Boro away (8-1)

[Mike D]

Remember this like yesterday. The whole of the UK baked in a heatwave, thousands of blues pitch up in shorts and sunglasses and it was fucking freezing in the smog.

This has probably been discussed, but did we throw this game for some sort of Sven statement? Boro were crap that year, and to this day I don't know what the fuck happened.

Remember cheering the goals ourselves from the 5th onwards, whilst secretly thinking, what the fuck is going on here.

Bizarre day.

i would say we threw it,for those were there you'll remember that we couldn'y play 3 yard passes. it was obvious we were playing at it.

It was the first time I had the pleasure of meeting De Niro it is a day I will not forget Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm :-)

How nice

 

[stimo]

Great day? Lose 8-1, and see them lot win the title? Well, each to their own.

if you dont understand that then you must never have been away to see city pre 2008<br /><br />-- Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:12 am --<br /><br />

Sounds daft, but probably one of the best away days i've been to! was actually quite funny!

Apart from the tossers at the end who decided to kick off with the Police, they were a bit heavy handed the Police in the end. But it was all started by our 'young lads'.

Elano scored and everyone went mad, then when Boro scored we joined in doing the music and dance they were doing!

Then a little conga started with the 5 men dressed as bananas! was a bad day for the club and it was a pretty poor effort from the lads.

The thing i remember most - the twat of an announcer who kept REPEATEDLY reading the other full time scores out and then saying Manchester United are now champions. Which provoked a reaction to us, from the Boro fans. Tosser!

where are they know though? yeah that's right...

Sorry, but that is absolute bollocks.

It was a carnival atmosphere towards the end of the game, I know as I went down to the walkway myself with a mate in tow to join in with the silliness in front of the stands, and it only turned sour following the celebrations after Elano's goal.

It was all fun and games until then, and in the blink of an eye it descended into anger and violence - And it was Cleveland police who were responsible, wholly responsible.

How would you react it you saw an elderly bloke crunched over the head with a kosh by a jumped up little prick wearing a policeman's uniform?

I didn't see the said trigger, but it was just to my right and I heard the immediate roar of anger in response to it. I asked a number of people afterwards and was told that an old bloke accidentally knocked off a copper's helmet while celebrating Elano's goal, and the copper responded by cracking him over the head with his baton. Cue pandemonium.

What followed was an overwhelming atmosphere of anger (among blues previously in a jovial party mood), some blues got into altercations with the police and then they began rushing everyone on the walkway with batons raised while lashing out as they saw fit, I know as I saw this and had to climb over seats to get out of the way.

The police were worthy of the title 'scum' that day, gratuitously violent cowardly scum.

The reactions of some blues, while not entirely justifiable, were perfectly understandable.

The whole day was punctuated by the Cleveland police behaving like Middlesbrough was a police state and trying to intimidate anyone and everyone. They came on our coach, searched for alcohol and after finding none warned us to be on our "best behaviour". They recorded us in the stands with digital cameras throughout the first half and everytime Boro scored they ran across the front of the advertising hoardings to form a human wall. It was almost as if they were trying to provoke trouble, as if they were actively seeking it.

I've never experienced anything like it (and I travel away regularly), it was bizarre. Their tactics were hugely aggressive, while being completely unnecessary. The police's behaviour the whole day was shameful, and they saved the best til last.

Worst of all though was the demonising of our away support over the following days in the press, particularly the MEN. There were no questions as to how a carnival atmosphere descended into violence, there was an assumption (fed by the Cleveland Police) that the away support were reacting to the result, which was complete and utter nonsense.

The MEN carried front page pictures of dozens of blues (many of whom were later proved to have done nothing wrong), and began a police led public witch-hunt.

The only injury suffered by a police officer that day was, and I quote; "one officer sustained an injury to his wrist".

I wonder how said copper did that? It couldn't have been a sprain as a result of assaulting unarmed football supporters with a kosh, could it?

But I digress. All football supporters are inherently violent, brainless scum, and Middlesbrough isn't a smoggy shithole.

Nevertheless, inspite of all that, peculiarly, it was still a good day out. I'll never go again however, and hopefully none of us will have to as with any luck Boro will never be promoted. Backwards shithole.

bang on the money. police reacted angrily to our party mood, surreal day.

