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VILLAREAL AWAY 25-11-04
Written by Steve Goldby
Although there was no great requirement for suntan lotion or shades in Spain during this November week, the cooling drinks still flowed aplenty in an atmosphere of pure carnival proportions.
We arrived in Valencia on the Tuesday afternoon after a short stop over in Majorca and as we waited for our connecting flight, I realised that this was the very place that Cloughie celebrated his first championship as his team sunbathed on the beach. A good omen perhaps? Unfortunately not.
Valencia is one hell of a beautiful place when you reach the city centre. Although the suburbs do not exactly fill you with inspiration, once you escape the rough end of town, you simply cannot help but be captivated by the Olde Worlde Mediterrannean charm of this great Spanish city.
And as early as Tuesday morning, the many bars and cafes were becoming slowly inhabited with Boro fans, all in good spirits and all enjoying this glamorous away day to the full.
It was really great to see many familiar faces and acquaintances when we were so far away from home and as the day wore on, the numbers of red shirts increased as the embryonic pre match atmosphere crackled in the air.
Come the Wednesday and there seemed to be a group of Boro fans on every street corner. Keith Lamb had been sighted in O'Finnegan's Irish Bar and some team members had been seen perusing the Valencian stores. And as I crossed a busy main road on the outer centre, a big Merc pulled up at the lights and there was no mistaking the driver. The Tinkerman himself, Claudio Ranieri looked straight at me and I wished that I had had a Boro scarf with me to wave back at him.
Apparently, the team were due to travel to Villareal to train early that evening but this session was not accessible to the public. Consequently, the only thing left to do was to stay in Valencia and attend the Boro party in the City square. It was Trafalgar Square 1997 all over again and there was not one hint of even the most trivial kind of bad behaviour from one single person present. Every Boro fan was a credit to their team, their town and their country.
Come match day, Valencia train station started to fill up with Teessiders as early as eleven o'clock, despite Villareal being a mere hour away. There were plenty of trains to take us to the Madrigal Staduim but a few worried faces had noticed that the last train back to Valencia departed half an hour before the game ended. There were no organised bus trips back to Valencia that evening and a taxi fare was rumoured to be in the region of eighty euros. This was looking like it could possibly be tricky.
It is probably evens as to whether it was the taxi companies that made the biggest killing on the night, or whether the bartenders just pipped them but both must have believed that Christmas had come early for them. One discerning observer noted that the place was 'a shithole that looked just like Grangetown' and apart from the lack of tapas bars in that forsaken part of Teesside, he was not far wrong at all.
But did that stop the Red Army from making this an unforgettable occasion? No, sir! To say that we took over the complete town that day is no exaggeration and once again, a fine example was set by every one of the four thousand strong Teesside contingent who had come to cheer on the lads in their quest for early qualfication to the knockout stage.
Some of the locals joined the party for four thousand in the square close to the ground and whoever poured washing up liquid into the fountain created a scene of great hilarity to rival only that of the bloke in drag who took great delight in accusing all passers by of looking at his arse. I can assure you that nobody was and if he didn't expect stares when attired in that manner, then he should have stayed in the fountain and carried on swimming through the foam.
Villareal's ground looks nothing like the splendid arena in the picture on our Europe page. A fresh coat of paint must have been applied on the day that that shot was taken because the ground seemed old and in need of freshening up. No complaints about the view at all though, even from the uncomfortable seats behind the goal that we occupied.
At a glance, and without the aid of official figures, it appeared that the Boro fans almost matched the home supporters in numbers and if that estimate is slightly out, then I can at least say for defintite that we outmatched them in volume a few times over.
Not that we really had that much to shout about. I am loath to criticise Steve McClaren in any way but I found myself thinking that the tactics employed in the first half may have cost us the match. We are so much better when we play a free flowing attacking formation instead of trying to match or negate the opposition. This was unfortunately proven in the second half when Mark and Jimmy made a very welcome appearance and we looked like we may be able to turn the tide our way but in reality, Villareal's confidence was well up after the first fourty five and there was no way back in for us.
