There’s just a week to go until the proper season starts for the Boro. That means it’s time for the traditional ‘big name’ friendly at home. Good as that is though, the fixture against Deportivo de La Coruna wasn’t the highlight of my weekend. Not at all.
Twelve years after logging our first section of the Cleveland Way, Jen and I finally finished it off. We walked a total of eleven miles from Filey Brigg to Cayton Bay and back, which meant that we fully completed the trail in both directions on the same hike.
It’s nice to do these walks with a dog and as Henry is still recovering from his knee surgery, we borrowed Soph’s other dog, Millie. She’s an seven-month-old Labrador and whilst Jen and I covered just the minimum distance necessary, she ran back and forward for at least twice the mileage.
The second-best weekend activity was the match. Tom had mentioned that he and his mate Jones were going in hospitality for forty-eight quid. That seemed like a good deal to me and so Harry and I joined them.
We were in the Host and Stay Lounge, which is usually close to two hundred and fifty pounds a pop, although I think for regular games you get a lot more than the burger and chips that we were given.
It made for an interesting change though. There was table service, and we had one of the booth tables that allowed us to look out towards the fan zone and see other fans arriving.
Having a big table also made it easy to spread out the fold-out poster in the programme and identify ourselves in the photograph of the Boro end at Ibrox a week earlier.
Our padded seats were just to the right of the Director’s Box. The Boro were pretty much full strength from those available, with the exception of Rav van den Berg and Hayden Hackney. The dutchman was nowhere to be seen as he tries for a move back home, but Hackney was on the bench after deciding to gamble on securing a Premier League move by turning down Championship Ipswich.
I think he has made the right call, but if his transfer doesn’t happen until late on deadline day, we might find it too late to replace him in this window.
We did ok with Tommy Conway scoring twice, the second after a good run from wing-back Sammy Silvera. In between those efforts, Deportivo scored twice themselves and the resulting draw meant that we were still awaiting our first win under Rob Edwards. Hopefully we are saving that for Swansea on Saturday.
Trail of the Lion King 