Hull City favourite Richard Garcia relives Wembley promotion please log in to view this image EVEN at 5pm in the evening, 9,000 miles away on the other side of the world, Richard Garcia cannot help it. Ask him to sum up what he and his Hull City team-mates achieved at Wembley eight years ago today and his heartstrings are inevitably tugged. "It was something very special," said Garcia, at home in Perth, Western Australia. "I remember crying on the full-time whistle but it was relief, it was happiness, it was everything rolled into one. Even talking about it now I'm starting to choke up a little bit." A 1-0 victory over Bristol City in the Championship play-off final meant everything to Garcia. Six years after he had flirted with top-flight football as a rookie on the books of West Ham United, the Australian winger had resisted the pull of home to fight for a career in England. City's iconic triumph at Wembley in May 2008, a feat Steve Bruce and his side will look to repeat on Saturday, completed an uplifting journey. "I'd had a hard year that season with my Dad passing away and all that emotion came up," said Garcia, now a hometown favourite with A-League outfit Perth Glory. "I had played in the Premier League with West Ham but never got a foothold in the side. My whole ambition and reason for staying in England was to get back to the Premier League. "That day I got back to where I wanted to be so I was very emotional. I'd gone through so much in terms of injury, dropping down to League One and sticking it out. "I had chances to go back to Australia but that day justified my decision to stay. The hard work had paid off." Garcia was typical of Phil Brown's side that made City history with a first promotion into the top-flight eight years ago. He was one of the rejects in a team that included novices and veterans each with a point to prove. The collective appetite for success at Wembley was insatiable. Ten members of that promotion-winning squad were back at the KC Stadium last Tuesday to witness the Tigers' current crop hold off Derby County's fightback and continues to hold a "bond" with his former team-mates. "I think we all knew at the time that it was something special, not only for the club but the city as well," explained Garcia, who spent five seasons at the KC Stadium after arriving on a free transfer from Colchester in 2007. "We felt that when we came back home. The parade and the reception we got, we knew it something very special. "It was bigger than just getting to the Premier League. It was about giving the city its first chance at that level. "And it was a good bunch of guys as well. I was talking to my wife the other day after seeing the photos of everyone together for the semi-final against Derby and (last week) there's not many times in your career you have such a tight group that succeeds. "To have that was fantastic. I'll always have that bond with those players because of what we achieved and what we did together. You hold on to that." That same connection awaits Bruce's squad if they are able to get the better of Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday. Although a fourth trip to Wembley in eight years has not captured imaginations like the first, the prize is three times as big. The £60m on offer to City in 2008 has become £180m this weekend. As Garcia says, it is "do or die" for City. Eleven players will be tasked with shaping an entire season on Saturday so what will be going through minds this week? "It is a huge pressure but at the same time you're excited by the challenge," said Garcia. "If it was just straight promotion, you wouldn't have the luxury. "Everyone takes it as a second chance but the pressure is there. You only have to look at Brighton last week, they finish third but then they're knocked out in the semis (against Sheffield Wednesday). "These are do or die games. Everyone deals with pressure differently but for us there was a snowball of momentum and belief." Garcia does not mind admitting he was not prepared for all that Wembley threw his way. Although he went on to win 17 caps for his country, becoming the first City player to feature in a World Cup finals two years later, at 26 and green he struggled to produce his best on the right of City's midfield. "It was the biggest game of my career at that time and that probably went for a lot of us in the team then," said Garcia. "We knew what was at stake. Not so much the money, it was the chance to take the club into the Premier League for the first time. That weighed on us a little bit. For myself I felt excited but very nervous as well. You can tell in the way the game went. I went out there all full of beans and hyped up but after we scored I hit a brick wall. It was almost like I had an adrenalin crash and then I had to pick myself up again. "The adrenalin was pumping in those first 20 minutes and the comedown was a massive thing I had to get over." But get over it he did. Playing his part in protecting Dean Windass' 38th-minute winner, Garcia helped the Tigers to hold off Bristol City and reach the Premier League. "You know what, I think I've watched the game back once and that was straight after," he said. "I don't know why but I haven't watched it since. "My son watches it all the time now he's older. He gets the DVD out regularly. But I've got my memories of the day and I don't want to change them." http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Hull...tory-29308774-detail/story.html#ixzz49YaTMxRq
"Garcia was typical of Phil Brown's side that made City history with a first promotion into the top-flight eight years ago. He was one of the rejects in a team that included novices and veterans each with a point to prove. The collective appetite for success at Wembley was insatiable." That's the key bit for me, we had a team that all had a point to prove, I only hope the 11 that take to the field on Saturday show the same appetite and character as this team did.
If we should lose on Saturday we could learn a lot from the way Brizzle fans behaved at this match. Gracious afterwards, not a hint of aggro, and no tears. It's only the ****ing premier league, it's not like it's really important like that match vs Scarborough when we were cut adrift at the very bottom.
Absolute magic, a fitting culmination to decades of wishing and hoping for generations of supporters.
Remember the game you played us a just before you went into the play-offs. You beat us 2-0 and you were fecking brilliant. Should have been plenty more.
My worry is that many of the current squad know that if City fail they'll still get decent offres from PL clubs in the aftermath wheras back in 2008 that group were going for a once in a lifetime acheivement, the pinnacle of their careers. They were less talented as a squad but hungrier.
Remember it fondly, it was the first time I genuinely started to believe that we may one day play in the Prem. Plus I shat myself a bit after we scored the second and the whole stand seemed to be moving up and down such was the excitement in the away end
Some bad losers from Bristol spoiling for trouble that day. Amazed that we have some naive fans who think they were all such gracious losers.
That and the next post bring back the memories for me too. I didn't jump up, shout or scream when that shot went in. I just stood and tried to take it all in. I wish I could love my club just as much now.
I just hugged my elderly Dad who(like me) couldn't believe we were there! Having supported the team for many years - through thin and thin- I really don't get the attitude of some on here who seem less than excited because if off the field 'issues'. I've got my ticket (Dad's too old to go now) and can't wait to see the Mighty Tigers at the home of football once again. There's plenty who didn't live long enough to see this sort of event - why wouldn't you go if time and money allow? I don't get it.
It didn't just seem like it, the stand was definitely moving. Like you, that was the game that it started to sink in that we could actually do it.
