HE has travelled almost 200,000 miles in 23 years to watch his favourite football team, but until this week superfan Nick Waites had never been involved in a car crash while following his beloved Middlesbrough FC.

The 53-year-old, of Thorpe Thewles, near Stockton, has never missed a Boro league match since 1992 or any competitive game at all since 1997, clocking up more than 8,300 miles a year - about 191,000 miles in total - just to watch league fixtures.

But he had never had an accident on the road until coming back from Boro's 1-1 draw against Derby County on Tuesday evening - his 953rd consecutive league match.

Mr Waites, originally from Hartburn, Stockton, was travelling to the match with three other dedicated Middlesbrough fans: Lennie Downs, who was the driver of the black Ford car, has not missed a Middlesbrough match for nearly three years; Paul McCarthy, who hasn't missed a match for two years; and Mr McCarthy's daughter, 17, who has only missed four games - all night matches - in the past 18 months.

The friends, none of whom were hurt, were travelling northbound on the A1 near Spotbrough, in the Doncaster area, when the car hit a large stretch of water and Mr Downs lost control.

Mr Waites, a father-of-two who works as a chartered accountant in Darlington, said: "The car spun backwards, straight across the A1.

"It hit the central barrier and the windscreen came out and the back of the car just crumpled. We were at right angles to the road and the car wouldn't start.

"If another car had hit us, we would have been dead. It was quite scary. Thankfully the cars managed to stop behind and we managed to push it on to the hard shoulder.

"It wasn't long afterwards that exactly the same thing happened to another Boro fan, just 20 yards behind and there was another written off car, but thankfully, he wasn't hurt."

Police closed the road while a recovery vehicle towed away the car. The friends eventually got a taxi, costing £145, from Doncaster, returning home at about 3am.

Mr Waites, a trustee of the Finlay Cooper Trust charity established by former Boro player Colin Cooper in memory of his son, has gone to extraordinary lengths over the years to support his team.

He once attended an away game in agony after a hernia operation, only to see the red and whites lose at Leicester. The last time he missed a competitive game was when his daughter, Jennifer, was taken to hospital in 1997.

He last missed a league match in 1992 - against Wolverhampton in which Middlesbrough won promotion to the Premier League - in order to attend his brother Simon's wedding.

Mr Waites' first match was in the 1966/67 season and he has travelled to Xanthi in Greece to watch the Boro.

He said his most exciting game was Middlesbrough's 4-2 victory against Steaua Bucharest in the Uefa Cup semi-final in 2006.