With being in Spain, I’d missed the past four Boro games. We’d done ok away from home with convincing wins at QPR and Birmingham, but the Riverside form continued to disappoint with just a single point taken from the visits of Charlton and Bristol City. I’d hoped that with this game being on the road, we might continue our excellent away form in front of an impressive 7,400 travelling contingent.
Jen and I travelled across to Lancashire the evening before the fixture for a two-night stay on a farm next to Cliviger Gorge. Our house overlooked a pond and watching the wildlife was reminiscent of sitting at a water hole when we lived in South Africa, albeit with geese, cats and rabbits rather than hippos, elephants and crocodiles.
Ewood Park was a thirty minute drive away. I got there a little too late for parking close to the ground, but managed to find somewhere around fifteen minute’s walk away. There were long queues for the upper tier, but fortunately I was downstairs and was virtually straight in. Once inside I stood in line much longer for a drink and a hot dog.
It’s generally seen as a good thing when an away day has a sold out following of 7.400. There were more of us than there were Rovers fans. It doesn’t always work like that though as you get a lot of people there just for a day on the piss. Many of them think that they are entitled to stand whether they like, blocking aisles and people’s views.
When the game doesn’t go to plan there is far more abuse of the players than you get when the away support is capped at a couple of thousand. As time ticked on, the entitled trippers ripped into anything or anyone that they didn’t like. A fight broke out near me that I doubt very much would have done had the stand not been full of the twice a year attendees.
On the plus side, Graeme Souness was introduced to the crowd at half-time and got a good round of applause. I was hoping for a chorus of ‘Born is the King of Ayresome Park’ but not everyone in attendance is my age or more.
And the match? Well, we had all of the possession, but couldn’t take any of the many chances created. Results went our way elsewhere and so we stayed in second place with seven games remaining. Maybe it will turn out to be a solid away point.
Trail of the Lion King 