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Hull City, the wrongs of Innocence and Experience

By on May 18, 2015

Tiger, Tiger, relegation fight… would’ve been a smashing alternative to the famous “Tiger, Tiger” poem if William Blake had been writing about the final day of the 2014/15 Barclays Premier League season. Hull City manager Steve Bruce needs to accomplish something he has never done before (and it’s not a salad diet being popular amongst Sunderland fans), by beating the club he represented in his playing career — Manchester United — as a manager. Hull’s final fixture is a home encounter with the Red Devils, a replica of the conclusion to the 2009 campaign.

Six years ago, the relegation battle was between Newcastle and the Tigers; fast forward to 2015 and it’s the same two sides sweating the third and final relegation spot (although Sunderland are still not mathematically safe and may need one point from two difficult looking games against Arsenal and Chelsea). In 2009, Hull escaped the drop, with Alan Shearer’s Magpies going down instead; however, Hull are in a worse position this time around, as they have to beat Manchester United and hope results go their way to stay up. John Carver’s Newcastle side may have only taken one point from their last thirty available, but their final day opposition West Ham United have nothing to play for, apart from playing fairly to secure a UEFA Europa League place via the Fair Play table, with the Hammers themselves struggling for form and Big Sam Allardyce under pressure to keep his job in East London. Although, the “one last twist in the tale” Steve Bruce keeps referring to could be the fact that Allardyce is out for revenge from when he was sacked as manager at St James’ Park.

Hull also have other problems, as well: Jake Livermore’s misdemeanours off the pitch and the threat of a name change to “Hull Tigers” from Egyptian owner Assem Allam, to name a few. The “Tiger, Tiger” poem features in William Blake’s collection “Songs of Innocence and Experience” so I’ll be mentioning some of the “wrongs of Innocence and Experience” at the KC Stadium, hopefully with a bit of humor.  To make matters worse, things have gone awry in the past week or so, with defeats to Burnley, Tottenham and £8 million-signing Livermore’s fall from grace. Their best hope left is for Hull to freeze over and beat Manchester United on the twenty-forth of May 2015.

Livermore’s woes

Livermore used to be a Lilywhite at White Hart Lane, but this is the least appropriate time of the season to start perhaps playing Walter White.  There have already been three substance test failures across three divisions in England, but none as high profile as Livermore’s.  Wolverhampton Wanderers’ goalkeeper Aaron McCarey has been suspended and League One side Sheffield United’s striker Jose Baxter also failed a recent routine test. For years it seemed as though football was a cleaner sport, however, as the tests have become more vigorous, trickles have been found creeping into the sport.

Livermore has never been a shy and retiring type, as he had an encounter with a member of One Direction back in May 2013, when he caused some pain for Liam Payne in a bust-up at a posh Mayfair restaurant.

Remember the Name!

As big as Hull’s problems are on the pitch — if found guilty, Livermore is likely to be suspended any amount of time between six months and two years, while the lack of goals from some of Bruce’s misfiring forwards is also troubling — the East Yorkshire fans may have even bigger concerns off the pitch, as the fight between the owner and the supporters continues to rumble on in the background. Owner Allam still insists the club would be more commercial if its history were ignored and they dropped the ‘City’ in their name in favor for ‘Tigers’.  Although the name ‘Tigers’ is already the nickname of the club, Allam wants the ‘Tigers brand’ to be extended further across the club, causing disturbance among many supporters.

Below par performances could make it down in one!

Hull have only been pulled into the relegation battle late on, with Danny Ings winning goal for Burnley last week and the miraculous revival of Leicester City having a greater impact on Hull’s survival hopes, and it may well hurt that much more for Hull that their former manager is the infamous Nigel Pearson. Pearson has performed a better Great Escape than Steve McQueen at the King Power Stadium over the last two months, and their safety was confirmed with a 0-0 draw against Sunderland over the weekend. Taking the Tigers’ situation as a whole into account, there is more chance of Principal Skinner and Ned Flanders surviving in ‘The Simpsons’ than Hull in the Premier League. QPR and Burnley are already gone, and barring a miracle, the 2014 FA Cup runners-up are going down as well. That last place in the Premier League will either be going to Championship playoff finalists Norwich or Middlesbrough, decided at Wembley on the same day the top flight table will be finally signed, sealed and delivered after thirty eight wonderful games.

Photo credit: Nick on Flickr

About Richard Lewis

Richard Lewis can relate almost anything to football and quite often does! You may have seen Richard's previous ideas and work in the BBC Match of the Day Magazine, from 2011 to present. He is a Manchester United and England fan, but has gone to see Leyton Orient play with his O's season ticket in the 2013/14 campaign. Aside from football, Richard has written articles on Doctor Who and studies English Language and Linguistics at the University of Westminster. Aspiring sports journalist.