A quick update.

I'd forgotten how different it is going to an away match as supposed to a home one. I went to the Boro v Spurs match on Saturday with my Dad (we'd not gone to a game together for a couple of seasons since I didn't renew my season ticket when I worked up in Middlesbrough).

At home games we sit/sat about 10 rows from the front of the upper tier and almost behind one of the goals. From there you get a good view of the game and are able to discern a player's use of space and their positioning - as well as their actual contribution to the game in terms of passing and tackling. However when you're six rows from the front of the lower tier (as we were on Saturday) your view is utterly different. The game is wide but it's impossible to get an accurate idea of depth, especially in the midfield area. Consequently it's really, really hard to gauge a player's real performance.

Ramos took the surprising but welcome decision to start with Kevin Prince-Boateng in the middle of the park, and rested Berbatov and Keane ahead of our UEFA Cup match on Thursday. We started well and seemed to take control of the match - scoring in the 35th minute through Darren Bent and bossing the midfield against a pretty woeful Boro side. The team were playing with more conviction and more importantly more cohesion with the defence frequently spotted organising themselves with arm gestures (something entirely absent under Jol when the defence rarely held a good line). Though while being more solid we lacked some creativity and failed to produce more than a couple more good chances, failing to score either.

Second half we started the same, let in a wonder-goal from an ex-Spurs player Luke Young that was the best of his career by some distance, weathered a brief storm from Boro before bringing on Berbatov, Keane and Zokora to not much effect.

All in all a boring game, though it was interesting to see how Ramos intends to turn things round.

Of more comment are the fans at away matches. Home match fans are quieter, tend to sit down more and 'study' the game rather than just watch it. The fans around us however were alternately there to scream abuse at the home fans, chant 'Stand up if you hate Arsenal', scream abuse at any Boro players who came anywhere near the corner we were in and drink beer. There seemed to be little actual watching of the game going on, yet for these people the club was their life. We'd arrived a bit before kick-off to watch the Arsenal v ManU game at a pub but not finding one near the ground (or, in fact, anything near the ground) had gone to watch it at the ground itself. As we walked through the car park we saw the Spurs coach pull up, surrounded by about 100 fans filming the players coming off the coach one by one. I bet the footage is on youtube already :-S

I love football and spurs, but clearly not as much as some. It was very, very odd. Still, takes all sorts.

On a personal note it was good to see my Uncle again and have a small family catch-up in the pub we used to sneak a jar or two in when visiting my grandmother whilst she still lived. It'll be a while before I head up to those parts again I'd imagine. I managed to miss pretty much all the fireworks (was going to go tonight but the cats were rather spooked so I stayed in with them), been working hard recently to meet deadlines, and have finally removed a negative influence from my life permanently. Life is pretty good as things stand :)