Archive for April, 2025

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Sheffield Wednesday v Middlesbrough, Monday 21st April 2025, 3pm

April 30, 2025

Three wins. After the victory in add-time over Plymouth on Good Friday, a play-off spot was still within our own hands. All we had to do was win our final three fixtures, starting with a Hillsborough trip. Sheff Wed had lost five home games on the trot going into the game and so an away win seemed feasible.

Jen and I were staying over in Sheffield for a couple of nights in a hotel that was just a fifteen-minute walk from the ground. I’d been to see a lower-league cup final in Mexborough in the morning and as it was all done and dusted within ninety minutes, I was back in the hotel with plenty of time to walk to Hillsborough.

The Boro were unchanged, although we’d added another centre-half to the bench with Lenihan joining Fry and Edmundson. I doubt that he was fully fit, but Carrick has a habit of including injured players to keep them involved.

We started well with Azaz finishing off a neat passing move after ten minutes and then Hackney winning a pen midway through the half. After Conway’s injury time spot-kick winner against Plymouth I had high hopes of him putting us two up. Unfortunately, the keeper guessed correctly on this occasion and kept Wednesday in the game.

We struggled in the second half, and it was no surprise when Wednesday equalised. Carrick tried a short-term reshuffle, moving Howson into midfield and pushing Hackney up into the ten role. That didn’t achieve anything and with a minute to go a failure to clear a cross enabled Sheff Wed to score a deserved winner. Conway had a chance in added time to snatch a point but hit the bar from close range.

It was another poor performance on a day when play-off rivals Bristol City and Coventry both lost. Ironically those results meant that we were in no worse a position than we had been when we kicked off. With two games remaining, two wins will be sufficient to reach the play-offs. Two wins. Surely that can’t be beyond us?

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AFP Pewter Pot v Westville, Monday 21st April 2025, 11am

April 29, 2025

My initial intention hadn’t been to go to the Boro’s away fixture at Sheffield Wednesday. However, I saw that a cup final was taking place in Mexborough, just half an hour’s drive from Hillsborough on the morning of the Boro’s game. A meaningful game at a venue with an interesting history was enough to tip the balance, and so we headed down to Sheffield for a couple of nights.

Jan and I broke the journey by stopping at Wharncliffe Woods, just north of Sheffield. We picked walking trails at random, although with a loose intention of making our way to a reservoir that we’d seen on a signboard in the car park. We didn’t manage to find it but spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering around. There wasn’t much in the way of wildlife, just some butterflies and a tethered Shetland pony.

The next morning, I drove past Hillsborough and on to Mexborough, where I parked on a side street close to the Fireparts Ground at Hampden Road. The game was the final of the Montague Cup, a competition that had been in existence since the 1896-97 season and is held to be the oldest football final still played at its original venue. It traditionally takes place on an Easter Monday.

This year’s final was between AFP Pewter Pot of the Mexborough Sunday League and Westville, a Sunday League side from Rotherham.

I paid my three quid admission and was given a free programme. The ground had a covered stand along one side, with terracing along the remainder of that side and at both ends. The side opposite the main stand was open as the pitch adjoined a cricket field.

In the corner was an old pavilion which I suspected dated from at least the time of the first Montague Cup final.

As I’d arrived well before kick-off, I was able to take a seat in the main stand. There was rain in the air, and I was keen to stay dry. The previous couple of years had seen crowds of around sixteen to eighteen hundred, but the lack of Bank Holiday sunshine meant that only thirteen hundred or so spectators turned up for this one. Even so, that must be a thrill for lads who normally play in front of between twenty and thirty people.

There was a mix of families, young lads on the beer, old blokes and weirdos like me. People were still making their way in late in the first half, possibly having found that all the parking had been taken in the surrounding streets.

Westville were the better side and went a goal up ten minutes before the break. The looked to have sealed it with a second twenty minutes from time. There was late drama though when Pewter Pot scored with a minute remaining. They piled on the pressure and thought that they had equalised in added time, only to be thwarted by the lino’s flag.

There was some argy-bargy at full-time and as I had a game to watch at Hillsborough I left them to it and cleared off before Westville lifted the cup.

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Murton Colliery v Seaham Island Social Club, Sunday 20th April 2025, 10.30am

April 27, 2025

With the Boro’s Easter fixtures taking place on Good Friday and Easter Monday, I’d normally have filled the Saturday gap with a lower-league fixture. However, Saturday was also the date for Stockton Calling and so we went to that instead.

