They think it's all over...   Wednesday 20th June 2007

Just time for one last trip around the McCain Stadium.  If it all ends today it's a crying shame.  Particularly for the volunteers who've been down here every day for the past few weeks, painting fences and railings, mending doors, windows and the players' tunnel, moving furniture around in the social club, painting the dressing rooms, etc etc etc.
 
It's 9 o'clock in the morning, just 90 minutes before the Judge decides whether the club can survive or not.
 
Here's the forecourt, with what would have been the club shop for 2007-08.  It was due to have new windows and shutters.

 
So let's take a look down the side of the main grandstand towards the pitch.  The cladding has been deteriorating for years, and the groundstaff have done their best to patch things up, but this would need major investment if the club (or indeed any club) were to use the McCain Stadium in the future.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The building housing the social club and offices is in a poor state.  The roof has been leaking for quite a while, and rain comes in around the windows.  The electricity supply needs attention.  Here, the crumbling brickwork contrasts with the East Stand in the background.

The club has spent £7,000 on the pitch during this close-season.  The playing area has been vertidrained, top-dressed, treated and seeded.  The light green young grass is now coming through strongly.  This is the view from the away end of the ground.
 
Has all this effort been in vain?

 
 

 
 

The stand at the away end (the West Stand).  As seats have been broken over the past few years, the groundstaff have taken seats from this section of the West Stand to replace them.  So now we have an empty section where once there were around 350 seats.

But there are plenty more which will need replacing if the stand is ever used again.

 
 
The recent heavy rain has caused havoc with the social club.  The club was planning to spend around £1,000 having the flat roof repaired, and the bar had already been prepared for redecoration.  The Sponsors Lounge was due for a complete makeover.    At the moment, there are a dozen buckets collecting drips of rainwater, and the ceiling in the kitchen area has fallen in.

 

 

 
 
 

 
 
 
A coat hangs forlornly as the click ticks towards the fateful court appearance at 10.30.

 
 

 
 
The phone rings. It's sad news. The club is liquidated. 
 
All those preparations for playing in the UniBond League, the new stadium, the new kit, the new academy system, seem to have been wasted.
 
There goes 128 years of history and some amazing memories of victories and defeats, laughter and tears, promotions and relegations.

 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

NO BATTLE,NO VICTORY.  

UP THE BORO!
 
 
 

to see messages of sympathy received by this website in the immediate aftermath of Boro's demise.