We lost our unbeaten European record fairly and squarely on Thursday night but after Lazio's draw with Partisan, there was no real reason to be disconsolate about the situation. Yet there was reason to be very angry about the situation that followed the final whistle.
Apparently, UEFA regulations state that away supporters must be held back in the stadium for thirty minutes after the final whistle and I had held this discussion with many people throughout our time in Spain. A Teesside voice announced it over the PA with fifteen minutes to go until full time but at a ridiculously low volume and I only knew what the announcement was about because I strained to hear it and pieced the audible fragments together with my prior knowledge of the situation. If anybody tells you that they didn't hear the announcement, then they are telling the truth because it sounded like Korn recorded through a sock.
So come the final whistle, a good proportion of the Boro fans decided to leave the stadium and although this is not a crime where I come from, the Spanish police decided that this heinous act merited riot control tactics and instead of notifying or reminding our supporters of the impending delay, they decided to wield their truncheons and started beating our lads about the head in order to get their message across.
I can only describe the Spanish police on duty that night as scum, pigs and filth and I do hope that no past or present member of the British Police force takes offence to those remarks. I am simply finding it difficult to express my contempt for the behaviour of these amateur fascists who came very close to causing a full scale riot in the part of the ground where we were situated.
Not one single Boro fan was present in Villareal for any other reason than to have a good time but when our fellow supporters were attacked by these animals, the crowd became comrades in arms and 'faced off' against the Police with a collective chant of 'who the fucking hell are you?' It was getting nasty now and I expected a pitch battle to break out on the terraces at any given second.
The Villareal fans had vacated the ground quickly and so it was deemed safe to let us leave the terraces but this only compounded the situation as once we were downstairs in the bowels of the stadium, the Police formed a human barrier wall to stop us leaving the ground before the order was given to open the gate.
Around three hundred Boro lads stood directly in front of a similar number of Spanish Police and asked the same question that had been asked of their colleagues in the terraces a few minutes earlier.
And how nothing happened after that I will never know. People were panicking and trying to get out though the entrance to the underground car park in order to escape the inevitable and impending outbreak of violence but were being turned away by security guards. More Police joined the ranks and the Boro fans became more threatening in their gestures.
I have mentioned previously on this site that we do not condone football violence in any way shape or form but it would have been difficult to have condemned the lads at the front of the 'stand off' if they had taken the situation to the next stage. I would have put it down to self defence myself as the lads who took the blows were in no position to do a thing about it. Thankfully, a remarkable level of restraint was shown by the Boro fans and the latter part of the incident luckily turned into no more than a heated verbal confrontation.
As well as not condoning football violence, it must now be said that we deplore Police violence in an even bigger way and the unprovoked beating that our supporters took on Thursday, for no reason at all is nothing short of a disgrace.
Apparently, certain Boro fans were looking over at the small group of Villareal supporters situated near the away end with hate and shouting out threats because they cheered when their team scored. They were warned by the Police to concentrate on the game. That is not good at all but it is not a valid reason for the Police to behave in the way that they did.
I have also heard about one 'brave' Boro lad who decided to try and take on four Spanish cops in full riot gear single handedly. Madness in the extreme but still not a valid enough reason for the truncheons to lay waste to the innocent.
Something must be done about this appalling behaviour and our shock at finding no mention of the outburst in the British press, including the Gazette, coupled with disgust at the senseless and unnecessary violence perpetrated by the Spanish Police has prompted us to lend our small voice to a campaign that is being waged against these sort of Police tactics.
I will be detailing that action in The Steve Goldby Column later this week and I hope that you will support me in saying that we refuse to stand by and watch our fellow Boro supporters be beaten with four foot truncheons when they had done absolutely no wrong and furthermore, had absolutely no intention of doing so.
Thanks to Spiros, B_Hills, Warrington Boro, Cobain_94 and borodrew for their eyewitness accounts of Thursday's events.
EYE WITNESS REPORTS FROM BORO FANS
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