As ever, it was worth the visit and it’s always good to discover new bands. Highlights this year were Sister Madds from Glasgow and a Liverpool band, Casino. No doubt we’ll be going along to see them again playing their own shows.

As I hadn’t been to a Saturday game, I nipped up the A19 on Sunday morning to the Murton Welfare ground for a fixture in the Premier Division of the Peterlee and District Sunday League. Murton Colliery were taking on Seaham Island Social Club in a clash between second v third in the table.

Murton Welfare is only twenty minutes or so up the A19. I’d turned up there a couple of years ago for a game only to find out that it had been postponed. It’s got a covered stand with benches in, a raised standing area and a toilet. All very impressive features at Sunday League level.

There were maybe thirty or so spectators and a few dogs including a pair of shih tzus and two sausage dogs. I passed three lads behind one of the goals who were taking the piss out of their absent mate, who apparently spends a fortune on fake tan but rarely brushes his teeth.

As I stood behind the benches, I noticed a sub who couldn’t have been far short of my age. I was hoping to see how he performed but unfortunately, he didn’t get a run out.

Seaham went a goal up early on and then added a second ten minutes before half time. I must have smiled or something when the second went in as a fella inquired as to whether I was an away fan. Perhaps an unfamiliar face is noteworthy in Murton.

The first half was pretty much one-way traffic, and the visitors could easily have been five or six up by the break. The second half was more evenly contested. Murton pulled one back on the hour and then the sides traded goals for an eventual four-two away win.

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Middlesbrough v Plymouth, Friday 18th April 2025, 3pm

April 26, 2025

Four wins needed. After the defeat at Millwall, we pretty much had to win our final four fixtures if we were to make the play-offs. I’d come out of the New Den accepting that we weren’t capable of doing that, but getting on for a week later, some of my usual positivity was returning. We’ve won four games on the trot before, so why not again?

It has been a good week for doing stuff. Jen and I had been to a talk about murder given by a retired detective, and we’d seen John Bramwell in a pub in Durham. It was our third Bramwell gig in the past three weeks and we’ve at least two more scheduled for later in the year.

On paper, you’d think a home fixture against bottom of the table opposition should be a near-certain three points, but it’s a tight league this season and Plymouth could easily stay up with two or three wins from their final four games. Despite centre-backs Fry and Edmundson being fit enough for the bench, Howson kept his place at the heart of the defence, whilst Forss got the nod over Burgzorg on the right of the three behind Conway.

Boro controlled the game with three-quarters of the possession and made three passes for every one that Plymouth completed. We took the lead when Azaz tapped home a Conway dink over the keeper that came back out off the inside of the post. Plymouth were level within minutes after another instance of playing out from the back going wrong and if Travers hadn’t pulled off a couple of good saves we’d have gone in behind at the break.

We didn’t really look like scoring in the second half, but Plymouth’s timewasting led to eight minutes of added time and as we entered the final stages a light touch on Conway’s back earned us a penalty. He took it himself and picked the right side to roll it home. A lot of the Boro fans had already left by that point, but Harry and I celebrated, not really believing our luck and reflecting upon how moments like that make it all worthwhile. Three wins needed.

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Oxford v Cambridge, Sunday 13th April 2025, 2.30pm

April 16, 2025

There were a few options for a football game today, but none of the fixtures or grounds were particularly appealing, so Jen and I went for a walk along the Thames instead. We’d picked an idea day for it as the Boat Race was taking place.

I’ve not really got much of an interest in rowing, despite having what I’d consider to be the ideal body shape of short legs and a long torso. I’m not sure I’d appreciate having callouses on my hands though. I dated a girl from Carlton when I was twenty who rowed for a club on the Tees, and it was like being tossed off by a scaffolder. Or so I imagine. Albeit rarely.

The four-mile course runs from Putney to Mortlake and so we took a tube to Richmond, with the plan of walking six miles along the Thames Path before reaching the race route in time to walk the course whilst watching the action and take the total distance up to around ten miles.

The early part of the walk took us around the edge of Kew Gardens on the southside towpath. Unfortunately, there had been some subsidence, and we had to cross the river and follow a detour that took us down Brentford High Street. There were some interesting sections where boats were either moored, being repaired or simply rotting away, but I think that it’s probably one of the less scenic parts of the Thames path.

