Again the Ugly Inside editorial team have spent many pain staking minutes on unearthing some interesting facts about our next opponents and their City.

1. Hull isnt actually called Hull at all, its full title is Kingston Upon Hull, which beggars the question, why isnt the football team called Kingston City, after all Stoke play in Stoke On Trent, but they arent called Trent City and we dont ask why we dont call Ross On Wye, Why either ! although possibly toke fans do when they sing Wye Wye Wye Delilah, anyway I gots to know !

2. The KC Stadium is named after Kingston Communications set up by the local council (Notice not Hull Communications) for many years Hull (Or Kingston) was the only council authority that owned its own telephone exchange, in 1902 it was granted a licence to do this, most of the other independent phone companies were absorbed into the post office over the years, however Hull remained independent, for instance its phone boxes were not red but cream coloured, to this day Kingston Communications remain the only available supplier of landline phone services in Hull, the profits from this company, the [profits from this company enabled the City Council to build the KC Stadium and it remains in Council Ownership today and probably tomorrow and the rest of the week for that matter.

3. Hull (or Kingston) has a population of 263,900 in its unitarian authority area with a urban zone of 573,300 which is quite a big catchment area, however the football teams relatively small attendances over the years can be easily explained, its firmly a Rugby league town and is home to two teams from this barbaric sport which is a mixture of Rugby Union and all in wrestling, Hull FC, one of these teams also play at the KC whilst Hull Kingston Rovers play elsewhere.

4. The Housemartins were once the Fourth best band in Hull and wrote many songs about Hull and life in the City, the video for Happy Hour was shot in a local pub, which has now been turned into a museum celebrating the work of the group, it was felt that whatever Liverpool could do with the Beatles, Hull could match with the Housemartins, the museum is now the third best tourist attraction in Hull, ironically going one better than the group themselves.

5. Hull actually has a rich musical heritage, Mick Ronson who older readers will recall was the guitarist on David Bowie's best work in the early 70's was from the city and there is a Mick Ronson Memorial stage in Queens Gardens, other notable Hull pop stars include, Everything But The Girl and Sade (Sade was the name of the band not just the singer, they came from Hull she probably didnt) English Folk Giants The Watersons are virtual gods in their home town and last summer played five sell out nights at the KC Stadium something that even Elton John couldnt manage.

6.The first cinema in Hull was opened in 1910 ( The Prince's Hall in George Street for those that are interested, by 1914 there were 29 cinemas in Hull but most of these have now closed, the introduction of betamax video recorders to the City in 2002 hammering the final nails into the coffin of what was once called the Hollywood of East riding.

7. I truthfully did once go to Hull and thought that it was closed, Thursday afternoon in Hull doesnt seem to be the most popular time for shopping it seemed and staring at the windswept pedestrian shopping precinct all that was missing apart from shoppers was tumbleweed.

8. Hull stands on the north Bank of the Humber estuary some 25 miles inland which makes it puzzling why it isnt called Kingston Upon Humber, its actually named after a small tributary the River Hull, it was granted its charter in 1299 by King Edward 1 who on April 1st of that year who bought it off the local Abbey in what was possibly the first ever April Fools prank, anyway he changed its name from Wyke to Kings Town Upon Hull which over the years has been abbreviated to its current form.

9. Hull's big rivals are Grimsby, this is rather a strange choice as both teams certainly have other far nearer football clubs to hate due to being on opposite sides of the Humber, even after the opening of the Humber Bridge around two decades ago made the journey a little shorter, its still a lot easier to get to ork from Hull or Scunthorpe from Grimsby, presuambly its a fishing fleet type of thing

10. Hull was, outside of London the most severely bomb damaged British city in World war 2, although this doesnt seem to get mentioned much for some reason, most of the City Centre was destroyed and 95% of the housing was either destroyed or damaged, newspaper reports at the time didnt even name the City but referred to it as a North Eastern Town, much of the City Centre has now been rebuilt, but in 2006 it was discovered in archived records that a new developement ironically called the Boom, might actually be built on an unexploded bomb.

