Middlesbrough.........a dull bit dull
Soon my National express coach is approaching Middlesborough. What a desolate place it is. Industrial, not artistic. Rusty, subsided structures invade the skyline. I took a picture of one or two or was it the same one twice? (How are you to know?) I couldn't be assed to scan it in - it's poo anyway.
Soon but not soon enough I am near the centre of the place. This is nice enough and the same as any other place, same shops, same pavements, precincts and what not. I make a move for the ground, but get off the coach first. On the way I take this truly great, and strangely informative, photograph of the best, sign ever.
After stumbling along to the club shop and asking for directions I find myself heading towards the ground.
It’s weird. It’s just surrounded by wasteground. There’s debris of old ships, rusting in the harbour and these weird grey structures dotted over the horizon. Beside the road I’m traipsing along there is just desolation. A fence divides the withering road from the barren, grass infested wilderness. Loose signs hang on the colourless fence warning children not to venture into this uncharted abyss. Yet in the distance and getting nearer with every step there’s a slick football stadium. It’s just like it’s been dropped from the sky. A pocket of the early 21st century in the wilting embers of the past.
Anyway I spoke to a Steward and picked up my tickets. I am relieved to have two, one for the game and a coach ticket back to Coventry. Listen to some band in the bitter cold. Their outlines against the rugged iron structure. I take a really dull photograph.
Need I say the game was crap. I wasted yet more of my Dads money on this shit. We are so crap. I could tell from the kick off we were going to be beaten. Middlesborough are a bunch of shit too. A grey day is completely confirmed when Ince elbows Rousell in the head and he’s out cold for couple of minutes, getting stretched off. How was I to know it would take a turn for the worse, in fact it was heading towards disaster.