For this game I was accompanied by Tom and Nolan. It was a bit of a comedown for my grandson as the only other football match that he has been to, he viewed it from an executive box. I doubt he noticed the difference.
Earlier in the morning I’d taken Nolan to the duck pond. You can buy duck food from the shop that used to be Paterson’s. It’s forty-eight years since I had my short-lived paper round with them. Thirteen days of snow and rain, brightened only by checking out the Page 3 girls each morning.
We wanted a game where Nolan could arse around on the grass and so picked an eleventh-tier Wearside Premier fixture at Barnard Castle’s Tensfield ground. We went in a back gate and so had to search out the fella collecting the admission money. Three quid for Tom, free for Nolan and a pound for me as an Over-Sixty.
I got the camping chairs from the car and we watched from a grassy area near one of the corner flags. There were probably around forty other people there, which seemed a decent turn out.
Visitors Washington are running away with the league and sit unbeaten at the top of the table, albeit having played more games than most. Barney are mid-table.
Tom pointed out one of the Barney strikers as being a fella off TickTock. Apparently he posts footage of him fighting people and considers himself to be the hardest man from somewhere. Maybe the North East? Possibly his street in Barney? I’m not sure as I didn’t pay enough attention. For what it’s worth, he behaved himself on the pitch.
I wasn’t as attentive to the game as I usually am as I spent much of the time playing, feeding or carrying around Nolan. I did see all of the goals though, two in the first half and one in the second. All were scored by Washington in a convincing win that extended their lead at the top of the table.
I was back in Sweden for a few days and so checked out the nearby fixtures. There was a fourth-tier game at Bodens and Lulea were the visitors. I’d read that it was a derby, but in an eight-team league centred in the north of Sweden, I’d imagine that you could make that claim for just about any game.
Nevertheless, the visit of their local rivals was enough for Bodens to drop any admission charges and welcome everyone in for free. Running costs were met by sponsors who were rewarded with a visit to the VIP Lounge behind one of the goals.
I did the twenty-five minute drive from Lulea with a couple of fellas from work. Parking was easy enough at the stadium and we found seats in one of the covered stands along the side. The attendance wasn’t great, despite free admission and I’d estimate that the 5,200 capacity Energi Arena was no more than ten percent full.
Our view was obscured for a while by mascots handing out sweets, but once Super Mario and a T-Rex had moved on we had a clear view of the action.
There weren’t many chances in the first half. Lulea were probably on top but couldn’t make anything count. At half-time we headed inside and had the option of homemade cake, hot dogs or burgers. I went for a burger and it was edible.
Fortunately, we were able to pay in cash, rather than being penalized for not having a Swish card. More stadiums need to be flexible if they want tourists like us to pop along.
We watched the start of the second half through the netting erected behind the goal, then moved along to the main stand opposite the one we’d sat in for the first forty-five minutes. Bodens were the better team after the break and spurned a few close-range chances.
The home side eventually broke the deadlock with three minutes remaining when a headed chance from a yard out was converted. It was too close to miss despite the striker failing to make clean contact. Still, they all count and Bodens took the points.
The gigs are becoming a bit more frequent as we move into Autumn. Perhaps it’s touring season. On Wednesday, Jen and I went along to the Waiting Room at Eaglescliffe to see Jeffrey Lewis. We saw him in York last year and this one, in front of a one hundred capacity standing crowd is likely to have been one of his smallest venues for a while. He was very good, as were the support band, The Grasping Straws.
I was chatting to the drummer who was helping out the support band and he turned out to also be the drummer for David Cronenberg’s Wife, a band that we have seen a couple of times, most recently at Sheffield this year. He was able to answer my question about the grand piano at that gig, which was whether DCW were lugging it around with them, something that seemed unlikely for a band travelling in something the size of a transit. Not only was he able to confirm that they had just found it on the stage and decided to put it to good use, but also that he had abandoned his drums to be the one to play it.
Next up was The Molotovs at Gemini in Newcastle on the Friday night. I’d seen them with Paul earlier this year in a much smaller venue and came away from that occasion very impressed. In fact, I recall saying to him that I could watch them every night of the week. A few months on, I’ve backtracked a bit. When their debut album came out, I listened with a smile on my face as I was able to identify which bits they had taken from which Jam songs. I can live with a bit of stealing, as long as it’s discreet, lots of bands have done it.
What isn’t discreet though is the on stage stealing. All three of them blatantly mimic the style and movements of their Jam counterparts as if they were a tribute. They played a few new tracks which sounded just like their older songs and as Weller moved The Jam onwards with every album, is probably the least Jam-like thing about them.
The bottom line though, is the quality of the songs. If you are going to write a formulaic Jam by numbers song, then it needs to stand on its merits and none of their songs to date are as good as, say, the top fifty Jam songs. So, why bother? They should either develop a sound of their own or go full tribute. I’d watch them in the latter guise.
We were back in Teesside the next morning in time for me to get along to the game against Norwich. We’ve been doing well so far with a two point average and just the one defeat in the league. Everyone thought that Kim had made a decent selection with maybe only Philips missing out from most people’s first choice eleven. We’ve still got that Puskas or something American fella too, who might be ideal for the ten role if we play it.
There was a wild start to the game, we could have scored in the first twenty seconds but then went a goal behind in under a minute. We hit back and went in at the break three-one up. The guy on loan from Brighton looked good, very good in fact, I think he might be an upgrade on Morgan Whittaker. Tommy Conway started wide and earned two assists in a busy performance.