Photo: Action Images

Scummer added 10:29 - Mar 19 Surely your least offensive and most factually based top ten of the season?! Are you going soft as Saints are easily hitting that two points a game average at the moment? :) I personally enjoy it when the opposition fans join in on the fun, like this bloke from Leeds: http://www.thescratchingshed.com/2012/03/top-ten-facts-about-southampton/ Still, I doubt if he was quite as upbeat about Saints after we took all three points up there. Hooiveld's tweet afterwards was class: "The whole of the leeds police force is looking for our bus. Probably because there are three stolen points in it! Hahaha #lovethempoints"

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SaintNick added 10:31 - Mar 19 Truthfully its hard to be offensive about Hull
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Andym added 11:34 - Mar 19 As a Hull City supporter this is a good read I like your humour but there are one or two inaccuracies. You have a good point in number 1) but if there was a team in Kingston upon Thames there could be two Kingston Cities. 2) the KC Stadium was built from the proceeds of privatisation but I believe the council maintained a small stake. 3) your greatest error Hull is not a rugby City. If you add up the average attendance at the two rugby teams they would not beat ours. Hull is firmly a football city. 4) just for interest they released an album London 0 Hull 4 in our first season in the Premiership we won all four of our first games against London opposition the album was clearly ahead of its time. 7) we saw you coming. 9) we count Leeds as our chief rival or the white shite as they are known locally. I live in Spain so unfortunately cannot get to the game tomorrow I usually return when we have two matches in the same week but I am expecting a good game between two footballing sides which will make a change from the teams we have played at home recently. I am sorry that you will leave pointless but we will balance that out when we beat West Ham on the last day of the season. I am hoping that you and Reading go up automatically and that we beat West Ham at Wembley. Good luck for the season from Wednesday onwards.

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SaintNick added 11:40 - Mar 19 Thanks for not issuing the East riding equivalent of a fatwah. Point 1 I thought it was more so you wouldnt be confused with kingston jamaica, Hull always used to be a rugby city, the KC has definately upped gates but at Boothberry i would say attendances were smaller than the rugby clubs, im sure you can correct me though if i was wrong I would agree on your last paragraph

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Andym added 12:44 - Mar 19 Saint Nick thanks for not falling into the trap most people do south of the River Humber yes we are in the East Riding of Yokshire and not that ficticious place drempt up by politicians who due to lack of intelligence knew no better. In 1980 the two Hull clubs played each other in the final of the rugby league cup at Wembley and the two teams did well for a few seasons either side of that year so naturally many jumped on the bandwagon. That also was a period when the fortunes of the football club were not that great so again the fickleness of supporters mean´t many football supporters suddenly became egg chasers as we call them. I started watching Hull City around 1964. In 1966 we managed to get promotion from the old third division in addition to taking Chelsea to a draw in the 5th round of the FA Cup. In those days Boothferry Park was rocking to gates in the 30000´s and many times were over 40000. More than once we kids could sit inside the perimeter fence due to the numbers. It goes round in cycles but since the 60´s Hull has been a footballing city except for about a 10 year period. You have a point about Kingston Jamaica I had forgotten about them. Tomorrow evening while you are enjoying the football I will have to listen on the computer if the connection is any good it is far better being at the match.

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Andym added 12:47 - Mar 19 I forgot to ask how is Billy Sharp doing? During January there were a lot of our fans calling for us to sign him. If you look at our goalscoring record you will see why. From my memory I can remember him scoring one goal for you that looked like a miss control.
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SaintNick added 12:53 - Mar 19 Up until recently my only footballing connections with hull came between 1974 -78 when we spent a few years in the old second division and then when we played you in the league cup in 84, so i suppose you came on to my radar just at the very point that you were talking about when things were at a low, Sharp hasnt had much of a chance strangely, Adkins seems to prefer everybody else before him at the moment

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Andym added 13:28 - Mar 19 May that continue ex players and players we have tried to sign have a nasty habit of scoring against us.
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lockseaf77 added 15:15 - Mar 19 Wasn't it Chilton and Wagstaffe on the wings for Hull in the sixties?
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Andym added 15:39 - Mar 19 No they were our two strikers or centre forward and inside right as it was then. I read recently that Waggy was 70 recently and he is just as popular in the city now as when he was at his peak. At one time Brian Clough wanted to sign him for Derby but in those days the club had the power and we refused the bid. I think it was Kevin Hector he signed instead. Other than my hero of that time Jimmy Greaves I have not seen a more natural goalscorer. Perhaps his finest moment was 2 one on ones with Gordon Banks who ended up sat on his backside with the ball in the back of the net. Chillo on the other hand was the old style target man but he was good on the floor too. He turned into a good coach who perhaps achieved the impossible and made Billy Whitehurst into a striker that Newcastle paid over 200k for when that was a lot. My football club used to get two cup final tickets and raffled them among the players on the proviso that whoever won took somebody else from the club. Me and my mate won them two years running and one of the finals you will remember well (if you are old enough) was when you beat Man U. We were behind that goal and were supporting your team. As usual when they lose the Man U fans left once the game was over. I witnessed though them waiting for your fans and witnessed a father with his young son being attacked an absolute disgrace and I have never forgiven their fans even though my son is now a fan.

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