Dave’s Ramblings – Hull City

It’s FA Cup day. Well… FA Cup night. And also FA Cup lunchtime, mid-afternoon, early evening, late evening, and “why is this kicking off now?” o’clock.

I’ve always loved the magic of the FA Cup. From the third round onwards there’s just something about it. Lower league grounds, dodgy pitches, heroic goalkeepers, and a lad called Dave (obviously) scoring the goal of his life.

That’s despite the Football Association doing everything humanly possible to kill that magic stone dead.

Back in the day, FA Cup weekend meant something. Loads of build-up, and the whole country watching together. Now matches kick off every five minutes across four or five days, six channels, and at least one time slot that feels like it was chosen by spinning a wheel.

I don’t even know when the draw for the next round is anymore. It used to be a big moment with everyone waiting, balls swirling, mild excitement over who’d get a home tie.

Now it’s probably on at about 3:17am, squeezed in between repeats of Bargain Hunt, a weather forecast from 2009, and a programme you didn’t even know existed until you accidentally recorded it.

By the time you find out who we have, someone’s already posted it on Twitter, argued about it, and moved on to the next outrage.

Still… it’s the FA Cup and somehow, even now, it still gets me.

So here we are in Hull. On a Friday night.  A former City of Culture, genuinely, and a place that gave the world orange chips, whether it asked for them or not.

This match will live long in the memory for Pedro Neto’s hat trick. Some will dismiss it by saying it was only Hull City, but three goals are three goals, no matter how you slice it. Add in our steady improvement, and it’s clear the work Liam Rosenior’s doing is paying off. Annoyingly so, for anyone who doubted him.

The coach said there would be changes, yet we still named a strong side. That’s something that definitely didn’t happen every week under Maresca. Growth comes in many forms.

We also got our first glimpse of Mamadou Sarr. It’s far too early to judge whether he’s what we need, but he did his job, didn’t panic, and didn’t set anything on fire. So, all things considered, it was a very solid debut.

On another day, we’d have been 3–0 up within 20 minutes, with Estêvão and Caicedo standing out, and the game basically over before the kettle boiled.

Instead, we made things interesting by waiting 40 minutes to score. When it came, it was a beauty. Slick passing, Neto curling the ball into the corner and from that moment on Hull were pinned back like a training drill.

Our second, and Neto’s, was less a goal and more a public service announcement on why goalkeepers should keep their legs together. Neto whipped in an in-swinging corner that missed literally everyone, including the laws of physics, before politely bouncing through the Hull keeper’s legs and into the net. Lucky for us, Hull were fielding a keeper with the defensive stance of a newborn giraffe.

After an earlier miss we all agreed to pretend never happened, Estêvão redeemed himself in the 59th minute. Some excellent hold-up play from Liam Delap set the stage, and Estêvão calmly converted. Confirming that confidence, like Wi-Fi, can drop out briefly but usually comes back.

Neto completed his first senior hat-trick with a calm finish into the corner, after Delap went on a rampaging run and selflessly squared the ball like a man absolutely determined not to score himself. That made it three assists for Delap on the night, which is some achievement for a striker who treats goals the way vampires treat sunlight.

To be fair, this was one of Delap’s better games. He bullied defenders, linked play brilliantly, and created chances galore. Sadly, without ever troubling the scoreboard personally. A superb all-round performance, if you conveniently ignore the small detail that his actual job is to put the ball in the net. 

And that was that. A comfortable win, plenty of shots on target, and no late collapse to endure. Frankly, I’m not sure how to process this, but I could get used to it.

My takeaways…

Liam Delap’s goal drought somehow found a brand-new way to continue. He celebrated a goal he hadn’t actually scored. After nicking the keeper’s kick, he watched the ball strike the bar and look like it had crossed the line. Convinced he’d finally struck gold, he raised his hand in triumph only for the ball to bounce back out, ruining the moment and his dignity in one go.

Presented with an empty net, he instead chose to argue with the referee. By the time he realised he still needed to shoot, the keeper was back, the chance was gone, and his scoring woes had officially entered farce territory.

I remain unconvinced by Delap. He’s young, he’s energetic, he does many things well, but as a striker he’ll always be judged by goals, and those remain the one thing his potential steadfastly refuses to deliver.

I did my research and can tell you that the fifth-round draw will be on Monday evening, just before Macclesfield take on Brentford at around 18.35. We’ll be ball number 7, so please direct all superstitions, prayers, and conspiracy theories accordingly.

Late in the first half, spectators were warned over the public address system to cease discriminatory chanting. I did not personally hear the chants, but Hull later confirmed that a number of arrests had been made.

While the exact nature of the chanting was not clear, there can be no ambiguity about the principle involved. There is no place for discriminatory behaviour in football, or in society, in 2026. This is not “banter” or part of the atmosphere. It is unacceptable and must be treated as such, without excuse or minimisation.

Pictures of the night can be found by clicking https://flic.kr/s/aHBqjCKnib

Onwards and upwards. UTC 💙