Its not just watching Newcastle that makes you cynical and always look on the black side. In the space of 4 days, I’ve watched Leyton Orient and then Clapton FC both lose out on FA Competitions.
First up was League Orient v Premiership Hull City in the Capital One Cup (League Cup). The early rounds of the League Cup are strange affairs with many teams putting out weakened sides. Strangely as the competition gets nearer to Wembley those reserves seem to get replaced by the first teamers.
Thus it was no surprise to see Hull fielding a team that showed 11 changes from their previous Premier League fixture. The good news was it meant former Newcastle United stalwart Steve Harper was in goal for Hull. A goalkeeper who served Newcastle well for many years and who has a testimonial coming up at Newcastle very soon.
The night started off well, into the North Stand at Orient as usual, and within 30 seconds of being in the ground, the head steward at that end had Greg & I escorted out of the ground. What’s that I hear you say, its not the first time? Well this time, we were merely escorted out of the ground and placed in the West Stand. It seems that someone in the ticket office made a mistake and issued us with tickets for the North Stand which was being used tonight for the away fans. Not that there were many of them. Mind you, a Tuesday night 200 or so miles from home to watch the reserves play, who can blame the Hull fans for voting with their wallets.
The Hull fans had the above banner with them. It took me a while to realise what it was, but I did think it was a rather good and unique banner to have with them. With apologies to Rolf Harris, “can you guess what it is yet?” Answer later.
Apparently they wont allow you to be moved from stand to stand inside the ground for “safety” reasons apparently. So we had a steward accompany us to the gates for the West Stand to ensure we got in there without any problems.
The other interesting point for me for the night was that Hull are managed by Mrs Doubtfire, sorry Steve 5-1 Bruce. As many will remember he managed S*nderland to that glorious 5-1 defeat at St James’ Park against Newcastle. Well done Steve. My seat in the West Stand was near enough to him to give him some stick. However, it seems he is not very popular with most people as he got stick for the whole 90 minutes about his lack of ability, the size of his nose and the size of his waistline.
Watching him as manager was interesting as he never once shouted instructions to his team. He rarely raised his bulky frame off his seat. Indeed at half time when everyone else went into the changing rooms, Bruce just remained sat in his seat looking like thunder for the whole half time break. A strange way of giving a motivating half time team talk.
By the 85th minute of the game there was still no score. Indeed there had not been that many clear cut chances for either team. Hull got a corner, and it was funny to see Steve Harper trying unsuccessfully to get permission from the Hull bench to go up for the corner. He was desperate to go up, but was told not to. Shame, it would have been great to see him score a goal.
So 90 minutes up and extra time. Just the time for the manager to give a motivational team talk eh Mr Bruce? Well apparently not so. He spoke to his son very briefly, and then stood not talking to any of his players.
I’m not sure what Bruce does for his money. Answers on a postcard.
Having said this, Hull did score at the start of extra time and hung on to win 1-0, so perhaps Bruce not speaking to his team or passing on his tactical knowledge worked.
Hull on the night did deserve to win, just. It was the first defeat of the season and means there is no Cup run in the Capital One Cup for them
That Banner?
The banner in the picture is of a white phone box. It is a reference to the fact that the telephone system in Hull was provided by Kingston Communications and is the only part of the country whose phone system was not provided by BT. The sale of Kingston Communications by the Council in Hull helped to fund the new stadium shared by Hull City and Hull Rugby Club- the KC Stadium.
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