Academy will cash in if Hull City spike Gunners

The Tigers have received a £10,000 donation from Gordon Gibb, owner of the club’s main sponsor Flamingo Land and, as an additional financial bonus, Gibb will donate a further £40,000 to the academy if Steve Bruce’s side overcome the Gunners at the KC Stadium.

Gibb has been impressed by the progress of Hull’s academy side, managed by Tony Pennock, and inspired by the success story of 16-year-old Josh Tymon, who made his first-team appearance in the cup game at Bury and also featured at the Emirates Stadium just over a fortnight ago.

Tigers’ manager Bruce said: “The academy continues to come on leaps and bounds under Tony Pennock and this kind of gesture from Gordon allows us to invest further in the facilities down at Bishop Burton.

“Josh Tymon proves there is talent in our academy and hopefully the extra investment will provide extra opportunity for our young players coming through.”

Pennock, who has overseen the club’s transition to a Category Two academy, added: “We always welcome any type of donation and Gordon has been extremely generous with his offer.

“As he has proven at other clubs, Gordon has a keen interest in developing young players and he has obviously been very impressed with Josh’s involvement in the first team.

“Hopefully, Josh can push on to be part of Steve Bruce’s squad consistently and we can see other players coming through on the back of this investment.”

Tymon said: “With this donation, I hope some of my team-mates in the academy will get the opportunity to make the step up and we can have a few Hull-born youngsters in the first team.”