The date is 15^th October 1997, and we’re off to St James Park. The Third Round of the League Cup is the event – and gosh, do you remember how excited we all were? Our halfwitted local paper heralded the “Tigers on Tynesides”, and indeed we were, six thousand of us, in an impossibly glorious diversion from our travails at the arse end of Division Four.

We lost, of course. This was at a time when Newcastle United were a genuine power in the Premier League, having finished second the previous season. But our 2-0 defeat was eminently creditable, and came after we’d kept them out for 45 minutes. Eleven long years have passed, and we now sit above Newcastle in the Premier League – while we’ve zoomed up the leagues they’ve treaded water for most of that time, in no small part due to the foolishness of over-spending managers, witless boards and an over-indulged and toweringly dense support placing impossible demands upon these people. How things have changed.

And how our perceptions change, too. We’re going back in a cup competition, and boy are we underwhelmed. No gaudy yellow headwear from Hull Daily Mail is expected, no frantic scramble for tickets is envisaged, no feverish build-up, not even the likelihood of our first team being deployed. A decade ago a home draw with Newcastle and replay that would invariably be prefixed “moneyspinning” would have us salivating. Now? There’ll be no rotating currency, and a sense of duty rather than glory settling upon those who’ll be heading to Newcastle.

Which is a roundabout way of saying that just about everyone in attendance yesterday would rather this tie be settled at the first attempt. It wasn’t, and although the game was not too poor, a draw had a whiff of inevitably after as little as 20 minutes.

On FA Cup Third Round duty for the Tigers were: Duke; Doyle, McShane, Turner, Ricketts; Fagan, Boateng, Marney, Giannakopoulos; Geovanni, Cousin. An interesting line-up. Duke, Doyle and Giannakopoulos – who for brevity’s sake we’ll indulge with his preferred monicker “Stelios” from now on – had not a single Premier League start between them, yet the remainder of the team appeared fairly robust. McShane was stationed at centre-back, perhaps with an eye to ascertaining his suitability for defensive cover should Turner or Zayatte become unavailable.

For our guests to the Circle, their side appeared similar to ours – mostly staffed by regular choices, with a few obvious exceptions. Danny Guthrie, whose villainous act at St James Park inflicted a broken leg upon Craig Fagan, was bitterly heckled at every point during the afternoon, a fitting reaction to a profoundly detestable individual. Soon-to-be-sold Shay Given was in goal, former England international up front, one-time City target Carroll up front. Off we went.

City began kicking towards the mostly full North Stand, in which about 3,000 Newcastle fans were positioned. They started brightly, fashioning a decent opening for Carroll after a cross from the right, however his header was securely pouched by Matt Duke. Up went City, Geovanni smacking a long-range shot that caused little difficulty for Shay Given. His name was repeatedly sung by the Newcastle fans, desperate for him to remain; the City fans taunted him with “sold in the morning”.

Michael Owen found himself heavily involved in this zippy opening, and he had a shot deflected wide before being gifted a great chance to score when he collected his own back-header with Duke hesitating to dash out and McShane stranded – he lifted the ball over the City keeper but his shot bounced several yards wide. A poor miss, and a let-off for the Tigers.

Andy Carroll was the next to test The Duke when a defensive blunder gave him a clear shooting chance, however he flashed out a paw and batted the ball to safety. A cracking save.

City were creating only the chance to create chances, with promising openings squandered by taking half a second too long to play an incisive pass or incorrect options being selected. This was typified when Dean Marney broke on halfway, strode thirty yards towards goal with admirable intent but then dragged a shot badly wide instead of feeding a team-mate hovering on the right. Frustrating.

Fagan fouled Guthrie to present the away side with a decent opportunity from a free-kick – however, with him not being a total piece of shit, Craig Fagan elected not to break any of Guthrie’s limbs. Guthrie wasted the set-piece, to the general amusement of all.

The game was growing increasingly scrappy, with Newcastle’s good beginning having petered out and City failing to get into any kind of rhythm. Low-level annoyance with referee Chris Foy’s maddening fussiness grew and eventually saw McShane booked for arguing with a linesman for someone failing to award a corner in the north-east corner. Fagan was then booked for encroaching at a free-kick – harshly, it appeared, and Phil Brown’s exasperation was sufficiently vocal as to earn himself a ticking-off.

On we trundled, the word “replay” getting an increasing airing. The anonymous Charles N’Zogbia was replaced by the unmistakeable Jonas Gutierrez before City created their best chance of the game thus far. Fagan scorched down the left-wing, crossed for Cousin, whose volley struck the post and hit Given – this time there was to be no fortunate rebound, and Given was able to capture the ball. A brace of cautions took us to the break – Geovanni and Nicky Butt the third and fourth men to gain Mr Foy’s yellow censure.

If Newcastle had slightly the better of an average first half, City were to have slightly the better of an average second half. This need not to detain us too long, for the likelihood of a draw was already apparent. Boateng sent a tame shot straight at Given, Duke sliced a clearance straight to Owen in the area, but fortunately close enough to the by-line as to make shooting impossible, Gutierrez – excellent, we should note - was booked, and the match plodded on. Not unwatchable, but lacking intensity.

Ricketts shot harmlessly at Given, then at the other end denied Carroll a shooting chance with a superb covering tackle, Geovanni flashed a free-kick at the Newcastle keeper – he batted it away to Turner, who steered it to McShane, who paddled the ball over in a most endearingly ungainly fashion.

Losing interest? A little. Both teams wanted to win, but didn’t NEED to win, the replay loomed larger and larger in our thoughts, and everyone seemed to settle for it. Except perhaps Michael Turner, who smacked a meaty header against a post, which was gathered by Shay Given. From my angle a mere 75 yards away, it appeared to have crossed the line – subsequent TV replays show it was extremely close, and while the ball probably did go over the line, it was so close we can’t complain too vigorously about it being denied to us.

As Phil Brown made an attempt to win the game, Halmosi and King and replaced Cousin and Fagan, but the draw was not to be denied.

Hmm – rather abbreviated that second half, wasn’t it? This was not necessarily a poor match, but it had that note of honestly contested friendly rather than thunderously-contested League game. City played, well, okay. Newcastle did too. A few moments stick in the mind – Newcastle’s supporters ostentatiously cheering Danny Guthrie left a slightly sour taste, but their goading of our empty seats was intriguing. We trust there’ll be fewer than 4,500 empty spaces at St James Park on January 14^th.