The Tigers will be looking to prove many a pundit wrong as they prepare for their Premier League debut.
Tigers facing battle to avoid swift Championship return
Hull City are no strangers to being written off before a ball is kicked in anger.
Ahead of last season's campaign, many were predicting a battle against relegation from the Championship based on their narrow escape in 2006/07.
Even among the club's own fans, the best many were hoping for was that a change of ownership would steer them to the safety of a mid-table finish in English football's second tier.
A year on and things are no different on the prediction front; the Tigers are most people's tips to go down - only this time they find themselves trying to survive in the top flight.
Turning the clock back a few months, how many would have thought unfashionable City would be welcoming the likes of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea to their impressive KC Stadium in their debut season in the Premier League?
Hull, a team playing fourth-tier football in 2003-04, have experience of overcoming the odds and expectations. But can they seriously hope for more than finishing ahead of Stoke and avoiding taking Derby's unenviable record? The answer is surely no.
Inspired
Last season's Championship saw final points totals significantly lower than those achieved in previous years. Hull came third with 75 points, nine fewer than Derby 12 months previously, six fewer than Watford in 2006 and ten fewer than Ipswich in 2005.
Hull achieved what they did inspired in part by the goals of Fraizer Campbell. His loan spell over, he is now back at Manchester United and, despite manager Phil Brown's best attempts to lure him back to East Yorkshire, is likely to stay there. He scored 15 in the league; only Dean Windass also reached double figures.
And that statistic is surely the main reason why a season of struggle lies ahead for the Tigers.
Brown has brought in a number of new recruits to bolster a paper-thin squad but with time ticking before the Premier League campaign kicks off, none of the new signings are likely to score the goals needed to keep City's heads clear of the drop zone.
Approaches have been made for Bolton talisman Kevin Davies and Wigan's Marlon King while the latest names linked with a move east are former England striker David Nugent and Chelsea frontman Claudio Pizarro.
Brown is also keeping tabs on Campbell's situation. The youngster has seemingly impressed in pre-season but with no new arrivals at Old Trafford - and with Wayne Rooney likely to miss the opening games - it is likely he will start the campaign as back-up to Carlos Tevez and Louis Saha. Should that situation change, expect the former Derby boss to be hammering on Sir Alex Ferguson's door in a bid to bring him back to the KC.
The City boss needs to bring in two new frontmen to give the club a fighting chance so the remaining days of the transfer window will be vital for their hopes of survival. It's too much to expect veteran Windass to combine with the likes of Caleb Folan and Craig Fagan to find the net on a regular basis against higher class opposition.
The club certainly can't be accused of lacking ambition in the transfer market. They have added flair to a workmanlike midfield with the capture of Brazilian Geovanni and Hungarian international Peter Halmosi while George Boateng should add steel in the centre of the park.
At the back, defensive rock Michael Turner has been joined by the likes of Anthony Gardner from Spurs and French international Bernard Mendy but still expect KC stalwart Boaz Myhill to be kept busy.
Threatened
How the new faces combine with the promotion-winning side will also be crucial. Captain Iain Ashbee has been with the club since their time in the old fourth division and his place will surely be threatened by Boateng's arrival.
Defensive stalwarts such as Wayne Brown and Andy Dawson could also find themselves on the fringes of the first team with the boss looking to inject Premier League experience into the starting eleven.
Whatever blend Brown decides to go with, everyone at Hull knows it will be a struggle. Perhaps a favourable start to the season, with home fixtures against Fulham and Wigan in August, can keep the momentum going and maybe Blackburn is not too bad a place to visit as Paul Ince finds his feet in between those two games. But what really matters is that Hull remember where they came from.
In December 2002, Hull moved to the KC Stadium and at last the city had a venue at which you could imagine top-flight football. Their former home, Boothferry Park, was crumbling with only two sides of the ground fully habitable by the time the Tigers moved out.
There can rarely have been a better advert for moving grounds, with promotion won in the first two full seasons and then again in the fifth.
It is amazing City are where they are and their progress generally is not a fluke, even if the last step came far earlier than even the most optimistic fans could have predicted. The foundations for a sustained golden age for the Tigers are there, whatever happens this season.
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