Saw Posh draw 0-0 with the Smoggies on Tuesday night. Two things struck me. Firstly it cost me £27 for a ticket, no student discount, so in total it cost me £54 for me and my son. Add train tickets of £18:40 and a two cups of tea and a two pints and two bags of crisps, I didn't get much change out £100.
At £27 a pop it was no fucking wonder the Riverside was less than half full. Credit to the couple hundred Posh fans who made it. The game was intriguing, Middlesbrough being positively crap in front of goal ( Sammy Ameobi was the brightest star on their team) and Posh failing to finish them off in the second half. So following our win against league leaders Cardiff I have now given up trying to figure out whether or not we will get relegated. It will probably go down to the last match away at Crystal Palace in early May.
Secondly the last direct train back from Middlesbrough to Newcastle leaves before 9 o'clock. It was a 19:45 kick off and we ended up not getting home until just before 1am having to travel via Darlington and pick up an East Coast train. No fucking wonder Teeside languishes with public transport links that positively discourage travelling between the urban centres of the North East. Northern Rail trains reminded me of the old diesel commuter trains into London I used to get 30 years ago i.e. shit. I have done that journey three times now and the desolation of that coastal route never fails to depress me.
I did note one interesting fashion point. In Thornaby, at least, the 80's are back in fashion.
Half a dozen or so lads got on the train on their way to Riverside dressed in tight light blue jeans rolled up at bottom, with Doc Marten type boots, white t shirts, sweatshirt and Harrington type jackets with the hood of the sweatshirt hanging over the back. They all had rather impressive Morrisey type quiffs ( sides shaved to approximately number three length). I was fascinated, I've not seen the like since 1986. I felt like Peter York discovering a lost youth cult. I thought at first they must be in a band. If they aren't they should be. Maybe its a fashion revival or maybe the 80's fashions have just arrived in Thornaby. Who knows.
This week in the North East you can't write about football without mentioning Paolo Di Cannio's appointment at Sunderland as their new manager following O'Neill's sacking. What to say that hasn't already been said? I am going to say very little.
All local comment has strictly followed partisan lines even when the writers have been desperately trying not to follow that path. His views haven't been an issue for over 5 years.Managing Swindon IS the same as managing any Premiership team So I say judge the man by his actions, rather than what you think he means by being a fascist.
-My team's manager is a convicted wife beater(it seems to have been a one off he pleaded guilty and has shown some remorse is all I can say in his defence ). Is a Nazi style salute ( this and some comments in his auto biography being Di Cannio's only
crimes) as bad as this?
