Archive for January, 2026

Hercules B v Atletico Saguntino, Sunday 11th January 2026, 11.30am

January 16, 2026

As it hasn’t really warmed up much Jen and I decided to have a week in Spain. The easiest option was an evening flight to Alicante from Teesside on a Friday night. The only downside was that it didn’t land until after ten and I thought it a bit late to collect a hire car and head off somewhere quieter.

Alicante itself is pretty good out of season though, warm enough for strolling about in a tee shirt and with far fewer visitors than would be around later in the year.

I was working during the week, but at the weekend we fitted a couple of walks in. The first one took us along the coast to Albufereta via a disused railway line and through some tunnels. The second one went back from the coast and up to the Sant Ferran castle. It gave us views down to the sea and also of the other castle, Santa Barbara. The second walk also incorporated a game at the Antonio Valls stadium.

The fixture was in the fifth tier between the B team of Hercules and visitors Atletico Saguntino. The hosts were mid-table with Saguntino second from top.

The area of town where the game was taking place was full of grounds. The main Hercules stadium was just across the road and there was an athletics field next door. An under-fourteen’s match was taking place nearby. There was also some other kind of indoor sports venue where the spectators were making a lot of noise. It might have been a swim meet. Perhaps with sharks or piranhas.

Jen and I arrived about five minutes before kick-off and found a spot in the main stand that was temporarily in the shade.

As well as our stand, there was another uncovered stand opposite, just slightly smaller. A few people were watching from a railing to the right where volleyball and basketball games were in progress. There was a small café with a handful of people congregated outside and a some benches that were popular, particularly the ones in the shade. I’d estimate the total crowd at about four hundred.

A fella with an impressive combover was directly in front of us. I reckon that he only had about an inch of hair remaining, but he had somehow managed to hide all evidence of hair loss. Fair play to him.

There weren’t many chances in the first half and whilst Saguntino were on top, it was goalless as the teams went off. I bought a couple of tiny empanadas from the café. They seemed to have nothing more than ketchup inside. I doubt they will catch on.

We switched to the smaller stand for the second half to try and take advantage of the shade. I’ve a feeling we nicked the spot of someone behind us in the queue for the ketchup pasties.

The visitors took the lead just after the hour when a corner led to a goalmouth scramble and an eventual poking home at the back post. Hercules applied pressure, but deep into added time they lost the ball and were hit on the break. Sagutino’s second goal confirmed the victory and after allowing the post-goal argy-bargy between the players to peter out, the ref brought matters to a conclusion without bothering to kick-off again.

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Middlesbrough v Southampton, Sunday 4th January 2026, 3pm

January 5, 2026

It’s fairly chilly at the moment with temperatures hovering around the freezing mark and the odd flurry of snow lingering on the ground. I’d planned to meet up with Paul at a Ryton and Crawcrook game the day before, but it was no surprise when a frozen pitch saw that fixture postponed.

The dogs don’t mind the snow though and Jen and I walked them to The Green so that the labrador could chase a tennis ball whilst the beagle pottered around. Despite his age, Henry still hasn’t grasped the idea of returning the ball for it to be thrown again and if he does manage to get hold of it will just walk around with it in his mouth. Millie will retrieve and return the ball all day long.

It was no warmer walking to the Riverside, but as ever, there was someone wearing shorts. Harry suspected that he must be a postman and that may very well be the case. We met Tom and Murgy at the fanzone where there were far fewer people than there usually are. We were served in seconds, whereas there is normally a lengthy queue. Maybe the club need to move into the mulled wine market rather than relying on ice-cold Carling.

The main talking point pre-match was the return of Finn Azaz. He made the mistake of alienating some fans with his departing comments about Southampton being a ‘Premier League’ club and the Boro hierarchy threw him under a bus to a certain extent by suggesting that part of the reason that he wanted to leave was that he felt unappreciated by the supporters. That’s understandable as he’s the kind of player that will always get stick from a certain type of fan for not diving into tackles. Downing was similar. No matter how much his creative play benefitted us he remained a ‘fanny’ to a large section of the crowd.

