A Hull fan responds

There’s been a lot sent to us in the aftermath of the Hull game by Arsenal fans. Here’s a view from the other side



A Hull fan responds

Cesc: No saint


Are you lot still going on and on about Phil Brown? It's a little sad when you have articles questioning his competency as a Premiership manager over a week after the game between our sides. If Hull City are such 'small fry' then why is your site bordering on obsession with us?

Your articles smack of huge arrogance, in one Blackburn are commended for rolling over and 'taking defeat manfully' as if it's an honour to lose to Arsenal and that teams outside the big four have no right to beat Arsenal. What pompous toss that is.

You also drone on and on about how ugly a side Hull City are and what negative football they play, even though time wasting etc. was evident in only one of our three meetings this season in a game we had many largely fringe players involved in. Did you find Hull City negative when they played three up front in the league at the E******s and won 2-1? Or in the 3-1 Arsenal win at the KC Stadium, was negativity an issue then? No, but now you talk as if Hull City are 1970's Leeds or Estudiantes, when that just isn't the case. Maybe the 2-1 Hull City win cut so deep that you now try to airbrush it from memory by portraying us as thuggish beasts who kick anything that move and seek to stall the game any way they can, well you delude yourself of that if you like but the nation saw that isn't the case.

Yes, Phil Brown made an utter tit of himself with his Setanta rantings, no debating that, but he's not the only manager to make ill-advised comments in the immediate aftermath of a contentious game. Your own manager chooses to be economical with the truth at times, and after that game decided to rewrite the offside law to suit Arsenal, yet Phil Brown is depicted a liar. Passionate support is to be admired but bug eyed, irrational bias isn't commendable. You make Cesc Fabregas out to be a saint when he was photographed snarling at Hull City players and officials after a game he wasn't even involved in, your Chairman has questioned his being on the pitch, but you won't tolerate any criticism of him at all. Feeble.

There appears to be a huge discrepancy between the Arsenal fans I met at the E******s in September and those who write bilious claptrap for your site. Those that I met were friendly, very knowledgeable and surprisingly gracious in defeat, and they were praised as such by many Hull City fan sites, but the people humourlessly writing articles questioning Phil Brown's worth as a manager and portraying our club as brutish cheats share none of the magnanimity displayed in person late September.

I just think you need to get over it, and over Phil Brown and Hull City. you won the game, albeit in a contentious manner, and few Tiger Nationals begrudge an attractive and skilful side the victory, they just wish you took victory as graciously as you did defeat.

(Ed’s note – We also received the following from Hull fan Peter Saxton)

I can see why Nick Kelsall’s article is an online exclusive. It’s riddled with mistakes.

“Hull... A club hailing from a region that favours Rugby League to Association Football.” I don’t know where he got that from but nobody who knows Hull would say that. If you want to be totally objective you can look at attendances and you will see that we usually get far bigger attendances than the two professional rugby clubs combined.

“Hull emanating from the rural, isolated Yorkshire coast” Hull is a city and definitely urban. It is on the banks of the River Humber and 25 miles from the North Sea.

“Geovanni... was withdrawn early on in a crucial fixture against Newcastle United.” – delete “Newcastle United” and insert “Blackburn Rovers”.


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