There are days when Middlesbrough wears its heart on its windows.
On Roman Road, The Yellow Rose has been doing exactly that.

Ahead of Middlesbrough’s Championship play-off final against Hull City at Wembley today, Saturday 23 May 2026, the pub has been dressed, painted and proudly turned red and white for one of the biggest days in Boro’s recent history.

The decorations are impossible to miss. Windows painted for the occasion. Boro colours across the pub. A local place, on a local road, making sure everyone passing knows exactly what this day means.
The decorations are impossible to miss. Windows painted for the occasion. Boro colours across the pub. A local place, on a local road, making sure everyone passing knows exactly what this day means.

At the centre of it is manager Nicola Rawlins, who has helped turn The Yellow Rose into a little pocket of Wembley spirit in Middlesbrough. It is not just about football. Not really. It is about belonging. It is about that particular Teesside instinct to show up, shout loud, back your own and make an occasion feel shared.

The Yellow Rose is already known as a proper local on Roman Road, a pub where people gather for sport, food, pool, darts, karaoke, quizzes and family occasions. Listings for the venue describe it as a friendly pub with live sport, large screens, free Wi-Fi, a garden and accessible facilities, while other venue information notes its role as a place for parties and community gatherings. All just a stones throw away from the Ayresome Park site the Boro used to call home!

But on match day, places like this become something else.
They become meeting points for hope.

Boro’s route to today’s final has been anything but ordinary.

Middlesbrough had initially been beaten by Southampton in the play-off semi-final, but Southampton were later expelled from the Championship play-offs after admitting breaches of EFL regulations linked to unauthorised filming of opponents’ training sessions, including before the Middlesbrough semi-final.

Middlesbrough were reinstated and now face Hull City at Wembley for a place in the Premier League.

It has been the kind of football controversy that fills phone screens, group chats and radio phone-ins. Arguments about fairness.

Punishment. Precedent. Who deserved what. Who gained what. Who lost what. Who spied on whom…

But walk past The Yellow Rose today and the noise becomes something warmer.

There is no legal argument painted on the windows. No spreadsheet of football governance. No cold dissection of EFL process. Just Boro pride.

That is what Nicola and the team have captured so beautifully. The pub’s decorations speak to something deeper than a fixture list. They say: this is our town, our club, our day, and we are going to make it feel special.

In Middlesbrough, football rarely stays inside the stadium. It spills into pubs, kitchens, taxis, barbers, shops, schools, workplaces and living rooms. It sits in conversations at the bar and in the nervous glance at the clock. It appears in red shirts on Linthorpe Road, flags in windows, and someone shouting “UTB” at almost any life event that needs a bit of ceremony.
The Yellow Rose has leaned right into that feeling.

Because community pride is often made from small, visible acts. A painted window. A few decorations. A manager deciding the pub should not just show the match, but mark the moment. Regulars walking in and feeling part of something bigger than themselves for a few hours.

There is something very Middlesbrough about it. Practical, heartfelt, slightly loud in the best possible way, and completely unbothered by anyone who thinks football is “just a game”.
For many people, today will be about Wembley. For those travelling down, it will be coaches, scarves, service stations and nerves. For those staying on Teesside, it will be pubs like The Yellow Rose, full of people watching together and riding every pass, tackle and chance as one.

Whatever happens on the pitch, the effort on Roman Road already tells its own story.

The Yellow Rose has shown what local pubs still do at their best. They give people somewhere to gather. Somewhere to celebrate. Somewhere to be nervous together. Somewhere to turn a match into a memory.

And in Nicola Rawlins, The Yellow Rose has a manager who clearly understands that a pub is more than four walls and a bar. It can be a stage for local pride. A bit of colour in the street. A place where Boro spirit gets painted straight onto the glass.

Today, Middlesbrough heads to Wembley.

But on Roman Road, The Yellow Rose has already brought the occasion home.

UTB.