Misery

To be a loyal Hull City supporter you need to be addicted to misery. Once in a while there are beautiful sunny moments, made all the more beautiful because of the sickness, gloom and sheer misery that is our staple diet. How my heart was lifted on New Year's Day when we went to Hillsborough and silenced the Sheffield Wednesday crowd with a magnificent team display. As their supporters filtered out with minutes remaining, we sang, to the tune of "Bread of Heaven", - "We can see you sneaking out! We can see you! We can see you! We can see you sneaking out!" It was a joyous way to begin the new year - Hull City's first ever double over the mighty Owls in my adopted home city.

So to today, lovely and bright - a great day to be alive. My brother Paul from Ireland departed at eleven for East Midlands Airport - to catch his flight home to Shannon. Then I jumped in the car and whizzed over to our mum's residential home to chat with her for half an hour before heading into Hull for today's match.

Hull City v West Bromwich Albion from Birmingham. They are a good team with lots of Premiership experience - including former England man Kevin Phillips. They had height, speed and presence. Our lads battled. You can't say they didn't try but they really created nothing in front of goal - not even something you could call a half-chance. We fell to a sucker punch on the hour, the defence unlocked by the alert goalmouth trickery of Diomansy Kamara.

The West Brom mascot

We were never going to get back. We were done for. The bright blue day suddenly became gloomy grey. I was sitting in the West Stand. Block W10 Row U Seat 266. Not recommended! The geography of the seating plan was such that supporters and stewards imagined that it wasn't a row at all but an aisle! I was up and down, up and down for people who weren't even sitting in our row. And some of them were so ignorant. They edged along and stood there, wondering why the great Yorkshire Pudding wasn't moving as I waited for "excuse me" or some other polite gesture. I'm a bit old fashioned that way. "Can I get by?" - "Ah yes you can but excuse me would be better - okay mate?"

The match drew to its miserable ending. The WBA fans were singing their hearts out while me and eighteen thousand other City fans reconnected with that familiar sick feeling in the pits of our stomachs. We are back in the relegation zone with games against Preston , Derby and Birmingham in the fixture pipeline. Oh woe is me! Anyone got a big jar of paracetamol or a good strong rope?