Starman

Middlesborough 2-0 ITFC September 15th 2012

After 101 days of work, rest and play in America the "Evening Stars" top pundit returned to Kesgrave in time for the 280 mile trek to Teeside. Max had barely been back in the country two hours before he was tweeting "my mate" Dave Gooderham to be the "Star Fan." 

Sharon had volunteered us to help the RNIB runners at The Great North Run so imagine my delight when the fixtures were released and Middlesborough away was scheduled for the previous day.

We left Ipswich at 7.30am and had a clear run up north arriving four hours later. First on the agenda was a visit to the unique looking Tees Transporter Bridge which carries cars and passengers across the river in a gondola. It was featured in a series of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet where Oz and the boys dismantle it and sell it to an Indian tribe in Arizona.

The Transporter Bridge

A ride in the Gondola - not quite Venice

The Riverside

The Riverside Stadium is another one of those modern bowl shaped stadiums, opened in 1995 it has a capacity of 34,988. It was sparsely populated on Saturday with just under 15,000 fans in attendance and in truth I wasn't that surprised by the lack of atmosphere generated by the home fans, every time I watch a Boro game on TV it comes across as dead.

Town gave a debut Guirane N’Daw and although he looked a bit rusty at the start of the game he looks like he may well prove to be a decent signing. Ipswich were edging things in the first half until they gifted Boro a chance to score which they took with a good finish from Luke Williams following a sloppy pass from Andy Drury in midfield.

N'Daw ready for his debut

Not many fans inside

For the first fifteen minutes after the break the home side had their best spell of the match and looked likely to extend their lead but credit to Town they got themselves back in the match and looked very capable of snatching a draw. Deep into stoppage time Ipswich had a free kick on the edge of the Boro box, with everybody pushed up for it except for Scott Loach. The Boro keeper Jason Steele collected Carlos Edward's floated effort and quickly released debutant Mustapha Carayolhe who was able to run with the ball unchallenged before neatly finishing past Loach, putting the result beyond doubt.

I was amazed to learn that Ipswich are now 23rd in the table!

Last throw of the dice 

For a while in the first half of the game both sets of supporters sang "Justice for the 96" in support of the families of the 96 Liverpool fans who died at Hillsborough on Apri 15th 1989. It has taken them 23 years to get the truth told of what really happened on that awful day. It is both a disgrace and shameful that the police and politicians tried to cover up the errors made that day and then go on to blame the supporters of being responsible for their own deaths. 

I can remember that day very clearly, we were buying a bike seat for our then eighteen month year old son Sam. We heard on the car radio that there were crowd problems at the F.A. Cup semi-final at Hillsborough, when we got home we then watched in shock those horrific events unfold live on TV.

Perhaps the saddest factor from that era are the cages that were erected at football grounds to keep rival thugs apart and off the pitches, I can remember being at matches where rival fans spent an entire game taunting, spitting and throwing sharpened coins, darts etc at each other. By 1989 football hooliganism was on the wain and it was slowly becoming safer to attend matches for true football fans.

Is it possible that without those cages at the Hillsborough disaster may have been avoided? There was a similar incident in the 1957 semi-final between Man Utd v Birmingham at Hillsborough with overcrowding in the centre pen except that there were non fences and supporters were directed to the outer pens and even to other areas of the ground thus avoiding a crush.

The most frustrating thing I remember from that day is seeing all of those fans squashed up against the fence unable to move, without it they could have been evacuated onto the pitch. We should also remember that without the hooligans there would have been no need for fencing and cages. Those "fans" responsible for the erection of fencing at football grounds should also feel shame for what happened that day. That said nothing can excuse the lack of planning, crowd control, leadership and the subsequent cover up which went all the way to the top, possibly even the then Prime minister Margeret Thatcher. I really admire the fight of the families to get their justice, I watched those events happen that day and to my own shame have since wondered if there was any truth in the other version of events, I'm glad that the truth is now coming out. 
Playlist

Starman by David Bowie - Max the fan