Key events
Hull on the other hand have fond memories of this process. They’ve been through it twice, and emerged as winners on both occasions, scoring pearlers in the final in the process. Dean Windass saw off Bristol City in 2008 with a long-range howitzer, while Mohamed Diamé found the top bin with a curler to beat Sheffield Wednesday in 2016. (As a brief aside, does anyone know what happened to the dude who wrote the MBM for the 2008 final?)
Middlesbrough won the second-ever of these playoffs in 1988, beating Chelsea in a two-legged final. In doing so, they inadvertently turned Stamford Bridge into a war zone. But since then they’ve had little luck in the playoffs. They’ve been defeated in the semi-finals in 1991, 2018 and 2023, and lost a final to Norwich City in 2015.
Hull make one change to the starting XI selected for the semi-final second-leg win at Millwall. Kyle Joseph is injured so in comes Mohamed Belloumi.
Middlesbrough also make one change, following their tempestuous game at Southampton. Alan Browne replaces the stricken Tommy Conway. Hayden Hackney is on the bench, hoping to make his first appearance since picking up a calf injury in March.
The teams
Hull City: Pandur, Coyle, Egan, Ajayi, Hughes, Giles, Slater, Crooks, Belloumi, Millar, McBurnie.
Subs: Phillips, Lundstram, Hirakawa, Drameh, Hadziahmetovic, Gelhardt, Dowell, Koumas, McNair.
Middlesbrough: Brynn, Brittain, Targett, Fry, McGree, Whittaker, Ayling, Strelec, Browne, Morris, Malanda.
Subs: Wildsmith, Hackney, Gilbert, Silvera, Castledine, Edmundson, Hansen, Ibeh, Sarmiento.
Good luck with the headline on Louise Taylor’s preview piece, then. Godspeed every single person involved.
Hull to take legal action if they lose
… so that line in the preamble about the lawyers was said more in hope than expectation. Right on cue, Hull City owner Acun Ilicali has been on BBC Radio Humberside to announce his intention to take legal action if his side fail to win promotion this afternoon. Here’s what he said:
Our legal team says that we have to go for action, that’s for sure … so we have no doubt about it … all we want is justice … if justice is broken, nobody will enjoy football.
If this action was so big that a team is out of the play-offs, why didn’t they let them not play the semi-final, investigate and take Southampton out and put Wrexham in?
Why is Wrexham out now? Put Wrexham in and continue the competition. For me, an eliminated team put back – also our lawyers say this and that’s their opinion too – is an incredibly wrong decision.
Now I can talk a little more because now the boys are in the stadium and they will not hear me … I didn’t want to make their focus disturbed.
Decisions are discussable from what I understand from our lawyers, very discussable … but of course we have to focus on the game and the boys are tough enough to overcome these difficulties.
Preamble
In one of the infinite number of parallel universes that definitely exist, this match will be contested by Millwall and Southampton. They were the two in-form teams during the Championship run-in, after all, respectively winning five and eight of their last ten matches, while Hull and Middlesbrough both managed only three. But Millwall didn’t really show up for the play-off semi-finals, while as for Southampton … oh Tonda.
So in the end it’s sixth versus fifth for a place in next season’s Premier League. And it’s not as though Hull and Middlesbrough aren’t worthy of a place at Wembley. Boro looked good for automatic promotion for large portions of the season, and despite that aforementioned stumbling end to the campaign, still finished a mere five points off achieving that goal. Hull meanwhile, having avoided relegation to League One last year by the skin of their teeth, have turned things around admirably and timed their run almost perfectly.
Boro beat the Tigers 4-1 on Humberside at the start of December; Hull won 1-0 on Teesside at the end of it. Good luck to anyone attempting a confident prediction this afternoon, then. May the best team on grass win, and we politely request any lawyers circling, ready to swoop and offer whoever is defeated the succour and hope of litigation, to bugger off. Kick-off is at 3.30pm BST. It’s on!