Match Day Thread Play Off Final. Hull City v Boro

Trumpton Tiger. said:

I feel like that, a bit flat, on hearing this news. When we are three sleeps from a Wembley appearance I should be jumping about like a 5 year old but I'm not. We have been shat on from a great height over this and the disrespect shown to us by the EFL and the national media is quite staggering.
I just hope City have been shielded from all this and prepared properly because we deserve to be in this championship play off final because we won our play off tie fair and square.
Where as Middlesboro have put themselves back in the final through the work of their legal team, not their football team.
There should be only one winner on Saturday.
And we all know who that winner should be, all the football world knows that too.
UTT.

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Much the same here and it saddens me to say that I don't know what to think after the week we've endured,if truth be told I feel a bit numb.

We were placed on an emotional roller coaster more than a week ago.A week in which we didn't know a kick off time,we were informed before buying tickets that the day could change,we didn't know our opponent's,we didn't know if we were to book hotels,rail tickets or flights.We were then told our kick off time was 3.30 or 4.30 to suit our opponent's,not us and we've now had to sit all day again wondering who we're playing and at what time?

The EFL has treated this Club(owner,staff,players&fans) like 2nd class citizens with nothing even nearing an apology eminating from them.

They've effectively tried to demoralise us and very nearly got there!!!

We repay them on Saturday,big time,when we put our opponent's to the sword and thumb our nose at them as our players climb those stairs and collect their winners medals.

Up Our Tigers and **** the lot of them.

RichardG said:

Worth considering Southampton's lot next season. Parachute money runs out, points deduction, manager and coaching team likely to leave, best players likely to leave or be at odds with club, reputation in the mud, fans angry at ownership... Couldn't happen to a nicer team. It will be a tough Championship next season too (so I really hope we're not in it). All three relegated teams will be capable of coming back up. Wrexham and Birmingham will be better prepped, Norwich, Derby and Sheff Utd seem in a resurgent mood with good managers. No Sheffield Wednesday-style basket cases it would seem. Really wouldn't want to be in their position in so many ways right now.

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Think Blackburn will be in a spot of bother. Not quite as bad as Wednesday but still.

Well what a turn up for the books! I always thought the idea of chucking them out was a bit over the top. I don’t condone cheating at all and they needed to be punished, but I don’t think the punishment fit the crime. I would have been happy had we played them.

Now they’ve been thrown out? Well it’s ridiculous we weren’t given promotion. Boro were beaten fair and square and saints presumably couldn’t use the footage because they were caught. Now we have two training sessions to prepare for the biggest game of most of these players career and in our recent history. We’ve been out at a huge disadvantage because the EFL couldn’t get their house in order and didn’t want to loose the revenue of a final. If we don’t win, I hope Acun takes the strongest possible legal action.

petersaxton said:

I have set up a small whatsapp group so we can organise things on a random basis - if that's not a contradiction!?

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How do I get in the group?

Jim the Tiger said:

How do I get in the group?

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Ask Groucho Marx, then take his advice.


It's our time.

Ric Glasgow said:

Much the same here and it saddens me to say that I don't know what to think after the week we've endured,if truth be told I feel a bit numb

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Sounds like this place has experienced more psychodrama than Westminster.

I’m not Acun’s biggest fan, as most of you will probably know, but I think him being a passionate gobshite actually works in our favour this time. If we don’t go up, he should be like a dog with a bone about it. That’s exactly what Gibson did and I’m 99% certain him leaking stuff to the press pressured the IDC into expelling Southampton.

It’s essentially been a kangaroo court trial by media. We might think it’s taken too long given the circumstances but they’ve expedited the process to be a lot quicker than most of their rulings. Our transfer fee restriction appeal took ****ing ages in comparison. They’ve had an appeal done and dusted a day after the original judgement. I’m all for kicking Southampton out because they’re cheating bastards and brought the game into disrepute but there’s no denying that this process has been tainted by the pressure from the media and the owner of the offended party. A lot of the evidence would’ve been inadmissible in a court of law.

So if that’s how the EFL operates, on an arbitrary basis, then Acun has every right to pressure them and try to back them into a corner for his and our gain.

Just hope we can draw a line under it now and focus on one of the biggest games in our history.

It's enormous that we're in this final, we've given ourselves an incredible opportunity and it's a hell of a day in prospect. We were ****ing brilliant against Millwall, Belloumi and all that. Feel like that's been forgotten a bit which is a shame. Let's sell these last tickets and get excited.

We’re gonna win 3-2, my bets on @ 64/1

Jim the Tiger said:

How do I get in the group?

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And me, we should have a 606 meet

Boro are having issues with travel for their fans.

