The new season hadn’t started well for the Boro with defeats in both of the first two fixtures. I hadn’t seen either match live as I’d been working away but Harry hadn’t been too impressed with the home game.
I’d got back into the country the day before this match and took the opportunity to do something with Harry’s sister Isla. She’s into horses rather than football and so we went for a trek on the moors near Boltby. I’d forgotten how strenuous horse riding can be, particularly if you have a cantering posture that involves standing upright. I was still stiff legged as Harry and I walked to the Riverside twenty-four hours later.
I wasn’t confident at all that we’d take anything from the game. It wasn’t so much that we’d lost a lot of the key players from last season, or that it would likely take their relatively unknown replacements time to settle in. No, it was the presence of former Boro boss Neil Warnock in the away dugout. I don’t know the stats but he always seems to take points from us. His time with us might very well have been due to a desire by Gibbo to eliminate that annual six-point handicap.
The summer recruitment had stepped up in the days before the game with Latte Lath and Engels arriving and starting. Chuba had secured himself a move to Ajax which probably looks a little more impressive than it may turn out to be. Unless, of course, he gets to wear the ‘14’ shirt.
Huddersfield could easily have built on their opening goal, but once we’d equalised it looked more likely that we’d get the winner. Silvera was a handful but struggled to get his efforts anywhere near the target. It finished level which, on past experience, I consider two points dropped by Colin rather than us.
Trail of the Lion King 