We reached the Chiswick Bridge finish line around half an hour before the first of the afternoon’s races began. Whilst we’d hardly seen anyone else on the previous six miles, both banks of the river were getting busy. We stopped for what was billed as ‘German Sausage’ but was really just a hot dog. The pubs along the route were packed, but there were also plenty of quiet areas where people had brought a picnic and were able to sit quietly with nobody within fifty yards either side.

I got talking to a bloke who was supporting Oxford. I’m not really sure why he felt the need for an allegiance, as it strikes me as the sort of event that you can just let drift over you without the need for any tension. Maybe he liked a bet.

As we walked towards Putney, the boats went past at twenty-minute intervals. First was the women’s race then each of the reserve crews and finally the men’s boats. Each time Cambridge were well clear of their rivals, spoiling the day of their Chiswick Bridge supporter.

We finished the evening off with a Withered Hand gig upstairs in a pub. It went well, with plenty of early stuff and only the best tracks from the second and third albums. His new songs were well-received as was the support act, Darren Hayman. All in all, a good day.

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Millwall v Middlesbrough, Saturday 12th April 2025, 3pm

April 15, 2025

I initially had some university stuff on in Chelmsford this weekend and so Jen and I booked up for three nights in nearby London. It subsequently turned out that there wasn’t much benefit to me in attending and so that freed up my Saturday to go along to the New Den to see the Boro instead.

There’s always plenty going on in the Capital and our visit also coincided with a Sea Power gig at Islington Assembly Hall. They like to mix things up and on this tour they are playing songs from soundtracks that they’ve done, such as Man of Aran and From the Sea to the Land Beyond. They’ve also done one for a computer game, Disco Elysium. It won them both a BAFTA and a fresh set of fans, mainly young gamers. The crowd for this gig had far many younger people, than I think I’ve ever seen at a Sea Power gig, even twenty-odd years ago.

The track selection made for an interesting change, although I was hoping that they’d encore with something a bit more raucous. I think Sea Power are at their best when it’s all a bit chaotic, in the old days it would be Eamon off on a frolic with a drum, Phil knocking his teeth out stagediving or the bear on the loose. More recently it might be Noble crowd surfing, whilst Paul the guitar tech steps in for him. These are all things that I’d like the young gamers to see.

Jen and I also had time for a pre-match walk along Regents Canal. We were staying in Camden and went from the market area to Little Venice and back. We watched a couple with a boat navigating one of the locks and some monkey business in the London Zoo enclosure that backs on to the canal.

It was interesting to see the lifestyles of the people on the permanently moored boats along that stretch of the river. I’d happily live in one of them, I think, although I did feel the same about camper vans until we spent a week in one in Australia. Maybe I should try it for a short period first.

The match was easy enough to get to with a tube to London Bridge and then a five-minute overground journey to South Bermondsey. There’s a dedicated walkway for away fans arriving by rail and I was into the ground with plenty of time for a couple of beers in the outdoor area behind the stand.

It’s always a good feeling pre-match when the sun is shining and your team is still in with a chance of the playoffs.

My ticket was in the upper tier, in the second row and central. Carrick had made one change, taking Iheanacho out of the firing line after his performance against Leeds and bringing in Whittaker to the front three supporting Conway. We had most of the ball in the first half but didn’t do a lot with it. We rarely do these days, limiting ourselves to keeping possession and recycling it in the hope that the opposition defence might drop off to sleep.

Things got worse in the second half when Millwall stepped up the tempo. We couldn’t cope with the pressure and conceded on the hour. Even after going behind nothing really changed, but then again, that’s how it is with the players and system that we have. It might have been different if we’d hadn’t flogged off Akpom, Rogers, Latte Lath or even Jones. But when you sell your creative players whenever a bid comes in, that’s what happens. We will likely lose Hackney in the summer too.

Highlight of the day was bumping into Carl outside afterwards as we were held back to allow the Millwall fans first access to the trains. It was his first away game since the win on penalties at Old Trafford a few years ago. I suspect that after that performance it might be his last trip for a while.

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Middlesbrough v Leeds United, Tuesday 8th April 2025, 8pm

April 14, 2025

The Boro’s recent results have taken us up to fifth in the table, but whilst the performances have been better over the past few weeks I’ve still not really thought that we’ve played particularly well. The visit of Leeds would be a much harder proposition than most of our recent opponents.

