Untypical Boro Is Fantastic - Official!
GOOD News bloggosphere: Untypical Boro won the coveted Phillip Hickey Trophy for columnist and/or blogger of the year at the prestigious Cordners Awards, the annual North East hack pack back-slapping beano at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, within audible booing range of the Stadium of Light.
Obviously it is good news for me. It's always nice to win stuff and have people buy you beer. But I think it is good too in a wider sense that a football column can shrug off the challenges of the why-oh-why handwringinging worthies and parish pump parochial pontification that so often dominate local newspaper columns that usually win these things. It is nice to have reflections on the elemental importance of the game break out of the solitary isolation of the back page ghetto and be recognised for what it is: the cultural glue that holds post-industrial towns together.
Football - whether Boro, Newcastle, Pools, Sunderland, Quakers, Barnsley or whatever - remains the only unifying collective experience that most ordinary people have, it is the often the central point of our identity as individuals and as communities. It is of vital importance. It is when I write about it anyway.
I think it is good too that a blog has been recognised as a seperate entity and as a valid journalistic medium in its own right. Not just as a way of parking a repackaged in-print product somewhere in cyber space but as a vibrant form with its own nuances, dynamic, voice and rhythm. I think a lot of old school newspaper inkies have a fear of the virtual media and see it as a hostile and untamed beast with a capacity to crush our industry rather than a new tool with the capacity to enrich and expand our work into new territory.
I've won awards before for my columns in the Gazette but this time I consciously entered exclusively on-line material that deliberately showed the range of possibilities of a blog: embedded video, links to the original news stories that had prompted the prose riffing, links to primary source material on other sites, links to parallel discussions on twitter and on-going lively debates on the blog between myself and contributors and the ensuing internal sub-debates between posters, all contained within one easy to digest package.
I entered the journalistic juggernaut of the Deadline Day Live blog from August, a breakfast to Big Ben bongs 15 hour spectacular updated every half-hour or so to highlight that a blog was not a single set-piece text but a living, developing entity, a fluid conversation that can be reshaped on the hoof, that can reflect the changing events and moods and the momentum of the story.
I was a bit worried that I was wasting my time and that in an industry wedded to paper the mechanics and methodolgy of blogging, especially when semi-detached from the parent paper - would be seen as alien, a novelty and not really what we, the local press, do. You never know what the demographics or interests of a judging panel will be. It could easily have given the gong to a column chronicling the rural county show jam wars.
So please forgive the trumpet blowing. Yes I am chuffed and it is nice to get recognition for the time and effort blah blah blah, but I also think it is good that a new frontier is being recognised. Thanks to you lot out there too. It is the constant feedback of an active audience that makes this blog worthwhile, makes it a living entity, gives it momentum and encourages readers to come back, make that tentative first comment and then find a confident voice, speak up and feel part of a community.
Those of you who are regular posters, thanks. Those that are not, speak up. Feel free to comment. Every contribution is welcome. I don't bite. I can't speak for the others.
The official citation said:
"Untypical Boro is an enjoyable and admirable on-line product that superbly complements the Evening Gazette's newspaper service. A writer with an existing profile in print starts out in his usual realm of sport but reaches out into extraordinary areas that here strayed into classical philosophical paradoxes and reflection on the essentially bi-polar nature of football fans. Another strength is the blogger's engagement with his audience through feedback and responses. An overall combination of good ideas, good writing and good use of new media."
******
I'LL get back to writing about football soon. Honest.
Here in a nutshell is my thoughts on the 0-0 draw with Crystal Palace:
We were lucky to get away with a draw in a dismal game and they will be gutted. It was completely unmemorable as a match. Only the Baltic weather was notable.
Another two injuries (Haroun and Emnes) anded to Barry Robson's broken hand means I might need to take my boots next on Wednesday. With seven on the bench in the FA Cup it could be me, Mogga and Proc to make up the numbers.
Steele, even though not fit, made three good saves. He wasn't jeered. Either people are starting to accept he is a decent keeper or it was too cold to boo.
It was nice to see the man behind the myth as Curtis Main finally made an appearance - although after months of saying he isn't ready and trying to play down expectations on the stiffs goal machine it shows the depth of the injury crisis that he got a game.
More later.
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Anthony Vickers
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Well done on the Gong, Vic. It must have been more satisfying at the Awards ceremony drinking the beers people bought you, than being at the Riverside, yesterday!