We looked good for sixty-five minutes, but when Conway and McGree went off, the momentum seemed to switch. We pushed forward for a fourth and were then twice hit on the counter to bring it back to three each. An added time winner from half-time sub Ashley Phillips nicked the win for us. That’s always a great feeling.
It was an entertaining game for a neutral, as they say, but could easily have been two or more points dropped for us. We need to be tighter at the back. I’d suggest avoiding committing too many players forward in games where we are a couple of goals ahead. I’d also play all three of our main central defenders with wing backs. That would mean one less attacking player but would allow us to have one of Conway or McGree on the field at all times rather than seeing them both replaced by someone less effective like today.
Roll on Tuesday night, as a win at home to Millwall would take us two points clear at the top.
After our stay in Ravenglass for Krankenhaus, Jen and I moved on to Barnoldswick for some more music. This time it was Soho Dukes at the Barnoldswick Music and Arts Centre. It’s a great little venue, with just sixty seats, most of them having been reclaimed from an old cinema.
We’ve been a few times and on one of those occasions we saw a couple of the Soho Dukes moonlighting in a Mott the Hoople tribute band with Zak Starkey. It was enough to encourage me to look up their original material, and I liked what I heard enough to return for a rare headline show.
They were very good and it was easy to see the Hunter/Mott influence on the band. They were joined for one song by Spike and Harry of the Quireboys which went down well.
I was hoping that the gig would coincide with a Barnoldswick Town fixture, but they were away. From the options available I picked a Salford City game due to a combination of it being just a forty-five minute drive and a lunchtime kick-off. Just as importantly, they are a League Two club and I really need to put some effort into ticking off the ninety-two. It’s a little embarrassing that with getting on for seven hundred grounds under my belt, I’ve still twenty-nine of the ninety-two to visit.
I bought a ticket online for twenty-three quid and set off early enough to bag some on-street parking just a few minutes’ walk from the AIG Stadium.
I tried two entrances that weren’t mine, before eventually finding the correct turnstile. I’d chosen a seat at the back of the six rows in the stand that ran the length of the dugout side of the pitch. I could have sat opposite, or behind the goal to my left. The visiting Port Vale fans filled the terrace behind the goal to my right.
I was given a team sheet as I came in and noticed two players with Boro connections. Macauley Langstaff was starting up front for Salford. He’s a bit of a late developer who was released as a kid from the Boro Academy but made his way into the EFL via stints at the likes of Boro Rangers and Stockton Town. He was busy but didn’t really shine.
Port Vale had Onel Hernandez on the bench for them. He had played the first half of the season for us in 2021, the time when Warnock started the campaign but was replaced by Wilder. He came on in the second half but did nothing of note that I can recall.
Port Vale had been relegated last year and were not finding the fourth tier any easier than the third. They began the game at the bottom of the table with Salford just above the relegation spots. Despite their team’s lack of form, the away fans really got behind their team. They were scathing towards the home fans and gave Salford part-owner Gary Neville some stick.
At half-time I got a steak pie and chips, which were ok. I’d earlier watched a fella a few rows in front of me avoid the queues by producing a packet of ham from his coat pocket and snacking on that.
I watched the second half from the standing area at the other end. An old bloke nearby moved next to me and talked my ears off. Sometimes I’m just too polite for my own good.
Neither side had looked capable of scoring until the Port Vale keeper let a daisy cutter free kick slip through his hands and into the net for the only goal of the game. I expect both teams to struggle this season on today’s showing.
Jen and I had booked to stay in Ravenglass for a fortnight. In hindsight, it was probably longer than ideal as the weather had been poor and it meant that we were less inclined to do things after I finished work each day. There were lulls in the rain that we took advantage of to take the dog out, but nothing suitable for a longer walk.
The Championship fixtures had given the Boro a trip to the north-west on the Wednesday night of the second week and as I was already in that part of the world, it only seemed right to go along. Ravenglass is quite remote though and heading south involves a lot of small, narrow roads. That meant that the journey time to Turf Moor was two and a half hours, which is longer than it would usually take from Teesside.
I parked a fifteen-minute walk away from the ground at Sainsbury’s and passed the Royal Dyche pub which is named after the former Burnley Manager. It had a bouncer on the door who could easily have passed for Sean Dyche, as could most bouncers.
I followed the road around past Burnley Cricket Club, where I’d called into on my last visit here. There were a few Boro fans in the outdoor seating overlooking the field and it was easy to imagine Jimmy Anderson running in to bowl for Burnley.
Once inside I got a drink. Pepsi Max unfortunately. There were plenty of options for pies, but I didn’t bother with food as I’d stopped at the services before leaving the M6 and called into Greggs.
I spotted Carl in the crowd, so had a chat with him. We discussed the new signings, the team selection and particularly whether we would be playing with three centre-backs or whether Malanda would be in midfield. In the end, it was a sort of hybrid role where he slotted into the back line at times but often played further forward. I’m not sure it is for the best, either for him or the club and I’d prefer to see a midfielder alongside Morris and for Malanda to do what he does very well as a defender.
Phillips remained on the bench, although it can’t be long before he starts, and the two new midfielders weren’t available.
It was another game of two halves. We dominated the first forty-five minutes and went in at the break a goal up after a fine strike from Aiden Morris. He almost had a second that would likely have clinched the points.
Burnley were better in the second half and got an equalizer. I wasn’t too bothered as an away point at Burnley is still a decent return when you consider the players that they have. That said, I’d like us to be up there at the right end of the table and so a win at QPR in our next game would be a welcome result.
