What did you do on Halloween? Hit the town with your mates? Went to a house party in your costume? Stayed in and watched a horror film? That sounds fun. What did I do? I went to Middlesbrough to watch Palace get totally outplayed by a bloody Championship team.
To be honest, as I was getting in the car, I was already questioning why exactly I’d chosen to sacrifice one of the best nights of the year (Halloween in the Toon is a guaranteed mad one) to go and watch Palace play in the League Cup. Unfortunately, practically living in the Arctic Circle means opportunities to watch the lads are few and far between. It was a game I surely couldn’t miss.
I should have known the night was going to be shit when it took me 25 minutes to find a parking space and 15 minutes to walk there (all whilst I was dying for a wee). It then took me 10 minutes to find the ticket office. Wonderful.
I finally entered the away end, got myself a pint of Foster’s (absolutely not worth the £4 I paid for it) and a burger with chips (which, to be fair, was absolutely banging), and took my seat right at the back of the stadium. I’d never been to the Riverside before, but I must say it’s not bad at all. Good view from my seat and a very generous away allocation.
It was all going fine until the lights show started. Yes. They had a lights show. I’ll never forget the first (and last) lights show at Palace, which got pretty much the whole home support going ‘what the f***?’. This was on a similar level. Totally pointless. Nearly as bad as the Middlesbrough ‘ultras’ who had 3 flags and about 10 drums. They also relentlessly stole our songs. I quickly forgot about the burger and chips.
The less said about the game itself, the better. We were awful. We deserved to lose. And we could have had Burton Albion at home in the quarters. It was also absolutely baltic, meaning I froze my balls off. All this was happening whilst I was getting message after message asking where I was going out. Oh, absolutely nowhere mate. I’m already in Middlesbrough. By myself. Watching a Carabao Cup 5th round tie. Jealous? Yeah, didn’t think so.
I arrived home to an empty house at 11:30pm because everyone was out. I went to bed, dejected, cold and full of regret. I’m never going to Middlesbrough again. Then again, I can cry all I like, at least I didn’t travel up from South London like the vast majority did. Extremely dedicated or absolutely mental? I’ll leave you to decide that.
Talk Crystal Palace 