The Boro’s draw at Southampton had kept the unbeaten start to the season going but opponents Stoke have also shown good early form and were one of those teams sitting four points behind us in the table. I wasn’t expecting an easy game.
Away from football, Jen and I had been out at gigs the two previous nights. Firstly, Martin Stephenson at the Waiting Room. He put on a decent show, with as much time spent on anecdotes as songs. I was chatting to him afterwards and he mentioned that he doesn’t have a setlist and just plays whatever comes into his head. Nice bloke.
The other one was Edwyn Collins. He’d announced a farewell tour, and we nipped down to Buxton for it. He had a stroke twenty years ago and so he doesn’t play the guitar on stage anymore but instead sits in a chair and sings. Whilst his speech wasn’t as flowing as it might once have been, his singing voice seemed spot on. He played both his hits and went down very well with a crowd happy to see him one last time.
Harry and I got to the game in good time, but Tom didn’t arrive until five minutes after kick-off. There’s an ongoing problem with the turnstiles and not only did his season card fail to work, but the replacement paper ticket didn’t either. He had to return to the West Stand office for a second replacement ticket, which eventually allowed him to get in.
Despite playing with wingbacks all season, Rob Jones sprung a surprise by starting with a back four. This allowed us to add Alan Browne to the established Hackney/Morris midfield and play with a 4-3-3 formation. A very early injury to George Edmundson meant that Sammy Silvera had to play almost the whole game in the unfamiliar position of right full back. He did ok and I thought the extra man in the middle meant that we looked more threatening when we had the ball.
Unfortunately, we couldn’t break them down and didn’t come any closer to scoring than having a decent penalty shout denied. We were solid at the back though and held on for a nil-nil. It’s a game that we might very well have lost last season under Carrick. The point maintained the four point gap to Stoke, who moved into second place behind us. So, eight games in where are we? I’ll tell you. We are top of the league, say we are top of the league.
Trail of the Lion King 