Hull City in the Premier League... Sounds so damn good.

At the beginning of this season I told bored friends and relatives to watch out for Hull City. I had a feeling. Even after losing the opening game of the year at KC stadium, I still had that funny feeling. This would be the year. When Hull signed Jay Jay Okacha and I read the headlines where Jay Jay said "God told him to go to Hull". It seemed confirmed - divine right.

So this Saturday I was a nervous wreck. Hull don't have a great record against Bristol City and they have had a habit of disappointing over the years. I live in Brno in the Czech Republic so getting access to the game was gonna be difficult. I spent an hour prior to the 4pm local kick off visiting sports bars in the forlorn hope the game might be featured - nope - all tennis. I switched on the BBC radio but nope the game wasn't covered so I had to resort to accessing the BBC website via my phone and getting text updates every 2 minutes.

I was very nervous. The BBC text service is nice but doesn't tell you very much and it always several minutes behind what is actually happening. I had friends and relatives back home in Hull watching the game and set to update me too with text messages.

The BBC radio first reported hat Hull had scored through Dean Windass. I roared! And then text after text came through as if to confirm the BBC report. Half time came. More texts to let me know it was still 1-0. I needed a beer and sank three in the space of 5 minutes! Then, the BBC radio said they would cover the second half live...... finally!

Not sure though that was the best thing. I paced and paced and smoked and smoked listening as Bristol City tried to equalize. I prayed. I prayed hard. With a couple of minutes to go the BBC suddenly announced in typical BBC style that they were sorry but would have to go to the news. I could not believe it! The last two minutes I was totally in the dark. But, as the news began, the announcer said (God bless him), and Hull City are promoted to .....

I didn't need to hear anymore. Like Windass at Wembley, I sank to my knees laughing and crying all at the same time....

I remember going to Boothferry Park when I was a kid. Wagstaff, Chilton... we had a lot of players called 'Ken' then it seemed. Ken Butler, Ken Wagstaff... I remember living in the US for years and every monday checking the Internet for Hull. I recall thinking there might not be a Hull City when the club went in to receivership and also wondering why we couldn't get out of the old Division Four.

All that's over now. It has been replaced with worries about can we stay in the Premier league? But isn't that a nice worry?

And what a fairy story. First Nick Barmby takes a pay cut to return to his home town, then Dean Windass returns, then we sign Jay Jay and get Campbell on loan from Man. U. and spend a record to bring in Caleb Folan. We beat WBA at West Brom, Watford three times and Crystal Palace 2-1. An amazing goal by a 39-year old ex-Brickie from Hull sends us into the Premier League... Amazing. If you wrote a movie script like this no one would believe it....

So - Hull in the premier league.... wow. I love saying that.