Give me my ticket back, pleads sleepy Boro fan

A Middlesbrough fan who had his season ticket confiscated after falling asleep while drunk at the Riverside Stadium was today urging the club to return the ticket.

Adrian Carr, 28, was arrested by police and charged with being drunk in a sporting arena after dozing off during the first home Premiership game of the season, which Boro lost 4-0 to visiting Arsenal.

The engineering worker, of Middlesbrough, maintained he had been sober and had fallen asleep through tiredness, having worked an overtime shift on the morning of the match.

He admitted having six pints of lager before the match but insisted that it was not an excessive amount over the five hour period in which it had been consumed.

On the day of the incident Carr’s season ticket was confiscated by the club and he has been unable to attend matches since, pending the outcome of the court case.

After being convicted at Teesside Magistrates’ Court, and given a two-year conditional discharge for being drunk in a sporting arena, he now hopes he can have his season ticket returned.

Despite his plans to appeal against the conviction Carr hopes he can return to the Riverside Stadium now that the court case has ended.

He told the court: “I was really weary when I got to the ground and it was a really warm day.

“With the heat and the alcohol I just dropped off.

“I was not too sure where I was at the time when I was woken up but I was fine after that.

“I was not drunk and I stated that clearly to them.”

Carr’s solicitor, Simon Walker, who told magistrates he would be appealing against the conviction, said: “I will be contacting the club first thing on Tuesday morning asking them to return his season ticket.

“I feel he has suffered enough.”

A spokesman for Middlesbrough FC said they would not comment until they had discussed the outcome of the case with the Crown Prosecution Service.

Middlesbrough were tonight set to face Arsenal at the Riverside Stadium in the second leg of their Carling Cup semi-final, having beat the Gunners 1-0 at Highbury.