Match Preview: Highway to Hull

They'rrrrre Grrrrrreat!

Who are we playing?
Hull City or Hull City Tigers though from next season just Hull Tigers. Confused? Ask Assem Allam to explain it.

Where are we playing?
The KC Stadium

Can I go?
If you've not got a ticket already, sadly not. The away end has been sold out for ages.

How many are we taking?
We have an allocation of 2,500 tickets. They cost £30, which is quite reasonable compared to other grounds.

Easy to get to?
The train can be a pain and hideously expensive. Villa have laid on free coach travel to this one. If you are driving be aware due to the Hull Fair that the massive Walton Street car park at the ground is CLOSED, which will have a knock on effect on other parking around the stadium. There's a park and ride option or you can park in the city centre and do the 15 minute walk to the ground.

Can I watch it on the telly?
Of course not! It's a Saturday three o'clocker! Extended highlights will be on Sky Sports on Saturday night and you can catch a flavour of the game on Match of the Day. As we're not playing a London or Manchester club, we'll probably be close to last on.

Do Hull City have any famous fans?

Turns out she's a Tiger

Well there's Sinitta, though we're pretty sure that the Tigers are her second team. A bigger surprise is that property guru and unstoppable baby producing machine Sarah Beeny follows the team. Impressive as that pair might be, we've got Geezer Butler out of Black Sabbath. So we win.

Who's playing for us?
Paul Lambert loves playing his cards close to his chest, but his biggest decision will be whether to keep the formation he favoured against Man City, or if not, which defender loses his place. We'd expect Gabby to start if fit, while Westwood will be looking for a midfield birth, but with Delph looking untouchable, Sylla working his socks off and El Ahmadi getting on the scoresheet last week, he may struggle to get back in.

Who's playing for them?
They've got ex-Villa man Curtis Davies who has come on in leaps and bounds since he left us. Old Potatohead picked up a couple of gems from Spurs in Huddlestone and Livermore. However the team will greatly miss promising young players James Chester and Robbie Brady who definitely miss the match.

Any useless stats?
Of course, here you go:

• Villa have won half of their last six Premier League away games, though two of those were against Norwich City.

• In Hull's last spell in the top flight, they lost to Villa every time they met.

• Hull have yet to lose at home in the league this season.

• Hull City last beat Aston Villa at the old Boothferry Park ground on 29th August 1987 as Villa adjusted to life in the old Second Division under new manager Graham Taylor. The score was 2-1.

• Villa won the return game 5-0 on 1st January 1988, which while being great, was quite painful if you were nursing a New Year's hangover

He said, she said:

“We’re maybe fortunate that Benteke isn’t playing because at the moment he is as good as any striker out there." - Potatohead

"The belief here has never wavered, it's always been there. I've never had a problem picking players up after a loss, or keeping their feet on the ground after a win." - Lambo

Prediction:
In this section last week, we predicted a high scoring draw, though we were bolder on the day of the match on Twitter, going for a 3-1 victory. Even though standard Villa behaviour after a morale boosting win is to suffer a soul-crushing defeat, we think the esprit d'corps will shine through and we are going to boldly state that another away win is on the cards, but we'll have to graft for it.