If you were within range, 25,000 people would be giving you a hearty slap on the back (or is it more than 25,000 unique visitors to the Blog - if that is how they measure these things - each month?)
Congratulations, well done and very well earned!
Untypical Boro is the Sporting Journalistic equivalent of moving the art from Black & White to full Colour High Definition in 3D.
In my view, these paragraphs alone are worth an award:
"let's be under no illusion. It is going to be a long, hard slog in an attritional, unforgiving division and with a shallow squad and little in the kitty at times it will get sticky. We will suffer set-backs. We will lose, home and away. We will have injuries. We will have wobbles. Players will have off days. There will be injuries and patched up teams. Those are all givens.
"But unity is strength. We are all aboard the Mogganaut together, players and fans. We will win together and lose together. There's no time or benefit in recriminations.
"If we want this season to be a success we need to get behind the team as a unit and as individuals, take collective strength from the sizzling start and roar them on to renewed efforts when momentum is wavering. We need to get behind the team when they falter ready to give them a push - not take up position with a sniper's rifle.
"Let's help set the season on fire, enjoy the ride and revel in the positives in the revival rather than simmer and spontaneously combust with rage at the first imagined failings."
For you are child of the universe.............
Very well deserved AV, well done mate. Your commitment to the blog is fantastic, and I think all contributors are grateful for a decent outlet for our joy and more often than not, our pain! And it was pain I felt yesterday. Not from the cold, but from an incipid performance that really now shows the shallowness of our squad. I
feel a play off place slipping away in the snow...
Congratulations AV, well done for yourself especially, and for Middlesbrough.
Now treat yourself not to a bottle of wine from Lidl, or Tesco with a screw top, but a top of the range bottle of CHAMPAGNE.
You deserve it!!!!!! Salud.
Well done! I read your blog rather than the 'official' match reports as you seem to capture the ordinary fans perspective on the game, club and everything else that goes in to following the Boro.
Let's hope that you can bring a similar result to the Boro and bring us an unexpected trophy at the end of the season.
It is great, when it works!
Congratulations Vic. And well done. Both to you and everybody else that contributes on this blog. Thoroughly deserved. I should contribute more, but everybody else writes such good stuff that there's usually nothing more to add. (smiley, winkey thing)
Hearty congrats from the blogosphere, hopefully the geeks will be encouraged to devote due deference to gong holder.
Roll on Wednesday night but first of all I have to get out of the drive. I live in a place called The Hollow with no through traffic but lots of lovely trees which make it shady and cool in the summer. And a hill!
To get out means a six foot drop at the end of the drive before turning right up a steep hill with 4 inches of snow on the untreated road.
Luckily there is a Tesco within walking distance to ensure that there are suitable supplies in such trying weather.
A big congratulations AV. Well deserved too may I add.
I have never been one for letter writing, blogging, Face booking or tweeting but what I have read by you in your columns over the recent years has inspired me to join in, say my piece, and follow your columns,blogs and tweets with interest and heart warming loyalty.
Its hard for those of us who for one reason or another had to leave our home town
and its so so nice to have that live link that you provide so effectively.
Your coloums have had at times as much an affect on me as did Shakespeare or Karl Marx in my youth
Clearly I like all the bloggers love the BORO but more much more you give us the forum to say our piece and answer with knolage intelligence and more than a little wit. Thank you for the joy you bring and again a big congratulations.
Well done, pal. Richly deserved.
There has been a bit of tiredness on the blog lately, but let's hope we can all keep responding to this blogmeister whom we all surely recognise as at the top of his trade!
For me, at least, economic retrenchment - which has meant missing some of the away games and the vibe thereof and the craic that so enlivens me - has also meant a little less engagement on the blogging front.
I don't really feel I have anything much to contribute any more, as most of us on here are season card holders and most of us go through the (largely) drudgery of home match attendance.
Anyway, AV keeps a lot of us fed with a sense of belonging even when we don't post at every possible opportunity. All hail to him and his achievements!
Congratulations AV! Richly deserved.
I've loved this blog from the first day I ever read it, and it just gets better and better. The quality of your writing is astonishingly good - at least as good as the famous football writers in the posh press - and the debates that inevitably follw your erudite, yet down-to -earth and entirely realistic pieces are always worth following. As Boro fans we are incredibly lucky to have this fantastic ongoing resource about our club.
The only things I enjoyed about the Palace game were Jason Steele's man of the match performance, Curtis Main's excellent debut (not ready, Mogga? Think again!), and the merciful relief of the final whistle.
