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Having taken Hull City to world domination in CM 03/04 I decided to have another crack at it in FM. The task is made a little easier as I start a league higher than I did last time and have a few more quality players.
Season 2004/2005 - Preseason
I have £600k to spend and a little space in the wage budget. The squad is pretty good and a expect to be in at least a playoff place come the end of the season. With a few good signings automatic promotion wouldnt be out of the question.
The defence looks a little weak with only Damien Delany having any real talent. In come strong centre back Markus Heikkinen from Aberdeen for £28k, right back Dean Holden from Oldham for £160k and utility man John Hardiker from Stockport for £60k along with the 3 month loan of young centre back Ben Clark from Sunderland. A bid of £825k from Sunderland for Damien Delany was too good to turn down but I had adequate cover for his departure.
The midfield needed the least amount of strengthening only bringing in Craig Pead on loan from Coventry to shore up the centre with Junior Lewis. Jason Price was surplus to requirements and left to free up wage space.
The front line was fairly good but quite thin and with Ben Burgess out for the season I needed to invest. In came popular hometown boy Dean Windass for £8k, he was delighted to be returning to the club he had started out at so many years before. Also in came Junior from Derby for £100k and Trevor Benjamin from Leicester for £95k.
That was the end of the transfer activity for the time nad the friendlies were a mixed bag really. A 2-1 home defeat to Norwich was ok and achieved the main goal of bringing in a lot in gate reciepts. Next up were Marine who were brushed aside 5-0. After losing 1-0 to St Johnstone, preseason ended with unconvincing wins over Maidenhead and Queens Park 3-2 and 4-2 respectively.
With preseason finished and plenty of new talent brought in it was time to kick off the season. And I was quietly confident...
The preseason confidence showed as we went unbeaten through August. Stockport were comfortably pushed aside 3-1 in the opening game with Junior and Stuart Elliott opening their accounts for the season, the third was courtesy of Mr O Goal. A trip to Wallsall was next and it ended 2-2 but any ideas of stealing all three points were sscuppered as Dean Windass was sent off in injury time. Brentford were the first visitors to the KC 'and the Sunshine Band' Stadium of the season and their plan to thwart our attacks paid off in a pretty dull 0-0 stalemate. The first big Yorkshire derby of the season saw Huddersfield dispatched 3-1 with goals from Delany, Junior and Nicky Barmby. The midweek game saw a break from the league as we travelled to Wallsall for the second time already this season for the first round of the league cup, goals from Barmby, Junior and Pead saw us scrape through 3-2. A 3-1 win at Chesterfield finished the month well but it didnt look to promising when Junior was sent off after 12 minutes for two yellow cards, both of which were for diving! Windass with his first goal since his return to the club, Clark and Craig Pead sealed the win to save Junior's blushes.
The good form in the league continued in September with a 4-2 win at home to Bournemouth, a 1 all draw at t'Barnsley and a 5 nil trouncing of Tranmere courtesy of a Benjamin hattrick and a Windass brace. The League Cup run came to an end in the second round at Sunderland 2-0, but a 4-2 win at Barnsley saw us continue in the LDV.
October
Another month played, and another month unbeaten in the league! A last minute goal from Junior gave us a 2-1 win at Bristol City, and a comfortable 2-0 run out at Peterborough came before a disappointing nil nil at home to Port Vale.After a 2-0 home win against Wrexham we made a necessary signing in defence. With Ben Clark unwilling to return on loan from Sunderland for the rest of the season I decided to splash the cash and brought in Hayden Mullins from West Ham for £650k. Mullins went straight into the lineup and made his debut at home to Colchester and helped us keep a clean sheet as Windass scored the only goal of the game from the penalty spot.
Not the best of months started with a 4-3 home defeat in the LDV to 10 man Blackpool, despite being 3-1 up with 7 minutes to go. A 3-1 win over Oldham appeared to signal normal service had resumed but the following game we suffered our first league defeat of the season, 2-0 at Torquay. A 4-0 cruise past Canvey Island in the FA Cup first round was followed up with a good win away to Bradford, two nil. The month ended the way it had begun, with defeat, this time on the road again at Sheffield Wednesday 2-1.
December 2004
Apart from a shock 2-0 exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Cambridge we were free scoring in December, scoring five goals in three games in a row against MK Dons, Hartlepool and Luton. Christmas was spoilt a little by losing 2-1 to Doncaster but we went into the new year in high spirits after thumping Swindon 4-0.
Trevor Benjamin kept the team in high spirits with a hatrick on New Years' Day against Walsall. We continued in fine scoring form, scoring three against Huddersfield, Brentford and Stockport, while only conceding the odd consolation strike.Chesterfield were beaten 2-1 at the KC but were slipped up by the same scoreline on the south coast at Bournemouth. A Windass brace saw us overcome Barsley.
February 2005
February started poorly. A 1 nil reverse at Tranmere, a one all draw at home to Peterborough and 3-2 defeat in North Wales had us reeling. We showed great bouncebackability to win the next three games against Port Vale, Bristol City and Colchester to end the month on a high.
The run in begins well. Windass scores twice to give us victory over Torquay and some revenge for ending our unbeaten run earlier in the season. Then it's Big Trev's turn as he rattles in a hatrick as we squeeze past Oldham 4-3. Losing 3-1 in Blackpool does little to dent our confidence as we are already looking odds on to win the title. Deano scores to send Sheffield Wednesday packing.
April and May 2005
Confidence is sky high and we are free scoring once more. Defeat at Luton is a minor blip as we steamroller our way to the title winning 3-0 over Bradford, 4-0 over MK Dons, 3-0 over Hartlepool, 4-0 over Doncaster and 2-0 at Swindon. We are the CHAMPIONS, and by 19 points as well! Having played 46, won 33, drawn 5, lost 8, goals for 108, goals against 40, a goal diff of +68 and achieving an excellent 104 points.
Hayden Mullins, Craig Pead, Junior Lewis, Nick Barmby, Trevor Benjamin and Dean Windass are all selected in the League One team of the year. Windass was very happy at the club and had a blinder of a season scoring 31 times in the league, 36 in total, and was named Hull player of the year. An average home attendance of 20,635 is incredible for a club in the third tier of football but no doubt we will better that next season in The Championship!
On to The Championship, and obviously the squad would need strengthening to stand a chance of staying up. I had £1.4m to spend but I wouldnt be forced into spending it just because I could. Instead I got rid of the deadweight cluttering up my reserves to bring in a little revenue but more importantly to free up the wage bill a bit more. In came a solid backup centre half Clint Hill from Stoke for £95k. I decided that another area for improvement was right back so in came David McNamee from Livingston for £210k. Michael Falkenmayer and Stephen Kelly on free transfers would provide plenty of competent cover. I was pleased to bring in a quality goalkeeper in the form of Graham Stack as I doubt that Boaz Myhill is up to the challenge, although he will be on the bench this year. Kenny Lunt was brought in for free to provide more attacking options in midfield and Colin Healy on another free transfer and Alexis Nicolas on a season long loan would fight with Craig Pead (Brought in after a very successful loan spell last year)for the two central defensive midfield places. Joseph Desire Job and Hugo Viana were loaned in too to add to the forward/attacking midfield as quality there was a little thin.
With the signings complete and the stadium capacity increased to a whopping 36,000, it was time to get on with the two money raising friendlies. Dean Windass looked to have won the game against Newcastle but Nicky Butt popped up in injury time to equalise. The following week Everton were comfortable 2-0 winners but again the main objective was achieved.
Hull City Champions of Europe 20?? 
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