HULL CITY

Hull’s rise gathered pace once the club moved into the KC Stadium. The new ground gave the Tigers a platform and, in 2003-04, their first full season there, the climb began.

It had been a difficult period before then. Financial problems had left Hull locked out of Boothferry Park in the early 2000s, and crowds were often little more than 6,000. By the time promotion arrived in May 2004, they were playing in front of nearly 18,000 at their new home.

Peter Taylor then delivered another promotion before moving on to Crystal Palace, and Hull continued to build in the Championship. In their third season at that level, Phil Brown’s side reached the play-off final, where Dean Windass struck the famous volley that took the club into the Premier League for the first time.

LUTON TOWN

Luton’s modern story is one of the wildest in the English game. Relegated from the Football League in 2009 after years of financial trouble and points deductions, the Hatters spent five seasons in non-league before beginning a climb that eventually took them all the way to the Premier League.

Promotion back to the EFL came in 2014, and once they got moving, they barely stopped. Luton went up from League Two in 2018, followed it with another promotion from League One in 2019, then established themselves in the Championship far quicker than many expected. The final step came at Wembley in 2023, when they beat Coventry City on penalties in the play-off final to return to the top flight for the first time in 31 years.

The Premier League proved a step too far, although they stayed in the fight until the final day. Relegation brought expectations of an immediate challenge, but the Championship campaign never settled. Rob Edwards left in January after a run of defeats, Matt Bloomfield arrived too late to fully repair the damage, and a final-day defeat at West Brom confirmed a second straight relegation, sending Luton into League One.