**AV writes: Thanks for all the kind words from everyone.
Dear Anthony,
When I read your column I feel a little boy again in North Ormesby although I am nearing my three score years and ten.
There is great passion in your writing but also a degree of vulnerability as you try to balance conflicting interests of players, supporters and management so as to be lively and provoking but fair and reasonable. Probably an impossible task that leaves you dangling on a tight rope.
Your writing has re-ignited my love of the Boro, and my brother gives me local feedback.
Congratulations on your award.
John Cope, Keighley
Well done AV utb and all those who support them
Well done Vic. I'm all for this new technology, just as soon as I get my new mobile to work. Know anything about them?.
Congratulations AV. Well deserved. Have always enjoyed reading your blogs. A true Boro lad with passion in his heart who pulls no punches and tells it how it is. Keep up the good work.
Millsy and the rest of the Barmy Boro Army, Brisbane, Australia.
Nice one, Vic!
AV mate, couldn't have been given to a nicer dude. Untypical Boro is you mate, award richly deserved. Why not hit the tea lady's biccie tin and have yerself a nice ginger biccie with yer cuppa.
Well done AV. As a fan in exile your column is the first thing I turn to for match reports.
Teesside Tommy would be proud of you.
Congratulations Vic.
In the three years since I discovered the blog it has become a daily necessity to check for new stories and new comments.
Living away from the area and unable to attend most matches through work commitments, it has helped to fill the Boro-shaped void and reconnect me to the football club I love and the area as a whole. For me, it is vital, and I'm extremely pleased to read that your work in providing this space, and the quality of it, has been recognised.
**AV writes: I am practically a social service for the DiasBoro.
Well done AV and everybody involved. Apart from the community side of things it gives us bloggers from far away places to listen and coment on everything Boro.
Long may it continue.
Congratulations AV! Richly deserved.
Sad weekend for me. I missed the match completely as I saw my mother the same time for last time - ever. She passed away at the age of 88. But live goes on as she told me recently. I hope for a cheer up against Sunderland on Wednesday.
Up the Boro!
**AV writes: That's sad. Commiserations mate.
Well done for winning the award AV, as all above have said its well deserved.
When I first found this Blog, I was delighted to find a source of Boro news which could feed my Boro 'habit' despite living down south. But its much more than a source of news, it is indeed as you describe it a community. One which serves an important purpose for us exiles, whether we be in Halifax, Beverley, Finland or Katmandu.
Take some time to bask in the glow and enjoy the plaudits, what you do goes well beyond the call of duty.
As for the Boro, the team needs our support right now, more than ever, this is the crisis/dip in form all teams suffer at some stage in a season but its lasting a little too long to be comfortable. I've no doubt we'll come out of it, but where will we be by the time we do? I suppose it confirms we are play-off contenders rather than top two contenders, which are two very different things.
Never posted before Vic, but I've read your reports for a few years. Fantastic to win the award. I have you slotted into the same category as my dentist, its the What Will I do if They Retire? slot.
Missed you after Saturday. Brain shut down with the combination of weather and lack of stimulation, so I needed to know what I thought, but you didn't tell me.
**AV writes: I was braving the barren icy wastes of the A19 Northbound. Welcome aboard.
Well done AV, have you purchased a nice trophy cabinet?
Looking forward to Wednesday, but hope the journey home is a bit quicker than the 3 hours plus it took on Saturday! Thank god for 4x4's !!
UTB
Jarrko - Commiserations my friend.
Well done AV!
For another exiled Smoggy, deep in the frozen hills and valleys of Switzerland, this blog, and an adequately fast broadband connection, are the primary and basic resource needs to keep up on all things Boro. Without them - I would be sunk.
Where else can I get typical, sarcastic and cynical Teesside humour, the dark, black humour of the experienced Boro fan - the "ah well" mentality that sees us never raise our expectations too far above mediocre.
Some of us may sniff the over-sized fingers of foam from time to time, may see the bright lights of the Premier League, and £10M strikers beckoning us forward; others stand permanently looking over their shoulders and conduct nervous doomsday-scenario forecasts and predictions that show us bottom of the league and cut adrift by the end of March - but the glue that unites us together is Untypical Boro.
How you manage to straddle the polarity of opinions, the polarity of reactions, and keep everyone broadly happy and having a laugh, well, is beyond my ken. But having done so - I would say official recognition was well deserved.
Now, are we going to get promoted then?
