Hull vs Middlesbrough
April 23rd saw my local team boro play Hull city, a game I had fancied for a while. Call it sixth sense or something but no matter what, I sensed a good game and was going to travel the 2hrs or so to Hull whatever happened. Many txt msgs later I managed to get my mate David to go with me. Someone I have been..close to lets put it...for a while now. Ahem..
I picked him up outside the Arena at 11am on that hot, sunny Saturday and we began the journey down towards Hull. The journey was pretty decent, no hold ups and we stopped off at Ferrybridge services for a quick toilet break to find the place had been overtaken by boro fans (the coaches had also stopped off there) After a quick stop off, we carried on the journey and arrived in Hull after a trip of around 1hr 40mins (I promise I didn't speed ;-) )
Hull was red hot and I ended up wishing I'd opted for a pair of cut off trousers rather than my sweaty jeans.
We came off the motorway and followed signs to the park and ride. Parked up and headed towards the buses. A few of the drivers were chatting away to each other. One turned to me and muttered something, which got lost in the accent and I didn't understand a word of it so gave an awkward laugh in return. A hull fan turned to me and said "Its called a sense of humour" to which I didn't even give him the satisfaction of a response. (I later found out the humourous joke was him saying the bus was for Hull fans and they had skateboards for us boro fans......hilarious...shame I missed it, would have had me in stitches!!)
Anyway, the bus journey was around 10mins (and £4 return mind you!) and we were pleased that we didn't decide to walk to what we thought was the stadium in the distance but it turned out to be a fancy roofed warehouse (oh dear)
We passed a nice pub on the bus and spotted boro shirts through the window, so headed straight for a cold drink inside. The pub began to fill up with Hull fans and the remaining boro fans slowly evaporated, so we left and headed to a nearby chippy. After my 'cone of chips' containing no more than 10 chips- we made our way towards the KC.
Inside, we had enough time to place a cheeky bet before heading to our seats. We were joined by 2000 other fans, in the North stand of the KC. Its a pretty average ground I suppose, with one stand towering above the other 3.
The game started off terribly when we went 1-0 down after 3 minutes due to some sloppy defending. Both sets of fans were pretty vocal and the chorus of "Hull is a shithole...I wanna go home" echoed around the away fans, I began to feel that way, with premature feelings that it wasn't going to be our game. However with 11minutes gone, boro pulled back a goal, through Scott Mcdonald and within 90 secs we got a second, with a somewhat gifted goal after Emnes took advantage of some pretty bad play from Hull allowing McDonald to get his 2nd.....amazing! Perhaps it was going to be our day after all?! Emnes was on fire and was involved in the third, when the ball fell to Arca after Hull failed to clear. 3-1 boro after 25 minutes. Was i dreaming? If I was it was one of a dream which got even better when Mcdonald got his hat-trick on the stroke of half time. 4-1 up at half time!! What a game! Bang goes my bet of a 2-2 draw..and david's cheeky bet of a Hull win (he claims it makes the dissappointment lesser if we lose...or something like that?)
Second half wasn't as great and Hull pulled a goal back through a well placed free kick from Gerrard but it wasn't gonna dent our day and it ended with a 4-2 win for boro. How satisying it was to be there to witness us win away from home so comfortably!!
We walked through the sea of Hull fans (for some reason against the flow?) proudly wearing my boro shirt with a smile. I received a few dirty looks but otherwise the hull fans took it well and we got a few 'well done's and 'the best team won' comments. The trip on the park and ride back to the car was a bit daunting as we were heavily outnumbered by hull fans. We thankfully, found a seat at the very back corner of the bus, amongst a group of elderly Hull fans. They were humble and congratulated us on a good win, commented on how well Emnes was, how long the journey was back to boro etc. lots of friendly conversation. As we departed the bus they wished us well and we proudly made the journey towards boro!
Overall, a top day out made all the more better by the brilliant boro performance. How great it is to see us win away from home. Mowbray has certainly turned around a season, which could have been so much different. We guaranteed our position in the championship for next season- a season which I'm waiting excitedly for. It is going to be good, I can sense it...just like I sensed a hull victory. Mark my words...UTB!!
