A thousand games at Middlesbrough: and he, Alan, has not missed one since 1983 …

Alan Gregory’s first daughter, the eldest daughter Kirsty, was born on Saturday 8 October 1983 at 4:10 pm. Across town around the same time, Middlesbrough were losing 2-1 at home to Blackburn Rovers in the old Division Two. Alan hadn’t missed a game in two years, but understandably he couldn’t be there as well. He returned to Ayresome Park a fortnight later to see Boro win by goal against Shrewsbury 4-0, with a brace from David Currie and goals from Paul Ward and Heine Otto.

Alan didn’t know at the time that the match would kick off an incredible streak of consecutive appearances that saw him attend 1000 consecutive Boro home games. On Easter Monday, Alan, now 62, watched the Championship match against Huddersfield Town, shockingly, his 1,000th consecutive home game. Even though his team lost 2-0, Alan says: “I’ve watched Boro every time they play at home for almost 40 years, much to my wife Jayne’s chagrin. I’ve missed a few weddings and special events over the years. and I had to be careful planning the holidays around home games. But the longer the series went on, the more I wanted to keep it “.