**AV writes: Well I've got the hotel booked for Wembley.
Well done AV and to everyone who makes this one of the few online experiences worthy of my limited daytime net time, I like the diversity, the quality, and fairness expressed here. I learn a lot and its also a great place to sound off without being hounded out towards the Pennines
BRING BACK THE 86 BADGE!
Congratulations AV. Trouble is, when any of our lot gets an award, it is always followed by a bad spell. eg. Mogga !!!!
I will be at Ipswich on Saturday, another home game for me, so Come on Boro.
The first time I saw Curtis Main was at Peterborough, just warming up. But several amongst us thought he looked great physically for a kid and his ball control was as good as Joe. Lets hope he starts against the mackems.
Jarkko -
Sorry to hear the sad news. With John's loss before Christmas it brings home how important family is to all of us.
Our mums never saw our kids and my dad only saw the son and not our daughter. Oddly Alex was saying the other day how pleased he was when we pulled him and his sister out of school when grandad had a heart attack because he died the following night.
Remember your mum with fondness, we still chuckle when we think of our parents.
I hope Boro give you something to cheer you up on Wednesday.
What's all this about then? Drinking with the gin and tonic set, being back slapped by everyone. I don't get it me, getting above your station a bit arncha. Too big for yer boots in my opinion, swanning off with the academia eh?
Where's the blogs from the last 2 games, we not good enough for yer anymore then? Don't think you can just forget us beer drinkers now you've hit the big time.
Always the same, having a little success then forgetting what and the people that got you the success in the first place.
Just joking AV, well done mate, richly deserved.
Nigel - thanks, mate.
Boro are hoping for the biggest crowd of the season for the FA Cup with Budweiser fourth round replay against Sunderland with 21,446 tickets sold in already today.
What is your estimation of the size of the crowd for the replay? My guess is an
optimistic 30 019 as we got 27,794 against Hull on Boxing day. Would be great to break the 30 000 barrier.
Up the Boro!
**AV writes: Can't see us breaking 30k. Hope so but can't see it. Boxing Day is always a big gate because the DiasBoro head back to Teesside to go to their Mams' for Christmas and go to the match. They won't all come back for a midweek game that is on the telly.
AV says" Id like to thank the Academy, the writers, produces, directors, the great cast, my wonderful family, almighty God and last but not least the Evening Gazette for giving us this platform to perform on"
**AV writes: *takes out onion* *sobs*
Well done AV! I'd also like to add my congratulations on picking up your Hickey - surely the indelible mark of great journalism.
Whilst I'm sure winning awards is not the uttermost in your mind when you give up all that extra time and energy in the quest for professional satisfaction - they do help in giving the boost to continue the hard work.
I think I've been following the blog now for seven years or more - it's an invaluable assett for expat like me in to keep in tune with the Boro. Though now I have a young child that restricts my spare time to contribute.
BTW as someone who has worked in new media for many a year it's still hard to decide whether this form of journalism will eventually pay its way or whether it's still reliant on a large slice of unpaid time from those who are involved.
Finally condolences Jarkko on the sad loss of your mother - 88 is a decent age and I'm sure you have many fond memories to remember her by.
**AV writes: Obviously the need to make money from web content is the elephant in the room for newspapers. We can't go on giving our product for free. Ultimately journalists have to be paid and those who say "we'll just get it free somewhere else on the web" have to understand that the stories on the cut-and-pastebot operations - and even to some extent SSN - are all sourced from real newspapers.
This site is not such a problem. I am paid by the Gazette (although not for all the extra hours, that is a labour of love) plus there is a steady but not spectacular income from regular advertising. Whether it would pay my way if it was a full time job is another question. It probably would if you chased the advertising more shrewdly and aggressively but that's not really my game.
I was guessing that with the Mackem contingent we'd have 25000 ish on Wednesday, if that's nearer to 30000 then I'd see that as a result.
I'm looking forward to watching the match on telly with my son, who is convinced we're going to win...mmmmmm.
Personally I'm looking forward to seeing how well our ressies and youth team squad perform against the Mackems. I'm also looking forward to seeing Curtis Main in action. If he plays a blinder/scores then Mogga will have a problem on his hands because the pressure on the young man will rack up.
AV -
Many congrats from your original contributor!
To take up gt's theme - does winning the Cordner's 'Golden Globe' now mean that the Emmy, the Bafta and the Oscar equivalents are now a shoe in? If so we can look forward to more and better soon and you with 'Red Carpet Rash'!
