When Hull City won the play-off final and reached the Premier League 18 years ago, Dean Windass was the hero.
Windass struck a sensational volley for his local club to down Bristol City at Wembley, then was part of the squad that went into the top flight for the 2008-09 campaign.
Hull were tipped for instant relegation, but shocked everyone by winning six of their first nine games – following up an opening day win over Fulham with triumphs at Newcastle, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
Hull City: fast starters
History has been repeating itself in the opening weeks of the current campaign – after victory over Middlesbrough in May’s play-off final, the Tigers beat Manchester United in their first game back in the Premier League, then won at Coventry City to make it six points out of six, ahead of this Saturday’s home match with Aston Villa.
“The best thing you can do is play a top team at home in the first game,” Windass tells FFT. “Everyone has a clean slate, but nobody expected Hull City to win.
“The pressure was on Man U, who didn’t know what Hull City were like. I was at the game and Man U were very poor – you could tell that they were trying to gel together with Youri Tielemans and their new signings.
“To have a great start like that was fantastic. I knew that Coventry would be a harder game, but they came through it and won 1-0.
“But my advice to Hull City fans and all my mates when they go to the gym is it’s a long season. Villa will be a tough test – every game is a tough test in the Premier League.
“When I went up with Bradford, I remember Paul Jewell saying to us ‘If we finish fourth from bottom in the Premier League this year, it’s a massive achievement, anything above that is a bonus, and we’ve got to win the majority of our home games’.
“I know Lewie Coyle, Oli McBurnie and Matt Crooks there now, and I’ve heard on the outside as a supporter that they’ve got a good changing room.
A famous teamtalk
“They’ve brought a lot of players in, but it doesn’t matter about the price tag, they’re not proven Premier League players, so they’re going to find it hard.
“But Stuart McCall at Bradford used to say ‘We’ve got a good changing room, we’ve got a good chance of staying up’.”
Bradford did indeed stay up in their first year in the Premier League, as did Hull in 2008-09, prompting Phil Brown to grab a microphone and sing to the fans on the pitch.
Windass went out on loan to Oldham in the second half of that campaign – 39 by then, his game time proved limited in the Premier League – but he saw enough to know that the Tigers’ unity played a big part in their survival that season.
That was tested by a poor run of form, then a 5-1 defeat at Manchester City on Boxing Day – Hull were 4-0 down at half-time and Brown responded by keeping the players on the pitch at the interval, giving them a dressing down in front of the away supporters.
If there was perhaps a perception that the manager lost the dressing room by doing that, Windass doesn’t think that was the case. He was subbed at half-time and it would turn out to be his last appearance for the club, but the players stuck together and the club ultimately stayed up.
“He kept us out on the pitch, and that was his choice,” says Windass, speaking in association with betTOM. “He’d given Christmas Day off because it was a Boxing Day game, and we were fifth in the table, something like that, I can’t remember.
“You’re playing Man City, Robinho was playing for them, Vincent Kompany, they had a decent team. You put your hands up, you’re getting beat by a quality team, and what Phil did was his choice.
“It didn’t dampen the changing room. The lads stuck together. I was coming to the end of my career anyway, I knew that I wouldn’t be playing, they’d bring me on every now and then.
“Phil got the last laugh, by singing on the pitch and staying up, and we had a good changing room.
“We had George Boateng, Paul McShane, Ian Ashbee, Nick Barmby, good pros. No matter what division you’re in, if you’ve got a good changing room, you’ve got a great chance of success.”
