A new season brought fresh hope and I for one, was so impressed with the first words from Sergej and his track record, that it prompted me to place a series of bets, on Hull City finishing in the top half of the Championship at 9/4.

Supercomputer

The pundits thought otherwise, which I bookmarked, with at least one source tipping us for relegation.

Millwall were also unfancied with newly promoted Wrexham and Birmingham, plus Leicester City and Sheffield United favoured ahead of them. So much for the “supercomputer”

Millwall also chose well in appointing Alex Neil as Head Coach.

Brian Horton

As I have neither played nor managed in professional football, (although I have played at Wembley), I turned to someone who has, for his thoughts on the game.

I asked Brian Horton, a Tigers legend (twice) on how he would approach this semi final.

“It’s a clean slate, previous form is irrelevant. You have to prepare as if this is a new day and then do exactly the same in the next game” Brian also recanted the Watford semi final in 2008. City were 2v0 up after a dominant first leg. However Watford changed their approach and caught us off guard at the start of the 2nd leg. They scored first and Brian had to point out to Phil Brown that City had to change and adapt. They did so superbly, running out 4v1 winners on the night and 6v1 on aggregate.

Brian also stated that “belief is everything” He knew we would beat Bristol City at Wembley in 2008 and that was instilled in the squad and delivered by messers Windass, Ashbee, Barney, Campbell and co.

Thanks to Brian for his expert insight and his book “2000 games, Brian Horton, A life in football” is a must read for all football fans, especially Hull City fans.

Tigers v Lions

We beat Millwall at the Den, thanks to two superb counter attacking goals from Kyle Joseph. McBurnie added a 3rd and we won 1v3. Femi Azeez the Millwall winger was sent off late on and responded by throwing a tantrum. Interestingly, the same referee has been chosen for this game.

We lost the home game 1v3, despite giving our best home, first half performance. The referee wrongly disallowing a goal at a crucial time, which would have put us 2v1 up. We hit the underside of the bar twice and missed a glorious chance, all before half time.

Alex Neil was forced to make two half time changes as a result and he later commented that we should have gone in 4v1 up at the break.

However, as Brian has stated, all of this goes out of the window now. It’s a new day and for us a different team, with players having returned from injury.

Prediction

It should be a hard fought and entertaining game, as it always is against Millwall.

Ideally we’d love to take a lead to The New Den but the main thing is, is that we still have everything to play for.

Our last 6 home games yielded 11 points and surprisingly, our last 6 away matches only accrued 5 points.

We need the atmosphere we had against Norwich last weekend, which undoubtedly spurred the team on.

Belief is everything and we have a squad with the right character, a team with fight, just as we had in 2008 and 2016. We also have an excellent Head Coach in Sergej.

Probable Hull City XI

Pandur

Coyle (C)
Hughes
Egan
Giles
Slater
Crooks
Gelhardt
McBurnie
Millar
Belloumi

Prediction: Hull City 2v1 Millwall