The Riverside Stadium

It was beautiful morning as our coach pulled away from Ewood for the long trip to Middlesbrough and the Riverside Stadium. Anticipation wasn't on the agenda after our beloved teams latest performances and even the relegation word was bandied among some of the members. I felt like asking Mystic Dave Walton who seems to know the team before Eustace what the line up would be against Leyton Orient next season but, that would have been too defeatist. In whatever struggle there is always hope and optimism and mine was to put £2:00 on Gallagher to score first. Our food scout Mel had with the help of Google found yet another absolutely wonderful eating establishment. The Blacksmiths Arms at Swainby, Northallerton was our destination and if given marks out of 10 it would be 10 quite easily. The food was superb and the portions immense, Barry Turner had to sit on a cushion to reach the top of his meat pie and Jimmy had to ask for a doggie bag for his cheese and biscuits. Well fed and no more optimistic we arrived at the Riverside and for the first 15 minutes it looked like our pessimism was well founded as Middlesbrough battered us and really should have been a couple of goals to the good then things changed. A Middlesbrough player went off injured and as he did Mr Eustace tweaked our formation and from then on, we enjoyed a fantastic game of football as the Rovers gave everything to try and win. A 0-0 draw was the end result and probably deserved by both teams however the performance changed the narrative and on the trip home there was a positive feeling of optimism throughout the members.

 

Guess the gate: 25,554: David Hembrough 25,555 £15: David Thompson 25,559 £10: Mel Crook 25,567 £5.