LONDON (Reuters) - More than a century after their formation and less than a decade after almost going out of business, Hull City are within touching distance of the top flight of English football for the first time.

The final round of fixtures in a remarkably tight Championship (second division) campaign take place on Sunday (2 p.m. British time) and Hull are the only one of the nine teams still involved never to have reached the promised land.

They went desperately close in 1910, their fifth season, when they missed out on goal average after losing their final game to Oldham, who went up in their place.

They have never been near since but that could change on Sunday. Victory at Ipswich Town, also in the playoff hunt, combined with a home defeat for Stoke City against relegation-threatened Leicester City would send them up automatically. Any other combination of results would leave them in the playoffs.

Leaders West Bromwich Albion are assured of going up thanks to their impressive goal difference while Stoke should join them.

Among the others chasing two remaining playoff berths are Watford, Crystal Palace and Sheffield United, all of whom have had recent spells in the Premier League. Bristol City, who last tasted top-flight football almost 30 years ago, are guaranteed a playoff place.

For most neutrals, however, the prospect of a new name in the Premier League remains attractive, not least for the unfashionable nature of the club and its environs, tucked away in a relatively deprived corner on the northeast coast.

The city, actually named Kingston-Upon-Hull and with a population of 250,000, claims to be the biggest in Europe never to have had a club in the top flight.

Its other claim to fame, for 17 years at least, was being at one end of the world's longest single-span suspension bridge but even that title has moved elsewhere. The glorious structure that was deemed necessary to bring Grimsby an hour nearer by car is now merely fifth in the pecking order.

When the Humber Bridge opened in 1981 Hull were in the old fourth division, and, despite a few subsequent ups and downs, that was where The Tigers were as recently as four years ago.

LOCKED OUT

They were lucky still to be in existence having been locked out of their old Boothferry Park ground in 2000 when they were in danger of going into liquidation. They were saved by a takeover and moved into the new 25,400 KC Stadium in 2002.

Having also narrowly escaped relegation into non-league football improvement on the pitch followed with successive promotions (2004 and 2005) and though they found it hard going in the Championship with finishes of 18th and 21st in their first two seasons, this year they have flourished.

Up against some other Premier League wannabes far more used to Championship football, well travelled operators such as 39-year-old local-born striker Dean Windass and former internationals Nick Barmby, Jay-Jay Okacha and Henrik Pederson have kept their heads in a superb run that has taken them to the brink.

"This club has been through some incredibly dark times and it's fashionable to knock the city but if we go the impact on the area and its economy would be immense," said manager Phil Brown, who once posed naked for the club's programme in a fundraising stunt.

"We've got a Premier League stadium, the staff, the support. I can't say for sure it will happen but if it does, this area will be ready for it."

(Editing by Clare Lovell)