Kevin Kilbane: I would rather be in Hull City’s shoes than Newcastle United’s
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Version 0 of 1. Hull City may have one comfort when they take on Manchester United at the KC Stadium on Sunday, according to their former midfielder Kevin Kilbane: knowing only victory will ensure survival. Steve Bruce’s team stand third-bottom, two points behind Newcastle United, who entertain West Ham United, and they know they must win on Sunday to have any chance of staying up. Kilbane was in both the Wigan Athletic and Hull teams in 2007 and 2009 who pulled off final-day escapes. Yet whereas Paul Jewell’s Wigan knew they had to beat Sheffield United, two years later Phil Brown’s Hull could lose against Manchester United and stay up. Neil Warnock’s Sheffield United had welcomed Wigan in 2007 conscious that even if they lost Manchester United could save them by beating West Ham United. Wigan won 2-1 and a Carlos Tevez goal for West Ham defeated Sir Alex Ferguson’s team to send Sheffield United down on a miserable day for the Yorkshire club. “They knew if Manchester United beat West Ham they were safe – so they had eyes on that game as well,” Kilbane says. “We knew that if we won at Bramall Lane we were safe regardless of anything. We didn’t have to worry about other fixtures. We had probably one of the best week’s training I’ve ever seen from a team when I was playing. It was almost as if the shackles were off.” On the final day of the 2008-9 season, as on Sunday, Newcastle were the other club hoping to retain their status, with Alan Shearer’s team at Aston Villa. Yet as Hull were a point better off Kilbane says he and the rest of the team froze. “We were getting word to us on the pitch that Newcastle were losing at Villa, so it was irrelevant in many respects what we had to do,” he says. If Newcastle would have scored and equalised, we’d have gone down. We could and should have done more just to keep it in our own hands – win the game and stay up because we were at home and had the quality to win the game. On the day we probably froze a bit.” A Darron Gibson strike beat Hull but at Villa Park Damien Duff’s own goal sent Newcastle down. “Looking back and looking at Hull’s fixtures I’d prefer to be in Hull’s position, because you have to win the match regardless of what happens elsewhere,” adds Kilbane. What will be the emotions of Hull and Newcastle players? “I don’t think any player can really say they enjoy getting themselves ready for a game [like this]. You’re trying to prepare yourself the best you can,” says Kilbane, who played for nine clubs in a 17-year career. Kilbane describes evading the drop as “a great feeling” and the relief can have differing effects. When Hull survived, Brown famously serenaded the KC with Sloop John B. “He did it the same at the end-of-season do,” Kilbane says. “He sang the song and said: ‘If we stay up this weekend I’ll do it on the pitch.’ In fairness Phil was true to his word. It was one of those moments – it was funny wasn’t it?” By 5pm on Sunday one of Hull and Newcastle will be laughing while the other, unfortunately, will not. |