City fans since I first started going in the early eighties have appreciated three types of player the most in my opinion. Firstly the hardman, the tough tackling workhorse, that often modern football eliminates in how it is these days, thus Ian Ashbee still has his name sang, Billy Whitehurst almost has a mythical status, and Paul McShane is also well remembered. Secondly the flair player, the one who can do special things and entertain, the likes of Whitmore, Okocha, Geovanni, Barmby or Marwood are much loved. Finally the goalscorers, the times we had the difference maker up top, from Chris Chilton to Waggy and from Keith Edwards to Jarrod Bowen, these players are another level of popular, and hold a special place in our memories.
Lots of which I’ve covered over the last four years, often in the form of my reoccurring series, “The boy was a larker”. If I didn’t love all of the people in the list above, my old man did and they tend to be pretty popular with you lot too. Anywho… as ever I’ve took an awful long time to get around to saying, I started to think of some of the players during the years that would never get this treatment. Players who weren’t that level of beloved but might have been quite liked, whos place in our 121 year history may fall short of a full chapter, however perhaps still deserve credit. In truth this could be a whopping list because it contains everyone that wasn’t great, but also wasn’t terrible, so that’s a lot of football players. But digging deeper than that, who were the unsung heroes? Who didn’t really get the plaudits because they were neither great entertainers, goalscorers or hard men, but still were integral parts of our success? I’m going to go for one in the last 5 decades and see what you think.
As ever send your unhinged hate tweets on X to @thelikesofhull or block me and retweet lunatics who think ever more mad things about the world’s events whilst thinking that your last three girl friends left you because they were out of touch… you know… either or. Of course you might be reading this on bluesky too, and even thought it’s a bit quieter there, I’ll keep trying to put the blogs on both sites, as I know Elonville isn’t everyone’s bag these days. UTT.
Eighties Andy Flounders
Yes I think I mentioned him in a recent blog on outstanding subs. But Flounders really was criminally underrated and (as is often the way with Hull born lads). He was a proper poacher and a proper nine in an era when we didn’t really have someone of that ilk. You had Whitehurst as the target man, and lots of “ten” type players like Massey and Marwood, but Andy was an actual finisher. You’d think 54 in 126 games would mean he’d be hard to hang on to, but we actually sold him on to Scunthorpe who were at least a division below us (if not two) in 1987, a remarkable 175 in 408 during this pro-career also shows he didn’t lose his touch. Several of his goals were key ones (not least in the insane 5-4 away win at Leyton Orient in the 84/85 promotion season). He scored a mental overhead kick once at home to (I think) Bristol Rovers that same season. Andy Flounders never got the dues he deserved at City for me.
Nineties Graeme Atkinson
The nineties were a strange time to be a City fan, they started pretty badly dropping to the third level, then because of Windass and a few crafty buys they bucked up as we pushed hard to make the play offs two years in a row, then at the end of the decade we capitulated from one horrendous catastrophe to another, dropping to the lowest level and then more than flirted with going out of existence or the football league or both.
I think a few posters on X have said we overrate those who weren’t totally crap in this era as there was so little to cheer, and I do think there’s validity in this. However Graeme Atkinson fits the bill for this piece. Making his debut as we were leaving the second level as a teenager and then leaving City at just 23 to join Preston North End.
It’s a tribute to Dean Windass really with the sides of 92-95 because he dragged some pretty average talent along with him but I don’t think that includes Graeme, who could play an attacking 8 role, or push on to a number 10. He could pop up and score goals, he ran and ran and he had a nice touch in an era when not many fellow players did. He was good in the air for a smaller player and was an overachiever. In truth we probably sold him to pay the bills, but unlike other sales at a similar time there was no major enquiry. Dolan probs made a few quid too (he often got cuts of players sell on fees), so he could polish his head, wear new white superleague shorts and be shit, so the club won’t have seen an awful lot of the money paid. He had good spells at Preston and Rochdale after leaving us and I think he’s one of the more underrated players from his era.
Two thousands Junior Lewis
After a relatively good start, I’m going to risk it a little with this selection. Junior was one of the real boo boy targets of the time and was not flashy in the least. Peter Taylor had taken him from Gillingham to Leicester to Hull as he managed each club, and when he signed for us I remember Leicester fans on the message boards basically warning us like he was a large hurricane just off the East Coast of America.
He’d mainly line up in deep lying midfield, but could also play in defence on occasion. He was essentially the coach on the pitch, trying to keep the ball, shield the defence and control the opposition. In an era of Allsop, France, Elliot, Fagan, Burgess, Green and Barmby, this didn’t exactly mean he was prime Jude Bellingham. However he was the experience and the calmness that allowed City to counter attack teams and keep a lid on things in our half of the pitch.
Was he entertaining? No. But was he an integral factor in helping us get back to back promotions? I think so.
I’ll get my coat.
Twenty tens Alex Bruce
Again Alex isn’t a sexy pick, which is sort of the point. He wouldn’t and couldn’t be Curtis Davies, or Michael Dawson, Harry Maguire or Paul McShane. He just fitted into the squad, played when he was needed, rarely had a bad game, occasionally absolutely battered an opposing player and did his job. It’s easy to turn your nose up at him, he was the gaffer’s lad, but in truth he was a perfect squad player. He played 32 times in the promotion winning season of 2012-13. We needed him and he didn’t let us down. Sometimes we appreciate the players who come in and don’t lay an egg when we see the state of some of them who do… ahem.. cough.. Liam Ridgewell…
Alex fits well into the category of underappreciated in particular.
Twenty twenties Josh Magennis
Don’t start me on the squad of 2020-21. We’ll fall out. They are without a shadow of doubt, the least appreciated and most maligned group in the recent history of our club. We’re in the middle of covid, the owners are about as popular as “Brian Laws for men” aftershave and the best two players left in January of that year. We’re managed by a man who would be less welcome than at a Terry Dolan look-a-like competition than Terry himself, should it be held in Hull. There’s no crowds, there’s chaos all over the world. And bit by bit by bit, the most unlikely of stories begins to develop. On i-follow, this young City team can play and despite some of the big names in the league (Portsmouth, Sunderland, Charlton, Plymouth) they get a bit of momentum going.
Jacob Greaves and Keane Lewis Potter are new potential stars, Malik Wilks is a bit of a maverick but an entertaining one, George Honeyman is running midfields. We’re ok. And in the middle of it, galvanising us, calming us and keeping it sane (specifically Malik) is Josh Magennis. With his big shaved head and massive arse. Holding the ball up and sticking it on league one defenders so KLP can terrorise them. 19 goals in all competition to boot.
Yeh, you can tell me he’s a league one player, you can say they shouldn’t have gone down. But they did and he was, he was a really good league one player and he helped that City side go back up. That’s before we talk about the man as an emotional leader in the dressing room. Him and George will always have a place in my heart, because they got that dressing room together in the toughest of circumstances and won that league.
Fast forward to me driving home this week from the supermarket on Saturday, in the build up to the FA cup final, they talk about the leading goalscorers in this year’s competition… in the EFL.. Josh Magennis. Just getting an extension to his contract at 34 at Exeter after scoring 12 goals last season. You’re ok by me Josh, underrated and in the toughest of times, you stepped up for us.
Hope this finds you all well, call me a snowflake on Twitter and up the mental asylum Tigers..