Hull will want to avoid this, this time around

As Hull city prepare themselves for their first ever stint in the top flight, we look back on our last meeting 9 seasons prior to this first ever Premier League season meeting.

Back then Liverpool were regularly clocking up mid-table premier league finishes whereas Hull City were a struggling division three team. In that season, Hull would go on to finish 14th in a league which had now Championship Swansea City winning the league. Liverpool finished 4th in the Premier League behind Manchester United,Arsenal and now league 2 Leeds United. Amazing what 9 years can do. Bradford City who finished 17th that season are now in the league where Hull City were 9 years ago.

Hull City were drawn against Liverpool in the league cup 2nd round and after 2 legs were beaten 9-3 on aggregate. In Front of 10,034 fans, Liverpool cruised to a 5-1 victory. Danny Murphy netted his first 2 goals for Liverpool since his move from Crewe Alexandra. It was a case of get your first ever Liverpool goal then get 2 as “Mad” Erik Meijer scored twice either side of a Brown goal for Hull to make it 4-1. Steve “Stan” Staunton made it 5 with just one minute remaining. This was Djimi Traore’s Liverpool debut.

Teams

Hull: Bracey, Greaves, Edwards, Whittle, Harper, Brabin, Schofield, D’Auria (Alcide 55), Mann (Swales 31), Brown,Eyre (Wood 72).

Subs Not Used: Baker, Williams.

Goals: Brown 58.

Liverpool: Westerveld, Heggem, Hyypia, Traore, Staunton, Thompson, Murphy, Carragher, Smicer (Berger 46), Meijer,Owen (Camara 76).

Subs Not Used: Song, Friedel, Bjornebye.

Goals: Murphy 10, 30, Meijer 48, 75, Staunton 89.

Att: 10,034

The second leg also produced 6 goals but not the same result as brave Hull showed they have fight against a very different Liverpool line-up from the first game. Stephane Henchoz, Frode Kippe, Layton Maxwell and Jon Newby all made their first appearances for the club and Liverpool were up against it as Hull rattled the Reds early on. Rigobert Song had some chances including one smashing back off the crossbar. With 10 minutes of the first half remaining, Hull City were dealt an unfortunate blow as their keeper Lee Bracey was sent off for handling the ball marginally outside his area.

Just moments earlier Danny Murphy put in his goal and shortly after the break Layton Maxwell grabbed a first Liverpool goal to make it 2-0 and seemingly the reds were home and dry by then. 5 minutes later, Hull pulled a goal back through John Eyre’s penalty and another 5 minutes after that an equaliser for the Division 3 minnows as Colin Alcide punished Djimi Traore for an error in communication with Friedel to make it 2-2.

But Liverpool proved resurgent and went on to complete the win with 2 Karlheinz Riedle goals. The German getting his second seconds before the end of the game. But as it was, Liverpool went to the next round where they would be beaten 2-1 by Southampton.

Teams:

Liverpool: Friedel, Henchoz (Newby 75), Song, Staunton, Traore, Smicer (Kippe 66), Murphy (Heggem 46), Thompson, Maxwell, Riedle, Meijer.

Subs Not Used: Nielsen, Gerrard.

Goals: Murphy 33, Maxwell 46, Riedle 65, 89.

Hull: Bracey, Harper, Whittle, Edwards, Brown, Eyre, Williams, Wood (Baker 37), Schofield (D’Auria 77), Alcide (Harris 66),Brabin.

Subs Not Used: Swales, Morgan.

Sent Off: Bracey (35).

Goals: Eyre 51 pen, Alcide 56.