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.
Tags: Dogs in Xmas jumpers, fannies, Finn Azaz, Sub-zero shorts
Trail of the Lion King 
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