Harry was ill, so I went by myself. Tom rang, suggesting a pre-match pint, but as I had to go and collect the season card there wasn’t time to fit it in. Next season Harry and I are moving to the South Stand so that should make meeting up with Tom that much easier.

There was one change from Friday’s Blackburn win, with the injured makeshift centre-half Neto Borges being replaced by Rav van den Berg. Dael Fry was fit enough to make the bench, but Jonny Howson rightly kept his place at the back.

We didn’t start well and were a goal down within two minutes. When we took the game to them, we looked dangerous and created plenty of chances. However, nobody had the composure to finish anything off.

In added time Carrick threw on Fry and stuck him up front. He seemed to unsettle the Leeds defence, but it highlighted the lack of options that we have since selling Latte Lath in January. Josh Coburn would have been a better choice, if only we hadn’t loaned him to a play-off rival in the summer.

Overall, it was a decent performance and there was a positive reaction from the remaining crowd at the final whistle. We dropped to sixth though and may well be seventh by the weekend.

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Peterlee Catholic Club v Horden JDB Wanderers, Sunday 6th April 2025, 10.30am

April 13, 2025

The night before this game Jen and I broke our journey home from the Northern League game at Alnwick to watch War of the Worlds at Newcastle Arena. It was ok, I suppose, but I wasn’t too taken with anything that differed from the original. There’s no need for new songs or guitar solos full of twiddly bits in the original tracks.

It’s probably the least-cool gig that I’ve ever been to, both content and crowd-wise, but that’s ok. I wasn’t ever a cool kid, and I’ve carried that into adulthood. Whilst I’ve so far managed to resist being a two-strapper or a four-striper, perhaps I’ve found my tribe.

I continued my uncool behaviour the next morning when I drove up to Peterlee to watch some football at Helford Road. Peterlee Catholic Club were taking on Horden JDB Wanderers in the second-tier Division One of the Peterlee and District Sunday League.

The Peterlee and District is an easy league for groundhopping. Most of their pitches are listed on the futbology app and the league’s website is well-maintained. The catchment area is just far enough from Teesside to be unfamiliar without requiring me to drive for any more than half-an-hour or so.

The area around Lowhills had a mix of housing including some of those flat roof houses that date back to Peterlee’s new town origins, and which have subsequently been converted to let the rain run off properly.

Horden went into the game in second place in the table, with the Catholic Club fifth in a nine-team division. The goal posts were old school, without stanchions and with the nets fixed to the ironwork with tape.

Horden held the advantage early on and the Peterlee manager had to instruct his keeper to feign injury so that he could reorganise his side. It wasn’t enough though and Horden took a first half lead with a goal that the home side vehemently protested was offside.

Both keepers were having decent games and there wasn’t a second goal until the hour when a Horden striker lobbed the advancing keeper to double their lead. Peterlee hit the bar and post before Horden broke quickly and sealed the points with twenty minutes to go.

The third goal provided an opportunity for both teams to give some of their fringe players a run out and with five minutes remaining a mazy run from deep resulted in a fourth and final goal for Horden.

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Alnwick Town v Esh Winning, Saturday 5th April 2025, 3pm

April 12, 2025

I completed the full set of grounds in Division One of the Northern League earlier in the season and had just three to go in the Second Division. One of them was Alnwick Town and as we had tickets for a John Bramwell gig in Berwick on the Thursday night, we decided to stay up there until the weekend and then call into Alnwick on the way home.

Bramwell was good, with a similar set to the one we’d seen a few days earlier in Stockton. It was in The Barrels pub, in a downstairs room that held around forty people. I spent some time before the gig chatting to an old fella sat at the bar with a beagle/Jack Russell cross.

With two days in Berwick, we took the opportunity for a couple of coastal walks. I like walking by the sea and all you have to do to navigate is remember which side of your body should be closest to the water.

On the Friday we walked around some of the old defensive walls before joining the coastal path for a total of eight miles northwards and back.  We passed The Stanks, where there is usually a football game or two in the summer. I’ll return at some point to tick it off.

On Saturday morning, we drove in the direction of Alnwick and parked at Budle Bay before walking past the Newtown Gun Emplacement and Bamburgh Golf Club until we reached the castle. There were rabbits in the fields and a bi-plane circling overhead. As we were pressed for time, we turned around at Bamburgh and clocked up just the six miles.

