The Riverside Stadium: Middlesbrough 1-1 Wrexham

Middlesbrough 1-1 Wrexham

An opportunity presented itself for a day out and when I’m not watching my own team struggle on at home games I’m trying to retrace my steps to grounds I (Adrian) have not been on for a while and not local to me. So here I am on the banks of the River Tees visiting the Riverside Stadium, the home of Middlesbrough. A venue I had not visited since 2012/13 season. It’s ironic that I should be here because on Tuesday night I was at a ground identical, Pride Park, watching Derby County vs Norwich City. Never warm in Middlesbrough even though we did get some sun at kick off and an expectant home crowd of over 30,000 hoping to see The Boro continue their good start to the season. The opponents Wrexham have enjoyed a lot of publicity over the last few years with the celebrity American owners, TV documentary about them and heavy investment which has seen them rise from the National League to the 2nd tier in successive years. This the clubs first visit to the Riverside Stadium and a return to a familiar part of the world for their manager Phil Parkinson who lived in nearby Stockton from the age of 10. The stadium is an excellent facility offering uninterrupted views and The Boro ticket office gave me the best view in the house half way up the west stand on the half way line. The game was as all in the Championship hard fought, Wrexham settled the quicker, Brynn in the Middlesbrough goal had already been called into action pushing away a long range effort from Ryan Longman before he was beaten by another long range effort this time from Josh Windass which hit the back of the net via a deflection, this after just 7 minutes. 0-1. The home side failed to inspire the big crowd in the first half, Wrexham were finding things pretty comfortable, but I guess most Boro fans raised an eyebrow at the beginning of the second half when Rob Edwards made a quadruple substitution. It worked to a degree, the home side were certainly better in the second period, getting further forward and finding space which had been denied them in the first half. Nevertheless despite this improvement Wrexham were still leading but it turned into a tail of headers, one missed and one scored. Wrexham should have wrapped the game up as Kieffer Moore hit the crossbar with a header from an excellent ball from the left by O’Brien while minutes later Middlesbrough finally levelled Hayden Hackney, a local lad, heading home at the far post a cross from Brittain. 1-1. With 10 minutes to go the atmosphere intensified and Boro could have nicked it. Hackney had a free kick just over and Ayling, the former Leeds player, had a left foot volley which Okonkwo pushed over the bar. FT 1-1. Honours even, for Boro a point gained. I must admit I expected a bit more from them considering they were second in the league table. For Wrexham, you suspect they will be a bit disappointed they could not hang on but their story continues they have made rapid strides due to investment and a good manager. You wonder could they eventually reach the Premier League… I had a quick exit out of the Teeside area, I parked in North Ormsby which is across the A66 from the stadium cutting through what appeared to be a nature reserve which saw me walk under the A66. I was quickly in my car heading west on the A66 for a couple of mile before needing to get across to my left for the A19 south, that was a challenge thanks to modern day discourteous drivers and a low sun. Other than that an uneventful 3 hour journey home using the A1 and M1.

Middlesbrough 1-2 Watford

Our visit to Middlesbrough was to be the last Championship ground to be completed by myself (Ross) during the 2012/2013 season.

Our journey to Teesside started at 8:30am. We decided to stop at Garforth Town, Harrogate Town and Harrogate Railway Athletic on our way up to The Riverside Stadium.

We arrived at our first stop, Garforth Town at 10am. Garforth Town play at the Genix Healthcare Stadium which holds 3,000 supporters and was built in 1998. The ground features one main stand which looks like a stand from an athletic stadium and the other stand which appears to be just a covering shelter behind one of the goals (built to comply with ground-grading regulations in March 2011 and is nicknamed "The Strawberry End" by supporters after the fruit grown in the adjacent field). Garforth Town is famous for signing the late Brazilian International, Sócrates in 2004 for 1 month as a player-coach and made just 1 appearance coming on as a substitute which was seen by 1,385 spectators. In the same year, former Manchester United player, Lee Sharpe played for Garforth scoring 4 goals for the Miners. To add to this mayhem, Paul Gascoigne was set to become the manager of Garforth in 2010 and changed his mind at the last minute.

Following our stop at the Genix Healthcare Stadium, we continued Northbound briefly before making two stops in Harrogate, first at Harrogate Town’s Wetherby Road and the closely followed by Harrogate Railway Athletic’s Station View.

With our stops complete we continued towards Teesside.

We decided to get some lunch at Morrisons in Stockton on Tees where Adrian and I ate on our way to Sunderland almost a year ago giving the journey a hint of déjà vu.

We arrived at The Riverside Stadium and bought our tickets before finding a place to park which ended up being Benedict Street which was just on the other side of the A66.

We walked towards the ground going underneath the A66 and wading through a muddy path. We arrived at the ground and took some photos before walking towards the river to take some more photos.

We continued to walk around the ground taking more pictures including a photo of the Watford manager, Gianfranco Zola, getting off the team bus. The weather took a sudden turn for the worst so we decided to get our programmes and go in.

The Riverside Stadium was built in 1995 originally holding a capacity of 30,000 replacing Ayresome Park following the Taylor Report.

In 1998 following Middlesbrough promotion back to the Premier League at the first attempt, the capacity was increased by 5,000 by filling in the north and south west corners at a cost of £5 million. This expansion gave the stadium its current 35,000 capacity.

In 2005 the club saw the old Ayresome Park gates resurrected at their new home. They are the same gates which had been famously locked when the club went in to liquidation.

The game was ‘the game of the day’ with both Middlesbrough and Watford positioned in the Play-offs. Watford won the game 2-1 with goals scored twice by Matej Vydra for Watford and a consolation goal scored in the last minute by Boro’s Scott McDonald.

Following the game we walked back towards the car (this time in the sleet) and made our journey home. As we got onto the A1 we found that junction 48 to 47 was closed due to an incident meaning we had to be diverted down the country lanes adjacent before getting back on a few junctions down.

The Riverside Stadium

Monday, 22 December 2025

Middlesbrough 1-1 Wrexham

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