quite a few football related posts are coming up here over the next few weeks. well, at least three (3), look you see. one shall (of course) be the usual special "derby league" which celebrates an inexplicably popular player, and then for some reason i have purchased some lynx deodorant what appears to be a tie in or some form of promotional thing for the imminent (at time of writing) world cup.
but first, well, this. a third trip to the Riverside Stadium to see Middlesbrough, although more frequently referred to as The Boro, play. this follows, link fans, a pre-season friendly, and then a most impressive match during the season, with the latter feeling like a (mostly upwards) turning point. unexpectedly, then, a third and final (for the season) match in the form of the play off semi final first leg against Southampton.
this was not a match i was realistically expecting to get a ticket for. it was all quite short notice for the game, with it coming 7 (seven) days after it was confirmed we "qualified" for it. demand was high, and with my lowly number of attendances i was very much at the back of the queue. yet, by default or design, i did manage to get one. managed to get my ticket on the tuesday, which was just as well, for certain events (or developments) meant that the already high interest level in the match grew rather higher (or "reverse fewer"). of course more on that as we go.
normally yes, i would give fair warning if a selfie was going to appear, but hey, deal with it. i am coming to accept that not everyone has no interest in seeing me, so there's one up front for the handful that actually do.
it would be foolish to write of Middlesbrough vs Southampton without reference to "Spygate", or if you will (and the press do) "Spygate 2.0", for there was a similar issue between Leeds and Derby a few years ago. essentially Middlesbrough "caught" what is believed to be an employee of Southampton spying on our training session the thursday before the match. there are some clearly worded rules with exceptionally harsh penalties in place about this.
lots and loads has been written elsewhere on it all, much of it (not unreasonably) speculative about potential punishments for Southampton. i will, for the most part, decline to add to that. just really don't understand why a team would risk the punishment for doing this in the peculiar century we are in. had this been the 80s or 90s, i mean, sure. but now? all 46 league games we had played this season would be available to Southampton. whatever they wished to learn would surely have been there. surely also you would just play your best team in any circumstances for such a prominent match?
mostly i had hoped for a nice, sunny afternoon at the match. we are (ostensibly) in spring, after all, and the week before had been generally lovely weather. not so for match day, as you may be inclined to observe in the above. whereas the rain stayed away until some time after the match, it was all grey and quite windy.
as i write this, by the way, the second leg (away at Southampton) is on the wireless. no, i do not pay a ludicrous fee for sports on the tele here, and i just cannot be bothered with pirating it, no matter how many dear friends offer to "sort me out". first half is under way, and as of now we have a lead of a single goal.
going back to the match on saturday, then, and there was a call for fans to arrive early to welcome the team. sadly (alas) i could not make that, for i had a number of "usual saturday" things what i needed to get done. by all accounts it was spectacular, mind, and featured considerably less ("fewer") of throwing things at the visitors than has happened down in Southampton this evening. a universal truth of our nation is the further north you go the more friendly we are.
one fairly big part of any football match would be the chants fans come up with. indeed "spygate" came to the fore here. rather frequently you had somewhere north of 30,000 Boro fans in (most impressive) unison chanting "you know what you are, you know what you are, you're cheating b@$tards, that's what you are". granted, perhaps not the most poetical use of the english language ever, but still.
applause for the other fans who came prepared to taunt Southampton on their spying exploits. particular praise for the young lad (featured in newspapers and what have you) that brought some leafy branches and a pair of binoculars. to be fair a number of the Southampton fans came with similar. gallows humour of a sort. i mean, it is all (very) serious, but you have to have a laugh in life.
bit more of the pre-match build up in the video above for you. one of Middlesbrough's most famous and dearly loved musicians, Chris Rea, passed away late last year (2025). since then the club have elected to play some of his anthem to his home town, Steel River before kick off.
review of the match? first half was brutal and unrelenting. often (frequently) football is referred to as being the beautiful game, and our performance was that. well, almost, for we did not score. it was however all one way traffic, Southampton either overwhelmed by just how worked up Boro were for it, simply outplayed or just relied on incorrect information off of their "spies". despite no goal this was easily some of the most enthralling, exciting football i have ever been fortunate enough to see.
second half not so much. by comparison it was like watching a slowly deflating balloon on the off chance that it did something (vaguely) interestingly and hoping it didn't disappoint. no goals came, but it did feel like the impetus had left us. if we were going to win that match - just the first leg, and the second is currently 1-1 - one got the feeling that the goals had to come in that magical first half.
whilst outside outside, as in outside of the no smoking area (sorry), i got to catch up with a dear friend, and yes there is a picture below. this was at half time. he said that he had a fear of the game going the way a number had this season, especially the one against Portsmouth. in that match we also loaded on the pressure, dominated and managed to lose to a late, late goal. we at the least avoided that this time around. but we have ended up in the play offs, rather than straight promotion via a few too many games that went that way.
other things were indeed chanted during the match. although i was in what is (ostensibly) classified as the "family stand", with the more hardcore fans being over in the south stand, one would not guess it from some of the language. a chap not far off me, for instance, called out to one of the Southampton players by means of referencing his Bavarian origins and his (in his view) remarkable likeness to a female reproductive organ, in the most direct language possible.
there was a slight further commotion in our stand when it (as far as i could ascertain) turned out that a few Southampton fans had somehow managed to get tickets for that area. bit of a no-no, that is, and they were ejected relatively harm free. one would suspect that those what helped them buy tickets are going to get a ban from the ground.
yes. then, a second picture of me (moi) with my chum, then. always good to see him. actually caught up with another good friend at the match, but he doesn't really do the "selfie" thing.
it has been "weird", or if you like peculiar, to get to as many games as i have this season. yet i am aware that, in the grand scheme of things, it has not been all that many. would i like to go to more? sure, but it's that double of time and money, alas. i have nothing but respect and admiration for fans of all teams that make the sacrifices to go to just about every match.
for "real time" as in as i write this (poorly, yes), second leg has finished 1-1, so extra time. some stories are circulating about a proposed punishment (or penalty) for Southampton in regards of the charges made. if they are correct, well, it would make both the match i attended and the one going on somewhat academic if not irrelevant.
last bit of video for you, then (above), at the end of the match. sure, some disappointment with the fact that it ended 0-0, but overall the comments and chat i heard wasn't all that negative, for our players went out and gave it a damned good goal. bit too much passing when we should have taken a shot at goal and taking shots when better options were there to pass to.
nearly time to sign this off, but whilst i wait for the conclusion of this evenings match to add it in, the winner (by default or design) of this match shall face Hull in the play off final. reward for winning that one is promotion to the Premier League, and thus lots and lots of lovely money.
right, oh dear. Southampton 2 Middlesbrough 1 after extra time, so that's Southampton vs Hull in the final, depending on various legal ramifications. perhaps, objectively, it is better to remain in a division where we are competitive rather than go up to one where we scrape and scrap for survival.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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