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Hull City: Memories live on for John's Tigers tale
IT may seem like a plum role now, but a decade ago, opting to cover the ins and outs of Hull City for the local press appeared to be an undesirable career move.
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When John Fieldhouse opted to turn his attentions from rugby league outfit Hull Kingston Rovers to the then bottom-flight football team he couldn't really have imagined what he was letting himself in for.
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Ten years on, Fieldhouse – now employed in City's media department – has chronicled Hull's climb from near oblivion to the Premiership in a new book: From Bust to Boom – Hull City AFC: From the Brink of Extinction to the Barclays Premier League.
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A decade earlier, the club's obituary was more likely material.
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"When I started writing about City, if anyone had said that in 10 years' time they'd be in the Premiership, you'd have started looking for the nearest white van and a straightjacket," Fieldhouse – the former Hull Daily Mail scribe – told Yorkshire Sport this weekend.
"I had mates telling me that I might not have a job in six months' time.
"My first match was Warren Joyce's first game as manager. Back then the club was bottom of the Football League and going out of business, allegedly, but Joyce gave me great access.
"I travelled on the team bus, I was in meetings and I used to interview him when he was in the bath after games.
"I work for the club now and I don't get the access that I did in those days.
"The manager looks after us and the club are very good, but in the Premier League you don't get to travel on the team bus or sit in on
team talks before games."
That unique level of involvement in the dark days of 1999 has given Fieldhouse a wealth of stories to tell and he probably knows more than anyone else about how City managed to avoid the drop into the
Conference, the now famous Great Escape campaign.
"Back in those days we were playing teams like Scarborough," he recalled. "We played Boston and York and one of the toughest games was
against Halifax.
"Look at where they all are now. You can't help but think that City could have gone the same way as those clubs."
With finances tight, Fieldhouse recalls early-morning flits from team hotels on away trips, rapid exits made in the knowledge that the club's payment cheque might bounce.
On one occasion, City's players hurriedly left their overnight base before a game at Gillingham, not realising that Justin Whittle was still in bed. He eventually caught up and played in a 0-0 draw.
Another long trip, to Plymouth, saw the squad scattered among various cheap guesthouses and hotels, six here and six there.
When cost-cutting led to players travelling by car to away games, Fieldhouse frequently drove members of the team in his own vehicle. He remembers being stuck in traffic on the M62 en-route to Halifax with three players in the car and an anxious Joyce on the phone.
According to Fieldhouse, City began to step back from the brink when they battled to a 1-0 victory over Carlisle United at Boothferry Park.
"Craig Dudley scored a last- minute winner," he recalled. "He was a loan signing – I can't remember from where – and nobody has heard of him since.
"It just built from there and they got on a great run. The Great Escape season was unbelievable with great memories.
"One memorable game was when we won 2-1 at Brentford, who were top of the table and flying.
"The form was so good in the second half of that season that we would probably have got promoted in second place if we'd played like that in the first half."
The following season, Joyce was sacked and the club – locked out of Boothferry Park – was close to going bust.
They were, Fieldhouse admits, "worrying times".
The ex-reporter, though, has no doubt about what provided the catalyst for City's sensational transformation in fortunes – the arrival of chairman Adam Pearson.
"He came in and did a great job," Fieldhouse said. "He is a city legend. I can't praise him enough for what he did and how he did it.
"He didn't do it overnight, it took longer than that, but the whole outlook of the club changed.
"He took the club to the next level."
Fieldhouse, who believes that the move from ramshackle Boothferry Park to the state-of-the-art KC Stadium was another major factor, has particular affection for the players who made the entire journey when he contemplates his favourite City stars.
He said: "I take my hat off to the likes of Ian Ashby and Andy Dawson, who have come up through the divisions.
"People like Gary Brabin and Justin Whittle were great characters.
"They often went unpaid, but they stayed at the club.
"More recently, the best I have seen was probably Deiberson Geovanni last season and Jimmy Bullard.
"It's unfortunate about the injury, but if they can get Bullard fit and back playing, they have every chance of staying in the Premier League."
That, according to Fieldhouse, holds the key to the next 10 years in
City's history.
He admits that the Tigers do face some problems and are in need of new investment, but reckons that Pearson's return has stabilised matters and playing fortunes are improving.
"In 10 years' time, I'd like to think that they will be an established Premier League club," he said.
"It is imperative the club stays up, if you drop out you lose massive amounts of money from Sky TV and other things.
"I think they have got a pretty sound platform now and having survived in the Premier League last year, I think they can do it again.
"Some Yorkshire clubs, like Bradford City, have really struggled after they've dropped out of the Premiership, but having said that, plenty of clubs have come up and stayed up.
"It is all about money and who knows what the game will be like in 10 years' time, but last year we won at Arsenal and won at Spurs, so it is possible.
"I think in 2019 Hull City can be a proud and viable Premier League club – then maybe I can sit down and write another book."
*From Bust to Boom – Hull City AFC: From the Brink of Extinction to the Barclays Premier League, by John Fieldhouse, is published in hardback by Great Northern Books, at 17. ISBN 978 1 905080 59 5. www.greatnorthernbooks.co.uk Tel 01274 735056.
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