A closer look at The Tigers and the KC Stadium.
Vital Statistics
Founded: 1904
Chairman: Assam Allam
Last Season: Championship - 11th
Nickname: The Tigers
Rivals: Scunthorpe United, Leeds United
Major Honours
None
Scheduled Matches
Hull vs Portsmouth: Saturday, September 17th (3pm)
Portsmouth vs Hull: Saturday, February 4th (3pm)
Transfers In
Paul McKenna (Nottingham Forest - Free)
Peter Gulasci (Liverpool - Loan)
Adriano Basso (Free Agent)
Robert Brady (Manchester United - Loan)
Martyn Wagorn (Leicester - Loan)
Vito Mannone (Arsenal - Loan)
Trevor Carson (Sunderland - Loan)
Joshua King (Manchester United - Loan)
Transfers Out
Liam Cooper (Huddersfield - Loan)
Mark Cullen (Bury - Loan)
Kevin Kilbane (Derby - Loan)
Kamel Ghilas (Stade Reims - Loan)
Jay Simpson (Millwall - Loan)
Jimmy Bullard (Ipswich - Free)
Jamie Devitt (Bradford - Loan)
Paul McShane (Crystal Palace - Loan)
James Harper (Wycombe - Loan)
The Manager: Nick Barmby
After a distinguished playing career at the top level with Everton, Liverpool and Leeds as well as earning 23 caps for England, Barmby returned to his boyhood club Hull City in 2004.
The hometown hero was a key figure in the Tigers' promotions to the Championship and Premier League, earning him a legendary status amongst the fans.
After Nigel Pearson departed for Leicester earlier this season, Barmby took over as caretaker player-manager before being given the job permanently. Nick then retired from playing in January 2012 to concentrate on his new role.
The Fans
Hull fans showed much sympathy for us when we travelled to the KC Stadium on the day after Andrew Andronikou announced that the club was going to go bust in 2010. The tannoy announcer at the ground and the attending home fans also expressed their best wishes for us too and it's always great to see opposition fans wish you well in bad times.
The Tigers don't have many famous fans with The Housemartins (minus Brighton fan Norman Cook) and Basil Brush being the most recognisable names associated with Hulll City AFC.
The Ground: The Kingston Communications Stadium (Capacity: 25,400)
The KC Stadium is much like most modern grounds (and there seems to be a lot of them around these days) which has an impressive exterior but is much more underwhelming inside.
Pompey fans are housed in part of the North Stand. The PA System in this stadium is really quite loud and you can see the big screen if you look up to your right. Looking forward you can see the South Stand.
To the left you have the East Stand where you can have banter with the home support who would probably taunt us if they were ever given the chance, given that Pompey have never fallen behind or lost at Hull's new ground.
The two-tiered West Stand is the most impressive in the ground.
This photo was taken after the 2-1 win back last season when it might have been the last game in Pompey's history. Thankfully, by the time we had got back on the coach all had been resolved.
