Birmingham City provided Hull City with £2.5m colossus: View | OneFootball

Curtis Davies is remembered with great fondness for his exploits in HU3

Hull City supporters so often reminisce about the club's most-successful period, albeit in truth it wasn't exactly too long ago.

However, what won't vanish anytime soon is the great moments provided by an array of mainstays in Steve Bruce's sides between 2012 and 2016 in particular, which saw them reach heights that no other manager in the club's history could manage before, or has been able to emulate since.

Bruce so often has a reputation for bringing in a wealth of experience and know-how to his sides, which was most-definitely needed back in the summer of 2013 after promotion back to the Premier League was secured.

And it would be fair to say that the striking of a £2.25m deal with Birmingham City provided The Tigers with a defensive colossus over the following four-year period.

Curtis Davies' first season in a Hull City shirt was exceptional

Prior to his move to East Yorkshire, Curtis Davies was named as Blues' Player of the Season and Players' Player of the Season in his final season with the B9 outfit, after scoring six goals across 2012/13 as Lee Clark's side finished 12th in the Championship.

Davies was hailed by Clark as a 'Premier League player in the Championship', and throughout his first season in Black and Amber, those words definitely rang true after an array of exceptional performances which landed him his new club's Player of the Year award.

The former Aston Villa defender fitted perfectly into the workmanlike mould of players throughout Hull's squad, with such an ethic imperative in their eventual survival, which resulted in a club-record 16th place finish, with Davies scoring his first goal for the club against Cardiff City on September 14th, 2013.

His impact on the team was felt immediately, which led to him inheriting the captain's armband for seven-straight outings, before taking it up on an even more consistent basis as the season progressed, as well as talk of a potential England call-up which, unfortunately, never arose.

Davies' fine performances and aerial ability were also felt in the history-making FA Cup run which Hull embarked on in 2014, heading home crucial goals against Brighton and Hove Albion and Sunderland in successive rounds, before his boss credited him with a major role in sparking a Semi-Final turnaround against Sheffield United.

"I didn’t say much [at half-time]. The captain did it all. It’s a long time since I’ve been in a dressing room when the captain takes over," Bruce told the FA's media channels post-match.

"He was a proper captain."

City went on to defeat their Yorkshire rivals 5-3, setting up a maiden FA Cup final against Arsenal, with Davies netting the second of Hull's centre-back double alongside James Chester inside the first eight minutes, with the experienced defender the quickest to react after Alex Bruce's initial effort was only parried away by Lukasz Fabianski, poking home from close range.

"As much as I was scoring for Hull City and we could have won the game, in the moment of scoring I was that kid in the playground that has been playing ‘cuppies’ or whatever you want to call it," Davies told the Independent years later.

Curtis Davies continued to be a defensive colossus for the Tigers

After captaining the side in two UEFA Europa League outings before being knocked out by Belgian side Lokeren in the Play-Off Round, there was further disappointment for Davies and Hull the following season as they were relegated back to the Championship, with the defender only present in 21 Premier League outings amid a thigh problem late in the season.

The message was simple upon their second tier return, which was to immediately regain their Premier League status, and Davies once again was there to stand up and be counted when needed, with 47 appearances in all competitions across the season, which included goals against Preston North End and Bristol City.

And, after squeezing past Derby County in the play-off semi-finals, Davies' contribution in the 1-0 win over Sheffield Wednesday cannot be underestimated.

With the score still deadlocked shortly after the break, Fernando Forestieri had the Tigers goal at his mercy, only to be denied by the imposing centre-back, who timed his sweep to perfection, allowing for Mo Diame to score a remarkable winner midway through the half, and send Hull back to the top flight.

However, a turbulent summer ensued, which saw Bruce depart weeks before the beginning of the Premier League season, as well as an infamous nine-man photo posted on the centre-back's social media profiles as Hull began their season with 13 senior players amid a lack of summer recruits and injuries prior to a historic 2-1 victory against defending champions Leicester City at the MKM Stadium, with Davies also arranging a post-match huddle with his colleagues.

"When you face adversity, it brings you a little bit closer,"he stated. "After the game, when we all get in a huddle, it’s letting out a bit of frustration and the fact that we’ve come through it and got a victory."

The 2016/17 season would prove to be Davies' last with the club, making 29 appearances under Mike Phelan and Marco Silva as they were once again relegated back to the Championship, before joining Derby County for an undisclosed fee, where his enthusiasm and battling spirit would once again be felt amid even greater turbulence at Pride Park, as well as a spell with Cheltenham Town before retiring in 2024.