Possibly one of my favourite eras as a City fan. You could tell with the team that we had momentum. I enjoyed the journey to the PL more than our time in the PL if that makes sense. WHAT A BLOODY GOAL ENJOY RETIREMENT DD
Happy days at the start of the journey when everyone was pulling in the same direction - such a together team, Myhill sprinting the 100 yards to join in the celebration personifies togetherness. That Ronaldo-esque shimmy by Damo wasn't bad either!
There's something about players that turn it around. It shouldn't be forgotten that the boo boys were out for Delaney for much of the first year or so in his time at City. I/we now know that he was incredibly raw (he'd started only 23 league matches before joining us), and didn't really know his best position. Peter Taylor wanted him to refocus as a midfielder at first. He was learning his trade in front of an impatient and success-starved audience. Not many turn it round like that, but Damien did. From the 2003 season onwards, he was terrific. He learnt well from Justin Whittle and then went on to form excellent partnerships with Marc Joseph, Leon Cort and (briefly) Michael Turner. While many will discuss his contributions to the back-to-back promotions, and the goals against Rochdale and Bournemouth, he was a consistent figure for us in that first season back in the Championship too. While Leon Cort was rightly most people's players of the season that year, Damien was one of our best four or five performers. He was also a key player in other big games - the 1-0 against Leeds that first season back, and then the 1-1 at Stoke and 1-0 at Cardiff as we saw off relegation. He scored the first goal of Phil Brown's managerial reign too. That 4-1 against Cardiff may not look much in retrospect, but lose that game and Gary Megson might well have got the City job. Doesn't bear thinking about... He also played 22 league games for us in the wonderful 2007/08 season. Yes, those who did the business in the second half of the season get the plaudits, and rightly so, but contributions such as those of Damien's shouldn't go unnoticed. As an aside, when writing my book, Phil Brown admitted to one mistake in the whole of his time at Hull City - selling Damien. When I interviewed Damien, I asked him for his favourite City game. As with so many of that era, I was expecting to hear the Swansea 1-0, the Yeovil game, or most likely the 4-2 at Sheffield Wednesday. No, said Damien, it was the 1-0 win against Leeds. When I asked why, he just said that it was because of what it meant to the city and the City fans to beat Leeds. You only give that sort of answer if you've really taken to a club and city, if you've got them at heart. I didn't put all of it in the book, but he spent ages talking about going to the City fans when we went down against Crystal Palace the last time we were in the Premier League. He got quite emotional at how the City fans responded to him that day. He evidently still loves City. And it was fantastic to see his career turn out the way it did. Damien is a good man. The first thing he did after making his debut for Ireland was to send his shirt to Colin Murphy as a thank you for all the things he did for him. His team-mates loved him, and the City fans did too, eventually! I hope we see him back at the KCOM as a guest at some point. I hope he enjoys his retirement too.
A best XI of the back-to-backs... Maybe Boaz, Joseph, Delaney, Cort, Dawson, Price, Ash, Greeny, Stuey, Barmbs, Allsopp. With Muzzy, Justin, France, BBB and Fages on the bench.
It's kind of strange that as I progress through The Decade, events are coinciding with sections as I reach them. The tweet the other day about it coming up to Barmby's signing, and now this, as I just read the section with Damien's comments about the 2017 relegation on the train home. What an absolute gentleman and a brilliant person to have at the club. Promotions and clubs are built around the quality of character that someone like Damien has. He deserved the success and the career he had, and I hope he enjoys retirement. On your last point, I think it's a real shame and missed opportunity, and I suppose unfortunately a sign of the times, that on the ten year anniversary of promotion, we didn't have that team back for an event/lap of honour at the KCOM.
i was really disappointed with the way the whingers got on his back early on for having a penalty given against him. the abuse went on for ages and anyone capable of joined-up thinking could see he was a good player putting the effort in. there again, when i was in the east stand at boothferry park, the right back would always get abuse from half the east stand crowd just due to being the nearest players. most of them were putting the effort in and didn't deserve it (though there was one player who always looked stoned out of his mind to me, though i don't recall whether that player got regular abuse).
To my shame I was one of those "know nowt ****s" who gave him stick. Oh how I was proved wrong. Good luck Damien and thanks for the memories.
That goal is as memorable to me as Deano’s at Wembley, I was sat in the south stand, absolutely in line with Damo when he hit the ball. As he received the ball and set off on his run I remember, as he ran through a couple of defenders, getting up in a kind of slow motion expectation, and then going ****ing berserk when the ball hit the back of the net. Once a Tiger...
I was in the South Stand too that day. I was half way up in line with the centre of the goal. I got a great view of it.
