Belloumi and Gelhardt Send Hull City to Championship Playoff Final
Mohamed Belloumi and Joe Gelhardt sent Hull City into the championship playoff final with a 2-0 win over Millwall in the semi-final second leg. Hull will go to Wembley after overturning a side that finished 10 points above them in the league.
Belloumi Starts the Breakthrough
Belloumi opened the scoring for Hull after coming on as a substitute, and Gelhardt added the second to settle the tie. The goals ended Millwall’s run at the semi-final stage and pushed Hull through after the final-day push that secured their playoff place.
Hull’s Sixth-Place Run
Hull became the first team to finish sixth and reach the playoff final since Frank Lampard’s Derby in 2019. The club had only avoided relegation last season on goal difference, which makes this climb to Wembley sharper than the league table suggested when the season began.
Lewie Coyle said Hull believed they could go all the way after sealing the playoff spot on the last day, calling the achievement “Incredible” and adding, “It’s something we all believed we could do when we finalised that playoff spot on the last day in such dramatic fashion.” He also said, “We said: ‘Why shouldn’t it be us?’”
Millwall’s Late Collapse
Millwall had gone into the tie with a 10-point league edge over Hull and had missed automatic promotion on the final day, but the second leg slipped away soon after Alex Neil changed shape by bringing on an extra striker. Neil said, “We rolled the dice by bringing on an extra striker, conceded a goal straight away and then we were chasing our tails,” and added, “It’s a tough one because we feel like we’ve let people down.”
Hull had now won on their past three visits to Millwall, and the away end was loud enough that some Hull supporters were given free T-shirts by Acun Ilicali’s club. After the final whistle, fans from both sides had to be separated by police, ending a night that sent Hull on to Wembley and left Millwall stuck with another semi-final exit, their latest after previous defeats in 1994 and 2002.
