Sports Bygones: The day Darby's double hat-trick for Hull City created slice of FA Cup folklore

Not, it should be said, at the quality or otherwise of the goal, a sumptuous volley that was destined for the net from the moment it left Darby’s right boot.

Nor at the fact Hull’s equaliser had continued a quite madcap night of Cup football that had seen two penalties awarded and the hosts go ahead twice only then to need Darby’s dramatic late intervention to send the first round replay into an extra-time period that would end with the striker having written his name into football folkore with a double hat-trick.

No, the reason for Dolan chuckling at Hull making it 4-4 against the part-timers was a not altogether friendly comment from an arrested Hull fan who was being led down the tunnel by the police at the very moment Darby’s volley hit the net.

“The night had a little bit of everything,” recalls Dolan to The Yorkshire Post about a tie that took place 20 years ago this month.

“We were 4-3 down with 30 seconds to go and it was a time when I wasn’t the most popular man in Hull – and that is an understatement.

“The crowd was getting a bit restless and the police were escorting a fan out of the ground. They had brought him out of the South Stand and were taking him in front of the dugouts, towards the tunnel.

“Just as he went past me, we got the equaliser to make it 4-4. I can’t go into exactly what he said, as his language wasn’t the best, and The Yorkshire Post probably wouldn’t want to print it.

“But, basically, he said, ‘You are a lucky so and so, Dolan, as that has just saved your job’. And this was one of our fans, don’t forget.

“All I could do was laugh to myself, smile back at this fan and wave him off down the tunnel. We went on to win 8-4 in extra-time.”

There will be 16 first-round replays taking place this week, but surely none will come even close to the events of that unforgettable 1996 night in the East Riding.

The first tie between the two clubs had taken place on November 17 at Scarborough’s McCain Stadium, Whitby’s own ground not deemed suitable by police to stage a tie that would attract a crowd of 3,337.

Hull headed to what was affectionately known as the ‘Theatre of Chips’ sitting 11th in the basement division. Two relegations and three winding-up orders during Dolan’s near six years at the helm had left the Tigers at a low ebb and the manager, along with chairman Martin Fish, bore the brunt of the fans’ ire. A goalless draw against Northern League Whitby hardly helped matters.

Just 2,900 hardy souls, including a sizeable contingent from Whitby, braved the cold to witness a Boothferry Park replay that, eventually, saw Hull emerge triumphant.

“That night had a little bit of everything,” recalls Dolan. “Including, for us, a happy ending. The first game had been played at Scarborough because Whitby’s ground wasn’t up to standard for the FA Cup.

“It finished goalless and we were just pleased to get them back to Boothferry Park because it had been a typical Cup tie.

“As for the replay, I wasn’t involved in another game like that in all my career. It was a bizarre match, but the main thing is we got through.”

Dolan, whose career in football stretches back almost five decades, may have never quite seen anything like that Whitby replay.

But, almost a quarter of a century earlier, he had been involved in another dramatic tie when playing for Huddersfield Town that underlined just why the Cup has such a justified tradition for throwing up the unexpected.

“The FA Cup is a competition I have always loved and I have a few memories from down the years,” said the 66-year-old. “The Whitby replay obviously stands out, as does a quarter-final when I was a player at Huddersfield Town in 1972.

“We drew Birmingham City at St Andrews and I ended up having to go in goal after our goalkeeper (David Lawson) got injured. It was 1-0 at the time and we lost 3-1. We didn’t have much luck with ’keepers at Birmingham, as Terry Poole had been stretchered off down there the previous season.

“I didn’t fancy myself as a ’keeper or anything like that. I was just the only one who volunteered. There were 55,000 there and Birmingham had a front three of Bob Hatton, Bob Latchford and Trevor Francis so maybe 3-1 wasn’t too bad.

“The worst thing was Birmingham drew Leeds in the semi-finals. What a great occasion that would have been for Yorkshire football if we could have got through instead.”

Hull’s reward for seeing off Whitby in 1996 was a home tie with Crewe Alexandra. Once again, there were plenty of goals but this time Hull bowed out as the Railwaymen triumphed 5-1. Hull finished the season in 17th place and Dolan left that summer, Mark Hateley coming in as manager.

“It wasn’t a nice time and there was a lot of abuse flying about,” said Dolan when asked about that final season in charge at Boothferry Park.

“Myself and the chairman were targets for most of it. But we stuck at it. The thing about that season was we knew the club was going to be taken over by David Lloyd, we just didn’t know when.

“The takeover went on for so long and did get done, eventually. But it caused a lot of problems and the fans were not happy.

“During my final two years as manager, we had three winding-up orders and had to sell players just to survive. Dean Windass, Roy Carroll, Alan Fettis – they all had to go just to keep the club going.”

Looking back on his six years with the Tigers, Dolan, now director of football at Conference North side Bradford Park Avenue, added: “It was an eventful time, to say the least.

“People wouldn’t believe some of the things that went on, including our goalkeeper scoring a couple of times.

“Alan Fettis wasn’t in goal at the time, he had a shoulder injury that meant he couldn’t play there.

“But we were short of bodies so I put him on the bench, so he could come on as an outfield player. We were playing Oxford, Denis Smith was the manager, and 2-1 up with about 10 minutes to go.

“I sent Alan on and he got a goal. Then, on the final day of the same season, we played Blackpool.

“Sam Allardyce was manager. We had little to play for but pride, whereas Blackpool needed to win. We were struggling for strikers again so I put Alan up front.

“In the last minute, he popped up again and got the winner. Sam wasn’t happy afterwards.”