**AV writes: The last few years it has always been 'there or there abouts' when it comes to the big national gigs. I think some of the intensity inside the bubble and and cultural nuances of our parochial world don't always travel well. Never mind.
There are over 152 million blogs with over 2 billion potential readers. Yet for us - the few - those who collectively suffer the pain of been emotionally related to the Boro - there is only one blog. Thank you AV.
Sorry for your loss, Jarkko. It's never good to hear of someone's personal family bereavement, but hearing about it is nothing like as bad as when it happens to you. Take encouragement from knowing that time will diminish the hurt. Please accept my condolences to add to those of others.
In stark contrast, I'm pleased for you AV. Well done. Reverse of the above sentiment - enjoy the moment. In your case, I think time, if it hasn't already, will prove you right - at least for as long as we have distributed electricity!
And without sounding too cheesy, well done to all who contribute here. The overall quality of contributions here by regulars makes this the ONLY blog, never mind, FOOTBALL blog, that I visit regularly and frequently - even when I'm not posting.
Nice one indeed Vic.
Now get back to work.
Congratulations on winning this award for the high quality of journalism you have produced over the years.
As an ex English teacher I am impressed by the way you have reached out to scores of men and to a lesser degree women, to commit their thoughts and opinions to 'cyber paper'. The range of writing is immense, the degree of critical thought is stimulating and this is because of your own openness and generous view of welcoming a diverse spectrum of views.
The club is at the heart of what we write but for me living outside the area in S. Yorkhire it is a meaningful way of remaining close to my roots.
Finally not a lot to say about the match except Main looks an intriguing prospect and I am trying to forget the dismal sight of Thomson chugging forlornly around the pitch and the tedious drive home that took three hours.
Vic, if the blog had to be "sold off" by the Gazette, and it was run by you (full time) with, say wifely assistance on the marketing front selling adverts here and there, could you ever see it wiping its financial face?
In other words, as an independent enterprise with someone (ie you) there 8.30am to 5.30pm to operate it, write and research articles and interview people for the blog etc, without having the "distraction" of a day-job writing for the Gazette? As a "full-time" job, you'd be able to respond virtually immediately to news, and publish and respond to blog entries by your readeship, without having to go off to do other journalisitc duties.
In reality I guess you'd want a colleague (No - this isn't a job application!) to assist, as you'd need days off, and you might want to have someone on duty in the late evenings or even through the night, or simply while you are interviewing people for news or just for information.
It would be a bold step forward, but would it be a wise one? Taken away from the steady income a senior writer receives from his newspaper, and cast our onto the choppy waters of the internet...
It will be interesting to see what happens to the written news media over the next decade or so. I am aware many believe the days of the regional dailies are numbered. You, being "in the trade" will be even more aware of the trends.
Some people seem to get by without an interest in the world around them. They might not be interested in "the news". Others watch TV, or listen to the radio. Some obviously buy newspapers and a smaller number may buy news magazines (Newsweek, the Economist etc).
Ten years ago, the number of people who got their perspective on the world from the internet would have been very small. But now, even people who claim not technical expertise, look up various websites as well as the news organisations' own sites for their daily "fix".
I listen to Radio 4 and Radio 5 and, if the weather is bad, BBC Tees, for the news. I also watch TV for some of the bulletins, (both BBC 1, ITV, and the Freeview channels for the BBC 24 hour news channel). I very rarely take a look at the Sky News channel on Freeview, but I don't otherwise "do" Murdoch unless I happen to be in the pub watching a match or some other sporting event.
I get the Telegraph every day at home and very often, but not every day, the Gazette, and at work peek at the Times, The "I" and the Sun, in addition to the Northern Echo.
The broadsheets had a free webservice. Now you have to pay a subscription. That's when I butted out of the services. I think that if I buy a paper, for example having a subscription for the paper version of the Telegraph, it should come with "free" access to their website. I don't want to pay twice for the service and, if I had to chose one version, it would be the paper one.
I realise times change. People now do things that wouldn't have been dreamt of 100 years ago. Flying to Australia and getting there in a day, rather than a 6 week boat trip? Talking LIVE on a handheld phone to someone on the far coast of the USA? Seeing their LIVE pictures on Skype when previously if a family member emigrated the chances are that would be the last time you would see them?
So the reality is that no-one can know what the future holds. Remember the advert with Robbie Coltrane bouncing on some bed at 2am telling us that we were "all bank managers, now"? Maybe the same will apply to football news and journalism: "We're all Blogmeisters, now".
