Hotspur 2 - Friendly Match


Kingston upon Hull is near the east coast, on the northern bank of the Humber estuary. The city centre is close to the Humber, making the city roughly semi-circular in shape. The city is surrounded by the rural East Riding of Yorkshire, making it quite isolated from many of the large cities of the United Kingdom. Some readers of this blurb will be interested to learn that vocalist and actor Roland Gift (who formed the Fine Young Cannibals) grew up in Hull, others will not.




My fourth visit to Hull for a match but my first to their new Kingston Communications Stadium. The two previous occasions being for friendlies with Spurs at the old Boothferry Park venue! On both previous occasions I stayed at the same Guest House on Spring Bank West and on the occasion of Hull City's centenary match my hat-trick was completed. However, a Hull based colleague has since informed me that when he joined our organisation in his formative years, he was staying at the same Guest House. He was awoken in the night by police activity and discovered that someone had been murdered in the next room (Scope for going upmarket should the Pieman be back in town - Ed)



The new stadium is no more than 10-15 minutes walk from the centre of town and proves that when building new stadia it is not necessary to plonk them in the middle of nowhere (Are you listening Bolton Wanderers? - Ed). There is plenty of scope to add to the capacity of the KC Stadium should City continue their progress.



Real Ale was available in abundance in the pubs along nearby Spring Bank and despite Ian Scott being poisoned by "a warm bottle of bud" we had a good time in most venues - some of which had more than their fair share of 'characters'.Another first was the northwards crossing of the newish Humber Bridge. The match? - a late equaliser for Hull City meant that they had something to enhance their centenary celebrations. The new stadium, shared with Rugby League, is a fine venue and would not be out of place in the top division.






Attendance: 13,316
Programme: £4:00
Admission: £13:00

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Subsequent visits to the Kingston Communications Stadium
 

23 February 2009 - Hull City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2 - Premier League - Attendance: 24742
19 August 2009 - Hull City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 5 - Premier League - Attendance: 24735
23 November 2014 - Hull City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 2 - Premier League - Attendance: 23561
21 May 2017 - Hull City 1 Tottenham Hotspur 7 - Premier League - Attendance: 23,804


Total: 5


 

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