Riverside Stadium

It's back to the Riverside Stadium for Middlesbrough this weekend as we take on Charlton Athletic on home soil.

Now, of course, confidence is absolutely sky high at the moment following on from that absolutely emphatic victory last weekend, that 5-1 win.

over Bolton Wonder as a match, which could have ended with 8, 9, even 10 goals being scored for Middlesbrough.

You did go quite a while ago though now.

Which stadium did you say? The Riverside.

Riverside.

What's the Riverside? I cannot tell you because it's deleted because of our great producing.

Where was it? It was at 16.

Okay.

But there were, you know, there were 30,000 of us.

in the Riverside Stadium and that's a strong community and the football club embodies that community and there's so much positivity around the club that we that were there didn't feel that we felt our hearts were broken slightly by what had happened but As you walk around town, there's still people chatting away because it's one of the friendliest places you'll ever go, no matter where you're from.

And, you know, a lot of people who went to Ayrton Park in the 80s will be saying it wasn't back then, it wasn't friendly.

I didn't find it friendly when the bricks were being thrown at me.

But however, as we're talking 2026, we have that sense of community around the football club.

And just the weekend before...

We're talking now, it was this special anniversary game where various players came back to play against each other at the Riverside.

And we had 30,000 plus people at that for a meaningless game that ended 9-8.

And ultimately, it's all about what we do best, which is talking up Teesside.

Absolutely, and I've just been walking around here today as well, speaking with other people, Mark, and you've certainly got the audience here today, and the vibe and the whole of the West Stand here at the Riverside Stadium, it's brilliant, isn't it?

Yeah, it's fantastic.

I mean, it's unusual, because I'm used to where, well, normally when I'm in this part of the stand, it's when I'm treating myself to a bit of hospitality at the game.

No, not named after the guitar.

When Ayreson Park was knocked down and the stadium was rebuilt, the Riverside Stadium, OK? Yeah.

Isn't that where they play now?

That's where they play now.

No, no.

Let me make the point.

The point is, the steel that built the Riverside Stadium was imported from Germany.

Was it?

I feel like we need to just fade in some Brazilian samba music here because this is exactly what this period was about in Middlesbrough.

Let me take you back, Caroline, to 1995, the Riverside Stadium.

Steve Gibson, the owner, built this sparkling new stadium out by the Transporter Bridge in...

It's hard to remember right now and hard to kind of put into context how big the signings of Giannino and Emerson.

So I put my name down straight away and I was the first person to buy a plot.

The Transporter Bridge is Middlesbrough's most famous landmark, but that could all change if Brian Robson gets his way.

This is the Selnett Riverside Stadium.

Robson wants to turn this into Teesside's version of the Theatre of Dreams.

So first up, we will go with, in fact, no, we'll go at home side first.

We're at the Riverside, so we're going with Borough.

And this is the line-up.

Vitek in goal.