The team's merchandise was also selling fast He usually manages five in an afternoon.Nearby, Steve was talking about "game-specific" gear, such as woven half-Chelsea/half-Boro scarves "They've gone," he said, snapping his fingers "This is a rare chance. Where else would you get an English football fan to buy a scarf with the opponents' name on it?"The Sun offered £50,000 to become the team's shirt sponsor for match and the club only just stopped short of agreeing to a magazine's £10,000 offer for the players to drop their shorts en masse if they scored.All this for a club that was 24 hours from closure when its chairman, Malcolm Reynolds, a merchant banker, took over two years ago.Inside the ground, 79-year-old Bernard Newby was singing his heart out. He was denied his usual seat (back row, seat 51) where he had watched every Scarborough home game for the past 70 years "That's more than anyone else alive," he reckoned. "It'll be Halifax away in a few weeks." Ten yards away, Keith Crowe, Scarborough FC's head of match programmes, was puzzling over the logistics of shifting 5,000 copies, 10 times the usual number "Chelsea are a collector's piece. For the kids this is just about Chelsea," he said.The team's merchandise was also selling fast. But, truth be told, it was hard to conjure up much tribal hatred for Roman Abramovich's all-stars since, down from the hill, Scarborough had been ringing up the profits from their presence all morning.Aside from the £500,000 in television rights and ticket sales - enough to pay Scarborough's wage bill for two years - Abramovich has sunk £25,000 into the club's youth academy in the past few days.But the day's essential fashion accessory, for £15, was a "Defeat of the Roman Empire" T-shirt, sponsored by the local branch of Marks and Sparks "It's our one and only chance," said T-shirt seller Jill. "What a waste of money", and "Shall we sing a song for you?" Even the police officers on the hill could not resist a smile. The truth is, as McClaren knows, Arsenal have the ability to toy with their opponents. The hope for Middlesbrough lies in the crushing fact that the next contest, for Arsenal, isn't worth unduly bothering with - although they may snag it all the same.Arsenal 4 Bergkamp 19, Ljungberg 28, 68, Bentley 90Middlesbrough 1 Job 23Half-time: 2-1 Attendance: 37,256. You might call it the Henman Hill of Scarborough, a lofty, grassy bank next to the town's football stadium which gives an almost unfettered view of the ground.
No need for a plasma screen when you can see the real thing, of course. And they'd rather call it Quayle Hill, after Mark, the young centre-forward who fired them into yesterday's fourth-round FA Cup game with Chelsea. "All we can do is keep going." Wimbledon did this to excellent effect and caused a flutter on the home terraces before Birmingham took the lead in the fourth minute. McAnuff's shot was followed by a scramble in the home goalmouth before Birmingham broke upfield. |
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