With the Boro’s fixture having been moved to Monday, I had an opportunity to take in a new ground. Jen and I were heading up to Newcastle for a gig that evening and so I picked a game at Stanley in the eleventh-tier Wearside Premier League.
The gig was Michael Monroe, former frontman of Hanoi Rocks. We’d seen him a few months ago at a smaller Newcastle venue. This time he was the supporting act at Northumbria Institute to Buckcherry, a band that I’d not previously heard of. He was great, coming on at eight and knocking out fourteen songs in an hour.
His band looked to be the same as that previous time with Sam Yaffa and Steve Conte still in the line-up. Paul, who knows about these things, reckoned that they were ‘tighter’ nine months on from last time. Once they were done, we’d seen all that we needed to and didn’t hang around for the main event.
The football game, earlier in the day, was at South Moor Sports Club. It was three quid to get in and there was a food hut where I bought some chips with curry sauce. There was also a clubhouse bar where people watched the Sunderland game on what I presume was a dodgy television feed.
We followed the outdoor action from the picnic tables near the entrance before Jen went inside for somewhere warmer to read her book. I moved behind the goal to stand on some terracing that looked as if it might just have been rediscovered during an archeological dig.
South Moor started off kicking downhill and by midway through the first half they were two goals to the good. Richmond pulled one back just before the break. The second half was dominated by the visitors, and they finally got their equalizer a few minutes from time.
Trail of the Lion King 
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