 

[Dass]

Remember this like yesterday. I was like 12 at the time I think (16 now). Me and my dad, tshirts, shorts, sunglasses and caps. 3 hour trip to Boro by car, playing the really shit city cd (the one with the reggae Blue Moon). We get out of the car and we'd noticed as we got towards Boro is was getting colder and colder. It was FREEZING at Boro's ground. We had tickets on the second row, behind 4 lads who enjoyed abusing Tuncay.

All the city fans felt like idiots. Our full end was full of shorts and tshirts, but if you looked to the stands to the right and left of us, they were all wearing massive coats. Game started, Dunne got sent off ect, but we were still chanting 'We don't need no Phil Scolari, We don't need Morinho. Hey Thaskin, leave, our Sven alone!'. Once it got to the 5th goal we were all cheering when their goals went in. I remember every time Boro scored, a line of police ran infront of our stand, greeting by a 'wheeeeeeeeeeeeeey' every time they ran out. I remember, they scored 3 goals really close to eachother and one of the coppers looked knackered as they ran back to where they were after about a minute. We were still dancing even when it was like 1-0, I hate clubs who play music after scoring, so it was fun to take the piss out of.

I was on the second row, so I remember the trouble pretty well. The police had stayed out instead of rushing in and Elano had just scored. We all went mental and started dancing even though they didn't play that shit song, and a really drunk guy like stumbled to the white fence thing they had separating the pitch. I didn't see it happen, but my dad told me the guy just fell in to the police officer and the officer hit him with his truncheon. I still remember the officer's face. The guy looked like he knew his job would be in shit after that. Then I remember everyone just dashing forward. My dad moved me back as like I said I was only 12. We were getting crushed by fans rushing down lol. It was the last game of the season, so the Boro fans wanted their players to do the lap of honour, but they didn't come out because of the trouble. The boro fans thought it was our fault, but it clearly wasn't. I remember the cameras on the sticks of the police recording the fans and everyone was just stood there like wtf.

Still my favourite away day. Was just a great atmosphere and a general laugh.

 

[blue b4 the moon]

The crap Police actions reported in this thread are spot on. I was 6 rows back and freezing but saw it all.

I remember thinking that the cops had just cost us a 'Fair Play' spot by inciting the crowd. Before the game we were something silly like 0.5 pts in front of Fulham but with the red for Dunne and Sun's Yellow we were on the edge. Luckily and perhaps strangely fighting in the crowd is not unfair.

 

[BamberBridgeBlue]

I couldn't go. Had to travel to Belfast on the ferry for work. I remember putting £20 on City to win the Premier League on the handicap at the start of the season, (think we had 40 point start), and with a win we'd have won it and I'd have had a nice draw from Ladbrokes....... Grrrrrr.

 

[OABAAB]

We went on the train and on the way back the train was full of coppers telling everyone to shut up when we started singing. Got off at Piccadilly and the riot police were waiting for us, my mate got arrested for drinking a can of beer on Piccadilly approach after they had knocked the can out of his hand and pushed him into a shop window for daring to finish his beer, he was with his 14 year old daughter. That was the day I started to hate the police!

 

[robsta]

Funny thing happened after the game that I don't think has ever been publicised, unless I've told it on here before. Everyone knew Sven was on his way out but it was a bit harsh for the City coach to drive off without him. There was only a handful of people left outside the ground and we were the only Blues so I don't think it ever got reported.

The coach was all set to go and they were asking if Sven was getting on. Then the word came he wasn't so the coach drove off, everyone started leaving, stewards packing barriers away etc. Then a door opens a Sven pops his head round the corner and looked totally shocked to see the coach had gone. The stewards were pissing themselves and saying to us "bloody hell man, I know he's fa the chop like but they cudda taken him home".

Sven was in a bit of a panic and I should have left him alone but I had my lad with me and he had a photo of him with Sven from a previous game he wanted to get signed. So I asked Sven and his first reaction was to start saying "sorry, but ....." then he saw my lad with the photo and turned back and signed it. Top top man for doing that at a time when he had good reason to refuse. And the good news for Sven was they managed to get in touch with the coach and it came back for him. I expected to read about it in the papers and for it to be another dig at City on a day when we'd been thrashed and were losing another manager. But I've never seen it reported and I kept my gob shut so it wouldn't. I think I can be allowed to tell it now.

Also gave a lift that day to a lad on crutches and a couple of his mates. They were at the garage where they pulled all the coaches over. If you read this mate I hope you managed to get the beer you were after.

 

[Balti]

Frank ''tightened the bolts'' a tad too much and ruined the threads so badly that the wheels just came right off