A LEADING comic dropped in to his favourite football club today. 

Patrick Monahan rubbed shoulders with staff in the boot room in the training ground of his beloved Middlesbrough FC.

The national star from Stokesley, North Yorkshire, explained he has supported Boro all his life and used to play for the club’s Junior Reds team in Redcar.

Speaking Middlesbrough’s training centre at Hurworth, near Darlington, he said: “I used to play on the wing, basically running up and down without doing anything and chatting with people at the side of the pitch. People used to say I talked a great game.

“I went to my first Boro match when I was about 10. It was a night match at Ayresome Park. We were standing in the Holgate, Bernie Slaven scored twice, and I think all I could see was the back of someone’s big old Parka. But I remember the floodlights and the crowd being fantastic.

“Bernie Slaven and Tony Mowbray are still my all-time favourite Boro players. Tony Mowbray came to speak to us one night at Boro’s Junior Reds at Redcar,  that was a fantastic night, so it’s great to see him back here as a great Boro manager.”

The comic, whose big break was winning ITV’s Show Me the Funny in 2011, was at the ground to promote his national tour called Shooting from the Lip. He will play at Middlesbrough Town Hall Crypt on Friday, March 8 at 8pm. Tickets, for sale to over 16s, cost £14. Log on to www.middlesbroughtownhallonline.co.uk or call 01642-729729.