In that case there will certainly be some rubbish out there to read. I just hope that useful sources of information won't be wiped out by the current economic situation, or by the percpetion that everything has to migrate to that interwebby thing. It is supposed to be a virtual world on the net, not the real one!
Will people all know the difference in 50 years?
I fondly remember a year or 2 ago reading THE Wikipedia article about Phil Stamp that referred to him as one of the greatest footballers of all time, as it traced his career north to Edinburgh from Teesside. No doubt some poor soul, "researching" on the internet, will have relied on the truth of that for his school project. Falsehoods on the internet can almost grow to be "the accepted Truth". It doesn't matter what people are really like, or what they have done, all that will matter is what it says on Facebook - the new reality!.
On reflection, Vic, carry on, while you can, paddling both canoes.
**AV writes: I'm not sure it is wise discussing possible alternative employment on Gazette bandwidth but I'm always up for a bit of navel gazing.
Technology changes but the need of a community to reflect on itself doesn't so there will always be a need for a local media and more so in places like Teesside which are isolated geographically and culturally. Our parochialism is a potentially our strength. It will mean that the Gazette will outlive most of the big city printed media that can be served by free sheets and local multi-media hubs and 'citizen' journalists. If we don't cover Teesside - and Boro - who will?
The problem with on-line is how to make money from it. Tailored advertising, specific sponsored pages, apps, pay-walls, e-publishing, create your own pick-and-mix Kindle editions. It is all up for grabs. Fortunately squaring that particular circle isn't my job. I am just a humble word monkey.
Well done. This blog has taken over for me as the number 1 read for all things Boro. Some other places have degenerated into foul mouthed infantile kindergartens.
Keep the standards up here on here, young man!
Jarkko,
Deepest sympathy mate.
Chris
Read the back page tonite, had to check whether it wasn't April Fools. Right lets get this straight, we are currently a team that couldn't hit a barn bloody door, yet on our books we have a player who's that good clubs are queuing up to sign him?
For gods sake what do they put in the tea at the Riverside? Moggas acting and sounding more like Southgate every week. Emnes has been out of sorts for months , we haven't scored two goals at the Riverside for nearly four months , yet apparently this kid isn't ready for 1st team football. Well the only way to find out is to play him,come on Mogga what have we to lose.
**AV writes: There would be hell on if Mogga went out now and signed a 19 year old who had been released by Darlo in the summer and who Rochdale, Bury and Crewe were all after on loan.
Sorry for the loss Jarkko.
AV dont fall for going it alone.Just think you would have to pay for your own tickets.
Well big night on Wednesday. Once again we have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Even out in Africa people talking about us again and looking forward to the game on tv.
Jarkko
My deepest sympathy. Having gone through the same thing just before Xmas, I can empathise with your sad loss.
Adverts are certainly an elephant in the room, I suspect all the pop-ups and sundry links cause half the problems on the Gazette site especially on older machines like my work lappie.
I must admit I hate being bombarded and have just about given up on Gazette articles on the lappie because of the time it takes to load.
I guess a stand alone Vic blog would need so much advertising revenue we would inundated with pop ups beseeching us to goods destined for the car boot sale. Maybe each poster would be sponsored!
Lets leave it as it is and hope for a techie solution to current irritants.
On to footie and something with a vague link to Boro.
Saw Gareth Bale's shocker of a dive last night, it has not been a good weekend for British players as the virus believed to only infect Johnny Foreigner is shown to be able to leap species and infect good old Brits.
Welbeck's penalty wasnt as bad nor was Johnno's but one played for Sunderland and the other was born there.
I remember listening to a Radio Tees commentary when either Ali or Gary came up with the immortal words that it seemed Jinky had his short studs in.
Jarkko, very sad to hear about your mum. My condolences are added to all those others expressed here.
AV. Sorry not to have posted sooner, but been away. Congratulations. Ditto to all the comments and observations made already. You really have made coming from Middlesbrough a real and living thing for all of us who have left the Tees behind.
I've just read this whole thread and I am struck most of all by the heartfelt wishes of so many contributors to Jarkko. That's what your blog is all about for me, a community of shared values where we are all made to feel like "one of us". I'm delighted that you win the recognition your efforts deserve.
Jarkko, my condolences to you as well.
I hope the Boro can help you get back to your usual infectiously enthusiastic self before too long.
Nicely done Mr Vickers.
I hope the trophy/medal is firmly locked away in your trophy room vault. It will be valuable to the Rag and Bone!
Just noticed this - well done big man - and totally deserved!!