Another piece of historical trivia. In consecutive seasons City have never followed relegation by promotion. We have done it once the other way round when I was in England. In 1958/59 we were promoted from Div 3 then went straight back there being relegated following season 1959/60.
The league used Goal Average before Goal Difference to decide placings. In that table, our goal average was 1.56 (39/25) and Sheffield's was 1.47 (47/32). The switch to goal difference was done because it favours teams that score more whereas goal average favours teams that concede less and thus in theory promotes attacking play. Historically - not counting positions after 1 game - we have been top of the 2nd tier in 12 different seasons, the most recent being 1993/1994. We were never top in either of the promotion seasons.
Yes it did. The championship used to be called the second division in old Wonga. Correct we have many times in both "New and Old" wonga. Did we not top the championship at some point 3 years ago.... briefly mind. ?
Sigh. As I said, we were never in the top division of the Football League before 2005. Therefore we couldn't have topped the Football League before that. If I'd wanted to ask if we'd ever topped the second tier, I would have. Some of us choose our wording appropriately and pay attention to facts.
The nearest we reached was joint top with Cardiff just before Christmas 2012, but were second on goal difference. From that point Cardiff remained alone on top.
The Wednesday match was the only one I missed at home that season. It was Boxing Day so I was forced to go to my gran's. No amount of arguing had any effect and I missed the game of the season! We were 4-1 down with about ten minutes to go. I saw all of the cup matches and went away as well. It was that season that made me decide to buy a season ticket as I was there very week
For those of us who were there, it wasn't a fable. If you have only known success it's easy to dismiss coming fifth but at the time it was a fantastic achievement and the nearest we got to top flight football until the surprise delight of 2008.
Agree with that also not forgetting it was two points for a win, not three as it is today. Before reaching the Premier League in 2008 Hull City's greatest ever away win in the league was in March 1970 when we broke Sheffield United unbeaten home record ( and attendance record), and won 2-1 from 1-0 down. The two new signings in Billy Baxter and Ken Knighton who made their debuts that night and every City fan leaving Bramall Lane rightly thought that Hull City would at last win promotion to the First Division and with only about ten games to go and we looked like a nailed on certainty for one of the two top spots. Without turning to Chris Eltons book I remember that week well, we had been robbed of a FA Cup Semi Final place after we let a 2-0 lead slip at home to Stoke on the Saturday, signed the two new lads on the Monday tea time then beat top of the league Sheffield United away on the Tuesday night. Saturday had us at home v Oxford United with Ron Atkinson playing centre half ( or was it Portsmouth?) Nearly 40,000 in the ground and we lost to a last minute goal, 1-0 after battering them for 89 mins. That's how I remember it. Another big factor during the fabulous season of 70/71 was the abandoning of the Blackburn home game when we were 2-0 up, which would have given us another two points and a leg up the table, instead we lagged a game behind the leaders until the game could be rearranged, then we could only draw 0-0. We were in with a shout of promotion to Division One in 70/71 way past the daffodils blooming, right up to the final few weeks when we finally ran out of steam. 1970-71 was one of the best seasons in the history of Hull City AFC.
It was Oxford United. One of 2 matches I saw when I came from Aus on a 5 week training course at ICI in Manchester. The other was the earlier Cardiff game drawn 1-1. Before the Oxford match we were joint top with Cardiff -second on GA.
I can undertand your confusion over Oxford and Portsmouth. We lost both games 1-0 despite being dominant in both. Ray Hiron scored for Pompey. I've been checking it out and it seems we played Portsmouth in January and Oxford in March, on the Saturday after we beat the blades. They were both unpredictable results. The Blackburn match was called off at half time because of fog. I was in the south stand and didn't think it was that bad. It cost us a point though and we missed out by five. It was a fantastic season. I was at the Stoke and Sheffield Utd games. We should have won both. I remember saying to someone during the Stoke match that Sheffield Utd would be very worried about us. Bramall Lane was an odd ground in those days as it was also used by Yorkshire County Cricket Club. It only had three stands and then a wide expanse of grass across to the pavilion. It was so full that night that I spent some of the early part of the match in front of the pavilion as it was really hard to find a space near the pitch. Eventually we managed to get behind one of the goals. The only downside of the night was that we couldn't find the coach afterwards! The feeling was very much that we were playing so well that we would go up.
a league position not bettered for 60 years? and not surpassed for another 37 years? your judgment is off.
A little confused about the year too. It was March 1971(not 1970). Corrected it in his text in my post 94. It was my first time back in England since coming to Aus in 1968.
The key game that season was the Oxford defeat at home we did indeed batter them ( think Leicester at home last season x10 ) having just beaten one of our main promotion rivals away ( by the way though there were 40,000 there it was well short of being Sheffield united attendance record ) and as a result gone top of the table we should have gone on to promotion. Comparing our team ( squad ) then and now I think despite Hernandez international pedigree our attacking then was superior to our present one both waggy and chillo were regular 20 goal a season men and Butler was not far off even from the wing . Simmo was immense and hard as nails and Houghton was a great box to box attacking midfield player with a tremendous shot. Unfortunately defensively we were not so strong frank banks was a slightly less cavalier version of Andy Robertson but roger devries was pretty one dimensional terry Neil was class but nothing compared to Dawson in my opinion and don't get me started on don Beardsley! Ian Mckechnie RIP reminded me of tubby Morton from the Victor ( I think ). I always felt that has we invested in a couple of top class defenders after we came up in 1966 we would have stormed to promotion and probably stayed there . Just one thing wonder how many of our present
