The Riverside will be awash with tributes to a late Boro fan as more than 125 Skelton villagers wear shirts bearing his name.
Skelton said goodbye to one of its most popular sons as hundreds attended the funeral of Craig “Spuggy” Starling last Friday.
And before Middlesbrough’s home game against Huddersfield on Saturday, 128 friends and family will gather wearing Boro shirts with “Spuggy 36” written on the back.
Craig was 36 when he lost his battle with cancer on December 28, 2014.
The group will sit together in Block 60 in the Riverside’s South Stand for the game on Saturday, and in the 36th minute of the game, they hope a minute’s applause will spread around the ground in celebration of his life.
And fittingly for Boro fanatic Craig, the club have printed special tickets for the Skelton supporters also bearing his name and number.
Dozens wore the shirts at his funeral at All Saints Church on High Street in Skelton.
Skelton came to a standstill as the lifelong Boro devotee was remembered by parents John and Lynne Starling, twin sister Kerry, sister Gemma and brother Danny and hundreds of friends and well-wishers.
The Rev Valerie Haynes led the service, in which she paid tribute to the “caring, loving, honest and generous” Craig.
Rev’d Haynes said: “Wherever Spuggy was, he was always popular. He was never short of friends. He was a role-model for friendship.”
Friend Jamie Boyle, 34, from Skelton, said: “I was only friends with Spuggy for about six months after I moved to the village, but he was an incredible character who was loved by everyone in Skelton.
“He was a massive, humongous Boro fan so to have all his mates thinking of him and wearing the shirts at the Riverside - he would think it was great.
“Spuggy will always be remembered by everyone in Skelton. In fact, I think a lot of his friends are getting a picture of him in the Hollybush pub, where everyone meets up.”
The group are leaving the Hollybush on Saturday morning and meeting at the Jovial Monk pub in North Ormesby, who are putting on food.
They will then leave as a group and walk to the Riverside together at around 2.30pm.
Before the funeral, friend Craig Holmes said Spuggy was “good mates with anyone he met” and that “everyone in Skelton will miss him”.
He and other friends have already raised around £10,000 for the Institute of Cancer Research, with a variety of fundraising events, including an upcoming trek at the Inca trail at Machu Picchu in Peru.
And Jamie is staging a night with former British, Commonwealth, European and WBO challenger and British boxing great Esham Pickering at the Hollybush on Saturday January 31 from 7pm.
Proceeds of a raffle held on the night will be split between Zoe’s Place and Ward 14 at James Cook University Hospital, who helped care for Craig.
Anyone who wants to donatea prize can contact Jamie on 07914 748903.
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