signing Hulse for a fee believed to be in a region of £750,000, but Hulse did not wish to sign for the Blue Birds. West Bromwich Albion West Bromwich Albion signed Hulse for a fee of £750,000. He made his debut for West Brom in their 4–1 defeat at Walsall, but scored his first goal for the club in the 4–0 home win over Brentford. Hulse played a key role in the club's promotion challenge prior to having a stomach injury during the Christmas period. After recovering from this injury, Hulse made a further 19 appearances, finishing the club's top scorer. Despite his influential role in the previous year's promotion campaign, Hulse was given little chance to prove himself in the top flight, this was because of the summer signings of Robert Earnshaw, Geoff Horsfield and Nwankwo Kanu. Hulse only played seven games for West Brom during the 2004–05 season, scoring no goals. Leeds United Having played a relatively small number of games in comparison to his fellow strikers at West Brom, Hulse decided to join Leeds United on loan for the final three months of the 2004–05 campaign instead of a £1.2 million switch to Stoke City. His debut was spectacular, scoring two individual goals struck from outside the box against Reading. The success of the loan spell led to a £1.1 million transfer to Leeds. Hulse scored 20 goals in 51 games. He was the club's top scorer with 14 goals in the 2005–06 season despite being in competition with several forwards including Robbie Blake, David Healy and Richard Cresswell for a place in the side as well as playing with an ankle injury during the start of the season. Sheffield United With Leeds failing to gain promotion to the FA Premier League, Hulse's ambition led elsewhere and in July 2006, Leeds accepted a bid of £2.2 million from Sheffield United although the fee could have risen to £3 million, beating Norwich to Hulse's signature. Hulse scored on his debut for the club against Liverpool; scoring the first goal of the 2006–07 FA Premier League season, although Liverpool managed to equalise through a Robbie Fowler penalty. He went on to be the club's top scorer for the season, netting regularly until March. On 17 March, Hulse and Chelsea goalkeeper Petr Čech challenged for the ball in a league game at Stamford Bridge, resulting in a horrific injury. Hulse