Hull City have been upsetting the odds ever since the season began and they have no plans to stop just yet after beating Millwall to a spot in the Championship play-off final.
Hull City were expected to be fending off relegation when hit with a two-window transfer embargo.
Having not won away since March 10, they were also expected to get beaten by a Millwall side that missed out on automatic promotion to the Premier League by a point.
Add to that that it has been seven years since the side who finished sixth reached the Championship play-off final.
So, of course, it would be this version, the scrappy, inventive, brave version, of Hull that would rewrite that record, too, winning 2-0 here to put themselves within 90 minutes of a Premier League return.
Mohamed Belloumi was the hero of the hour for Hull City to fire them into the play-off final
Millwall ‘keeper Anthony Patterson was distraught after making an error for the second goal
For a match-up between Lions and Tigers this was a tie lacking in real ferocity but when the pressure reached its apex and the moment called for an individual to step into the spotlight, up stepped Mohamed Belloumi.
Sent on as a substitute just before half-time after Kyle Joseph felt the full force of a crunching challenge that left him in tears, Millwall never managed to contain Belloumi from that moment on.
Alex Neil tried. He took off left back Zak Sturdge in place of Alfie Doughty but within seconds the move backfired spectacularly.
Belloumi turned Doughty inside out as he drove up the right, before cutting in and spectacularly finding the bottom corner in front of the stand housing the boisterous away fans.
And so Belloumi continued to wreak havoc, sealing this contest by turning provider when teeing up fellow substitute Joe Gelhardt, who had only been on the pitch for 60 seconds.
Millwall goalkeeper Anthony Patterson looked distraught on the pitch when Gelhardt’s strike, which he got a hand to, trickled past it. It was an error and it sealed the tie. Multiple Millwall players dropped to the turf in devastation.
Hull will be underdogs again in the Wembley final later this month against either Middlesbrough or Southampton. But they’ve been underdogs all season… why stop now?
