After leaving home at around 8am yesterday morning, dealing with the arduous, yet normal, rushhour traffic aside the Angel of the North up to the A69 turn off on the A1, the flight from Newcastle to Dublin was straight forward.
Around 100 Boro fans made the trip. Surprisingly there didn't seem to be a single supporter on the short Ryanair flight.
After landing, followed by a 45-minute taxi trip south to the Glenroyal Hotel, Maynooth, it was time to plan the next leg, the three-hour round trip to Athlone, in the middle of Ireland.
On the banks of the River Shannon, Athlone is on the border of counties Westmeath and Roscommon whose Gaelic Football team won the Connacht SFC district final on Sunday and were welcomed home by 10,000 last night just 18 miles away, which had an impact on the attendance.
THE next time you hear Premier League stars blame too many matches in their fixture list for their failings, spare a thought for the Irish league.
Such is the desperation for finance, there is a need to exploit the summer season and inject muchneeded cash into the clubs.
Athlone Town are no different. The once wellregarded Town are having to cram in as many matches into their schedule to raise funds.
It all means just two days after losing to local rivals Longford Town, they faced Boro.
And if Premier League clubs would do everything to avoid such a small break between fixtures, they would probably go on strike at the suggestion that is was going to get worse.
After last night, Athlone play Port Vale tonight, Wexford Youth on Friday before facing one of Spain's hottest teams, Villarreal, on Saturday.
It's billed as The Midlands Festival of Football with one 20 euros ticket sealing a seat to watch the first three matches.
Source: Northern Echo
Source: Northern Echo