Great Sadness has descended

First of all apologies for the lack of a blog over the last week, unfortunately I have not been on top form. I have now fully recovered and am back in the saddle. However I am now in a fragile mental state, if you do not understand then you have not looked at yesterday’s football result.

Yesterday was the play-off final at Wembley, Middleborough v. Norwich for the right to play in the Premiership. It was held at the home of British football Wembley Stadium. Wembley has not been open very long and is a state of the art sports stadium situated in north London. It was a very early start so that there was no room for error. By the time we reached the motorway it was full of cars bedecked in the red colours of the Boro. The motorway service area that we stopped at was a sea of red. An enterprising tradesman had set up a stall selling scarves and favours. We parked three tube stops away from Wembley in Farouk’s car wash, “knock on the caravan door to let out mate”. We met Laura who was bubbling with enthusiasm. To fortify ourselves we had a suitably unhealthy lunch of chips, pizza, and KFC. Oh Iain had a baked potato, but there was much cheese and baked beans in the filling.

We decided to walk to the stadium to savour the atmosphere of Harrow. By the time we reached it ninety minutes before kick-off it was buzzing with the red of Boro and the yellow of Norwich. At this time we were on a complete high, see the photo below.

 The stadium is approached through a series of ramps; we then had a substantial climb up to the top level where we had seats on the front row. The approach to the seat was vertiginous but gave a great view. The atmosphere in the build up was brilliant. This was definitely the high point of the day.

When the game started though it was downhill all the way. Norwich were snappier in the tackle and all round better organised. After both sides hit the cross bar Norwich scored twice in quick succession basically through Boro mistakes. At this time I was afraid that Norwich would run riot. They did not but stifled the life out of the game, so Boro surrendered meekly without troubling the scorers. It was a great occasion but a highly disappointing result; it is back to the Championship next year.

As a consolation our trip home was very good, Iain’s car had not been sold by Farouk and we were home by 10pm. Even Laura who was disconsolate after the game had recovered by this morning. So thoroughly enjoyed the day, hated the result. Roll-on next season.