Their coach spaces have sold out and the train seats are few and far between - with the added disruption between Darlington and York. They’ve struggled to source new coaches because Sunderland is hosting BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend which has booked a load of coaches across the north too - in addition to the ones we’ve booked.

Tiger Travel was setting off at 8:30 for a 4:30 kick off (3h 38m journey on Google Maps). Boro are setting off at 7:30 for a now-3:30 kick off (4h 20m journey according to Google Maps). Ideally for our fans, hope Tiger Travel moves forward at least 30 minutes and gets our lot down there.

According to Southampton forums, junior analysts pushed back against the spying, but were forced/bullied into it by spors (sporting director) and eckhart….

Wow.

Probably an unpopular opinion, but let's stop the hand wringing.

Yes, we've been put at a disadvantage with the fixture details, but Boro are victims of cheating, the FA are victims of the timescale and Southampton fans are victims of their own club.

We are still playing a final on Saturday afternoon, between one of 2 sides we knew we'd be facing and the inconvenience to us **** all compared to Boro who have to sell 38k seats in 72 hours and find coaches from Scotland because the trains are off,

Or Southampton who have to refund 38k tickets and now have to gut their club in the summer knowing they've ****ed themselves up massively.

And if we lose on Saturday, we're still 4m better off than we thought we'd be, and have a civil claim against Southampton FC which should feed the coffers going into next season.

Oh, and we have a far better chance of beating Boro, without their main striker, half fit playmaker and whom we have the recent form over, or Southampton, 21 games unbeaten?

It's a no brainer!

Bring it on!

Up them ruddy targers !

Jim the Tiger said:

How do I get in the group?

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Do you play an instrument, sing or dance like Take That?

Cortez91 said:

Boro are having issues with travel for their fans.

Their coach spaces have sold out and the train seats are few and far between - with the added disruption between Darlington and York. They’ve struggled to source new coaches because Sunderland is hosting BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend which has booked a load of coaches across the north too - in addition to the ones we’ve booked.

Tiger Travel was setting off at 8:30 for a 4:30 kick off (3h 38m journey on Google Maps). Boro are setting off at 7:30 for a now-3:30 kick off (4h 20m journey according to Google Maps). Ideally for our fans, hope Tiger Travel moves forward at least 30 minutes and gets our lot down there.

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You watch, nobody's give a **** about us with travel and hotels, watch the press go crazy over 'boro fans having trouble, **** 'em.

Right onto the football finally.

We’ve beat them once and they smashed us at our place. Both times without McBurnie and Belloumi, and also without Geldhart when we did them at their place. I’m also pretty sure Giles went off injured and replace by young Cathal after 5 minutes. Hughes also missing from the home fixture.

We’re a completely different side with all of these (somewhere near) fully fit. We’ve shown we have enough experience and character throughout the season so there’s no reason we can’t keep our 100% play off final record, despite all the circus that has gone on around us.

Bring on Saturday, finally we’re going to Wembley. UTT

McGregor HU5 said:

Right onto the football finally.

We’ve beat them once and they smashed us at our place. Both times without McBurnie and Belloumi, and also without Geldhart when we did them at their place. I’m also pretty sure Giles went off injured and replace by young Cathal after 5 minutes. Hughes also missing from the home fixture.

We’re a completely different side with all of these (somewhere near) fully fit. We’ve shown we have enough experience and character throughout the season so there’s no reason we can’t keep our 100% play off final record, despite all the circus that has gone on around us.

Bring on Saturday, finally we’re going to Wembley. UTT

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Shame Joseph isn’t fit, but if the players you mention play well we can beat anyone in this league.
Bring it on
UTFT

I posted this elsewhere

It's all locked in so the lawyers can fight in the aftermath, but to the game itself, I think it'll be a really fascinating clash of styles, as well as mentalities. Boro looked absolutely spent against Southampton and are walking wounded with Conway ruled out and Hackney coming back to fitness. It remains to be seen mentally how they pick themselves up as, despite training a few times since last week, I'm sure for a lot of the squad the notion that they would actually be reinstated was very remote, so may not have had their hearts fully in it.

From a Hull perspective, both games against Boro were fought with no Belloumi or McBurnie, while in the second game we had no Gelhardt and Giles was withdrawn after 3 minutes with a 20 year old thrown in at CB to weather the storm. Even in the first game, Boro flew out of the blocks and put 4 on us but we held them out and scored second half (you could argue game state played a part in that). City have an almost completely fit squad to pick from, have been able to focus on the game (if not the opponent) for the past week, and will be backed by 35k+, whereas Boro are struggling to arrange transport down and are rapidly trying to shift tickets.

There's too much in our favour to make me confident at all, so it feels like Boro will snatch it.. but who knows.