Alnwick play at St James’ Park and in black and white stripes. I’ve no idea if they named their ground and chose their colours before their Newcastle neighbours did, but someone somewhere has shown a lack of imagination.

We arrived at two o’clock as Jen had some things that she wanted to do and we managed to nab the last spot in the club car park. I suspect that every other car belonged to a player or official. Jen headed off to visit a garden full of poisonous plants. She returned later without any cuttings, so I guess I must still be in her good books.

After parking I returned to the gate to hand over my six quid admission. I bought a programme that wasn’t really worth the pound I paid for it. It’s nice to see paper programmes still being produced but there has to be something in them worth reading.

There was a clubhouse with a bar and a telly. I bought a cheese and onion pasty for lunch and watched the end of the Everton v Arsenal game. Moyes looked old, doddery and in need of a haircut. I know how it feels.

There were three seating options, a couple of padded seats outside the clubhouse that I presume were earmarked for directors, an old stand on the halfway line with wooden benches and a shipping container behind the goal with fifty seats. I started off in the latter and then worked my way around the rail.

Alnwick Town went into the game in eleventh place in the table with little to play for. Esh Winning were in fifth and hoping for a play-off spot. Alnwick took the lead just before half-time and saw out the rest of the half.

It was Grand National Day and so I delayed my return to the side of pitch and watched the race in the bar. I’d backed the horse that eventually came second, so got a run for my money. I’m not really sure why I didn’t go this year as it’s definitely the place to be. Maybe it’s the size of the crowds and the scrum at the gates.

I headed outside to learn that I hadn’t missed any goals. There were plenty of chances at both ends in the second half, but Alnwick held on to take the points and dent Esh Winning’s play-off hopes. Two Northern League grounds to go.

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Langwathby United v Eden Valley Reserves, Tuesday 1st April 2025, 6.15pm

April 11, 2025

One of the good things about being back in the UK is the number of gigs that we can get to. This one was at the Theatre on the Lake in Keswick and a two-night trip worked very well for fitting in a couple of walks and, with the lighter nights, an evening fixture in the fourth division of the Westmoreland League. That’s the eighteenth tier of the English pyramid.

The gig was Our Man in the Field. We’ve seen him a couple of times before and he was better on both previous occasions. The sound was poor early on and I thought his new songs a bit dull. With the venue being a theatre, there was an interval for consuming those little tubs of ice cream and about a third of the thirty or so people in the crowd didn’t return to their seats afterwards.

The walks went well. On the first day we took the circular route around Derwentwater, a route where you’d think that it would be difficult to get lost. We missed a turn towards the end though and extended our day from a planned ten to an eventual eleven miles.

The highlight was feeding a duck from my hand. I like it when a bird is trusting enough to do that. It had a more solid peck than the crow that I’d fed in a similar way the previous week.

On the second day we took a path towards Cockshot Wood, intending to just do an out and back walk of a similar distance. However, the path looped around towards the lake, and we ended up retracing some of the previous day’s route, albeit in the opposite direction. It was good to have walked on consecutive days and a total of seventeen miles will have boosted the step count average.

The game was just outside of Langwathby, on the outskirts of Penrith and an easy enough half-hour drive from Keswick. The Tollbar ground had a couple of pitches and a cricket field. I arrived to find the car park full and joined those parked along the hedgerow of the road outside.

From what I understand, Langwathby United broke away from Eden Valley Reserves in the summer. They’ve done well for a new club, sitting towards the top end of the division. Maybe they took all the decent players with them as Eden Valley Reserves were bottom of the table with just a single point from their sixteen matches to date.

I got chatting with a fella who pointed out a not-so-secret World War 2 bunker amongst some nearby farm buildings. Apparently, a tank was hidden there in case of an invasion and was intended to either defend or blow-up a nearby bridge depending on how the fighting was going. He knew a few of the players and he picked up on his conversations with them on village events whenever play brought them back to our section of the touchline.

There were a couple of early goals. Eden Valley went one up through a defensive error and then promptly equalised with a finish that I managed to snap as it went in. The visitors regained the lead after some further slack defending and went in at the break with a two-one lead.

There were some harsh words in the Langwathby half-time huddle, and they were better in the second-half, managing to equalise. Eden Valley held on for the draw though and doubled their points total for the season.

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