Azaz was a decent player for us and in the absence of Riley McGree would have fitted very nicely into our current line-up. However, fifteen million quid was a good return on a player that cost us a fraction of that, and it funded this summer’s signings. Predictably he was abused all game and looked to be on the verge of tears as he quickly escaped to the dressing room at full-time.

The first half was fairly even and with Southampton coming to play rather than just shut up shop both sides had chances. Second half we clicked and rattled in four goals without reply. I’m not really convinced that we did anything differently to the games in the recent poor run, it was just that we took our chances. With the Ipswich game falling foul of the weather, the win took us back into second place.

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Derby County v Middlesbrough, Thursday 1st January 2026, 3pm

January 2, 2026

Well, that’s another year done. 2025 started slowly for me as I was in Saudi Arabia for most of the first couple of months, but once I returned to the UK at the end of February, I was able to start seeing a bit more football. I went to ninety matches in 2025, spread over eleven countries and seventy-four stadiums of which sixty-three were new grounds for me. I got to see the Boro play on twenty-five occasions.

I think my football year highlight was seeing the Boro rattle in four first half goals at Hull. I actually laughed out loud when the fourth went in. A visit to Millmoor for a Doncaster Belles game some forty years on from my last time there watching Bruce Rioch’s Boro was an enjoyable trip down memory lane. It was good to get around some of the lower-tier Swedish grounds in the summer and watching the Saudi Clasico in the King Abdullah Sports City Stadium was a perfect way to bring my Saudi time to an end. Ticking off the San Siro might just be worth a mention too.

It was a good year for gigs. I managed to get to forty, despite it all tailing off in the last two to three months of the year. I only saw Sea Power three times in 2025, but two of them were at Krankenhaus which really is a joy to attend. John Bramwell topped the frequency list with five shows. I now know his between song patter better than he does. I also saw Boo Hewerdine three times with his best gig coming as his Hotel Art guise in Glasgow. Honorable mentions for The Molotovs, Mike Monroe, Sparks, David Cronenberg’s Wife and Edwyn Collins. Seeing Darts forty-seven years on from the last time I saw them was an interesting experience, but I think I’ve lost the taste for doo-wop revivalists. No Weller or Bragg gigs for the first year in a while.

Jen and I got out for a walk in 2025 more frequently than we’d managed in the previous couple of years, finally finishing the Cleveland Way thirteen years after starting it and then making a solid start to the Yorkshire Wolds Way. We managed twenty-three hikes in total which isn’t too bad, but I’d like to step it up in 2026.

And so to 2026 and a New Years Day fixture against Derby. It’s eighteen years since I last bothered going to Pride Park but I’m enjoying the Boro’s season and so I thought I might as well nip down there. I’m also trying to rack up enough priority points to have a chance of going to Wrexham in the final game of the season, so every match helps.

It’s an easy two-and-a-half-hour drive south and I was able to park roadside about twenty minutes in the right direction for a swift post-match getaway. The Boro end had sold out, and the stadium looked full. It was good to see hardly any seats lost to segregation with just a double line of hi-viz stewards separating the fans.

Pride Park has the same main stand with a horseshoe design as the Riverside, although Derby went ahead and filled in the corners during the initial construction phase. I think their use of one of those corners for boxes and a scoreboard is an improvement on the Riverside set up. They’ve also put rail seating behind one goal and in the away section.

One of the downsides of a sold-out section is that you can’t move if you don’t like the people around you. I was surrounded by a combination of old blokes planning their next day out at a Tommy Robinson march and some of the most negative dickheads around.

They were adamant that all of our players were fucking bellends. Our tactics were shite and our recruitment was shite. All of this absolute shiteness had to be constantly pointed out just in case there was any doubt in the minds of anyone within earshot. Life in its entirety was shite. It was difficult to see what pleasure any of them hoped to obtain by attending. Or by existing. What made it bearable was that the most negative dickhead had a high pitched squeaky voice. It was as if he was alternating his sniffs of coke with inhaling from a helium balloon.

The match followed the recent pattern of us dominating, missing an early chance or two that would likely have led to a win, before conceding and then failing to break down ten men sat deep. All we need is for one of those chances to go in. The defeat dropped us down to third with Ipswich moving past us. Maybe a new striker or two in January will take us back to winning ways.

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