Some thoughts on the most notable sartorial, graphical and material phenomena of City’s third Championship Play-Off final, from the build-up to the emotional orgasm that was the promotion parade at Queen Victoria Square a fortnight ago…
In an age of teams flying even for relatively nearby games, there was something old-skool cool about the squad travelling to London from Paragon Station with Hull Trains.
City announced two kit sponsorships ahead of the final, having played the regular season without back of shirt and shorts sponsors.
Cranswick Foods had their Gruiform (crane) logo, wordmark and tagline on the back of the shirts issued for the big game, under the numbers, and stadium sponsor MKM had their wordmark on the back of the shorts.
In the run up to the last game of the Champiosnhip season, City trained at Barnet’s Hive Stadium, practicing with the matchball for the final, gold accented versions of Puma’s ‘Orbita Ultimate’ design which the German firm say has twelve evenly sized panels to ensure precise weight distribution.
The drinking hostelry options for City fans around Wembley in 2026 were a far cry from the sparce and sub-optimal choices we had back in 2008. Boxpark Wembley became a fan zone for those Tiger Nationals who like that kind of thing and were prepared to shell out £13.67 for the privelage, and another (free) fan zone option was the ‘East Village’ next to the stadium. Boxpark image used with kind permission from @_chasingthegame_ on Insta.
Further afield, the club had taken over the Dolphin Pub close to King’s Cross station, temporarily rebranding it FER ARK, after the illuminated letters that still worked on the BOOTHFERRY PARK signage. All of these venues were collectively branded ‘Tiger’s Territory’, and the whole enterprise was a very cool exercise by the club. Chapeau!
The Tiger’s dressing room at Wembley was given an amber and black makeover, with a massive City crest on the floor, and ‘From Boothferry To Wembley’ graphics behind the player’s seats.
We’d already seen the diamond shaped Play-Offs sleeve patches in the two games against Millwall in the Semis, they were naturally present for the final, and they were joined by game detail text on the shirtfronts in between the Kappa Omini and club crest. It read SKY BET CHAMPIONSHIP PLAY-OFF FINAL, HULL CITY V MIDDLESBROUGH, SATURDAY 23RD MAY 2026, WEMBLEY STADIUM. I count this is only the fifth time we’ve had game detail on shirts.
There wasn’t as much free tat at this final compared to 2008, who can forget those cardboard Coca-Cola sonsored amber and black megaphones? There was flags on sticks on each seat however, with ‘Dare To Dream’ printed above the club crest flanked by MKM and KCOM wordmarks. These flags had an odd greasiness to them, which stayed on your hands, but they are machine washable and that gets rid of the grease.
A much larger flag with ONE FAMILY, ONE DREAM above the club crest was passed over fan’s heads in the lower bowl behind the game. As with the smaller flags, MKM and KCOM wordmarks were either side of the club crest.
Prior to the players coming out of the Wembley tunnel, the pitch at the ‘Venue of Legends’ was partially covered by a massive Sky Bet Play-Offs/EA Sports FC banner and two smaller banners, one for each club. City’s had the crest overlaid on a tiger stripe background with HULL CITY and THE TIGERS in white on black bars top and bottom of the banner.
A ma-hoo-sive version of the Play-Off trophy was seen on and at the side of the pitch before and after the game. Rumour has it that Acun claimed this and it was sent to his house.
Would Serjeg be a tracksuit manager of a suited boss? He seems to have gone right down the middle with some smart casual… a lightweight, unstructured blazer with a white tee (which appears to be a Mercerised-cotton tee with Double B monogram by Boss) over navy trousers and what look like Hugo Boss TTNM EVO knitted trainers.
Middlesbrough wore red Castore anthem jackets when the teams emerged from the tunnel, whereas City had just their match kit on. City had sourced some full-zip hoodies from Kappa Italy that featured game detail on the left chest, a transfer which had the crest circled by text reading From Boothferry To Wembley and Daring To Dream Since 1904 seperated by old-skool footballs. This graphic was also used at the Fer Ark pub on window graphics. The sleeves of the hoodie, called ‘Igojoso’ in the Kappa catalogue, had tonal Ominis on the lower sleeves. Alas, it was decided it was too hot on the day to put the players in black cotton garments. A shame.
Ivor Pandur was issued the yellow ‘keeper kit, marking the 19th time we’d used that colourway in 2025/26.
Our friends at GK Beaulah supplied City with a hand finished wooden plaque in lieu of a pennant, which we also had for the FA Cup final in 2014. This is things done right.
The second half shirt of goalscorer Oli McBurnie had a peeling small c by the end of the game. Against Wrexham in the League Cup the Beer Garden Baggio lost his c entirely.
Matt Crooks and Charlie Hughes give us a good look at the League supplied WE ARE GOING UP! flags.
Paddy McNair shows us his Play-Off final winners medal.
Whenever there is medals, there’s medals being bitten.
Kyle Joseph celebrating on crutches in an issued shirt was a vibe.
Then there’s McBurnie with a fag and a bottle of Stella. Mazin’. This game was a last hurrah for the Kappa Turkiye years, including those wonderful sliders.
At first I thought the ‘amber’ ribbons on the trophy might have been drenched with ersatz champagne, which would explain the colour, which is nearer to ‘old gold’. I don’t think it’s because of champagne.
The players wearing matchworn or issued shirts as they celebrate promotion with beers on Humber Street was not on my bingo-list, and I wonder if they players had three shirts made up for the game, because surely they weren’t wearing stinky second half shirts a day later? Photo: Steve Atkinson.
The amber on those tee shirts is a bit, well, orange.
The underside of the trophy got knacked between the Saturday and the Monday.
No pyro, no party. Down with nanny-state curmudgeons who object to this wonderful spectacle.
Couldn’t resist getting some stickers made. Coming soon to a lamppost and pub bog Johnny machine near you!