I hadn’t planned to see the Boro this weekend. In fact, I’d arranged a weekend over in The Lakes long before the fixtures were released. I’d spotted a Boo Hewerdine gig near Kendal and booked two nights in a 1958 vintage Airstream caravan just twenty minute’s walk from the Staveley Pavilion venue.
The airstream was an interesting experience. It was very stylish but the toilet was so cramped that when having a dump I needed to extend my feet into the kitchen area.
The gig was good. Boo was performing by himself, albeit with two support acts. It was a sold-out capacity of around sixty in a hut also used by 1st Staveley Scouts. Tea and coffee was free if you made it yourself and alcohol was available from the pub across the road, as long as you took your own glass.
My plan had been to look out for a lower level game in the Westmorland or West Lancashire Leagues, but when checking what was on, I discovered that we were only forty-eight minute’s drive from Deepdale. At that distance, the chance to see the Boro attempt a record breaking fifth consecutive league win at the start of a season was too much to pass up.
I headed down the M6 to a pre-booked parking spot in Sainsbury’s. It worked well until after the game when it took me longer to get out of the car park than it did to drive the rest of the journey back to Staveley. As I hadn’t anticipated a three-quarters of an hour bottleneck, I exceeded my booked time and now expect to receive a parking ticket.
The last time I was at Preston, I didn’t have enough priority points for an away ticket, so Harry and I had to go in the home hospitality section. This time I was one of the 5,700 Boro fans in the Shankly Stand behind the goal. It was a decent atmosphere, or at least it was until Preston scored their opener, but the big crowds always attract a disproportionate number of glass-half empty people who like to make their displeasure known. The applause for Whittaker’s substitution was disgraceful.
I thought we were off the pace in the first half but got better after the break with the staggered introductions of Strelec, Nypan and Hansen. Once we get to a stage where all three are starting, we’ll be quite a force.
It all appeared to go tits up when Preston went 2-1 ahead with just two minutes remaining, but Hansen’s added time equalizer felt like a win. We are top of the league, say, we are top of the league.
Tags: Deep despair at parking ticket, Deep in added time, Deepdale
Trail of the Lion King 
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