Just Typcial

There are many words, most unsuitable for a family fanzine, to describe last weekend's grim capitulation to Bolton. Surprising is certainly not one of them. The “typical Boro” tag is an infuriatingly negative attitude on the one hand yet sometimes it is hard to find suitable words to explain our consistent travails against the inept and the mediocre. I’m not suggesting it would be bad idea to start playing before the last half hour of home games or to start marking opponents on set pieces. Yet maybe we need to examine our expectations first.

Middlesbrough Football Club has changed enormously in the twenty years since this fanzine began. Having made my own Ayresome debut on New Year’s Day 1991, I’ve never been entirely sure whether I should consider myself fortunate or not to have missed the tumult of the 1980s. The number of fans who went to games and never returned, victims of violence and/or dilapidated stadia, is shocking. The responses from authorities were rarely anything other than depressingly reactionary. Squeezed by hooliganism on one side and a Thatcherite government on the other, the ‘80s cannot have been an easy time to be a football fan.

On top of that, its hard to imagine the club, the area or indeed the domestic game being at a lower ebb than was reached that summer. To achieve what Bruce Rioch then did would be remarkable anywhere, but to do so under such perilous circumstances is an achievement of scarcely credible magnitude. It was perhaps inevitable that, having achieved such rapid success, a small and youthful squad would feel the pressure. A cruel last-day relegation was almost followed by another.


Rioch achieved near miracles with a club with no money, no ground and barely a squad with a belief that things had to get better. Gibson dragged the club forward in the 1990s because he recognised that investment in new players and a new ground were essential if Boro were not to be left behind by the growing commercialisation of English football. In 1986 or in 1994, the goals were clear if ambitious - promotion in the short term, stability in the top flight in the long term.

In 2008, those goals have been comfortably achieved. Premier League status has been maintained since 1998 without any major scares. Most of you reading this have seen Boro win a trophy and play in a European final. The club operates on a different level - where painful defeats in the latter stages of the FA Cup used to occur once a decade, they now seem to happen once a season. That is progress of sorts. Having come so far, what counts as success now?

Safely positioned in mid-table Premier League, you could reasonably argue Boro are now just battering their head against a glass ceiling. Looked at soberly, this is a golden era, even if it may not have felt that way last week. There may not be much more distance this club can travel upwards. Having grown accustomed to rapid progress, you don’t need to look far at the Riverside on a match day to find fans harbouring unrealistic expectations. There is a danger when a club’s image of itself becomes divorced from reality. We need only look at today’s visitors for an example of how self-defeating this approach can be.

There’s nothing wrong with ambition in itself but if it becomes unconstrained, that can be counter-productive. We shouldn’t abandon hope but we must accept the next chapter could be Boro’s hardest yet.

This article is from Fly Me To The Moon 431 - the 20th birthday spectacular

A painful lesson

Yes Gary, you probably should have tried to tackle him

Gareth Southgate may have an endearing humility that his predecessor never possessed but his 'lessons will be learned' mantra is wearing as thin as Steve McClaren's blinkered post-match appraisals. Boro's patchy start to the season took a severe turn for the worse on Saturday as Chelsea molested Southgate's side 5-0. A hefty chunk of the 29,221 crowd left long before the end. Those that stayed to the bitter end can only have done so through a combination of morbid fascination and paralysing rage.

No mistake should be made about how dismal a display this was. Its hard to recall a more feckless, feeble performance in nigh on 18 years watching Boro. Southgate's selection and tactics were abysmal but the eleven chosen implemented his misguided plans with a staggering lack of poise and commitment.

Much was made before the match of Chelsea's list of absentees, but their reserves were still head and shoulders above anyone in a red shirt. More telling was how Southgate moulded a side missing Huth, Pogatetz and Tuncay. Scolari's team ruthlessly exploited Boro's makeshift defence. Jonathan Grounds, an inexperienced centre-half cum left-back, was on a hiding to nothing at right back. If it was unfair to ask Grounds to perform an unfamilair role against such skilled opponents, there could be no such excuse for Andrew Taylor on the opposite flank. Taylor simply appeared hopelessly out of his depth while David Wheater looked jaded by every single one of the pointless air miles incurred by his midweek sortie to Minsk.

Things looked little better further forward. The centre of midfield has been a concern all season and was simply abject. Gary O'Neil's distribution was desperate to the point of embarrassment, Didier Digard fared little better while Mohammed Shawky's influence was neglible. Julio Arca was rightly derided for his form last season but will surely get another chance if he can regain fitness. The status quo cannot just remain until the January transfer window.

On the flanks, Adam Johnson left Boro's struggling full-backs exposed while playing on either flanks. Stewart Downing seems a million miles from the star man of last season. The decision to burden him with the captaincy and deploy him in a multitude of positions in the same 90 minutes is perplexing. Downing's great strength is his ability to provide telling crosses and goals from a wide position. Southgate deserves credit for the way he has cajoled greater consistency from Downing since becoming manager. Unfortunately, his current plans seem to be having no impact on Downing's shattered confidence.

Nor has the early season theme of expansive, attacking football translated into a flurry of goals. Boro have scored seven times in eight league games, and only three times in five matches since the end of August. Mido's early season form has evaporated as the Egyptian has dropped ever deeper to prop up a failing midfield. Afonso Alves should be ashamed that he was justifiably considered not good enough to start in a team that played so poorly.

Chelsea are always difficult opponents, particularly given the attacking vibrancy Scolari has added to the side. Yet there can be no excuse for the total failure to give ourselves the best chance possible. Deploying so many players outside of their natural position would be risky with experienced professionals. To do so with such a callow, creaking squad was inviting disaster.

The manager has his work cut out to revive spirits before Saturday evening's trip to Blackburn Rovers. Emmanuel Pogatetz should return to bolster a flagging defence. Tuncay's return is looking unlikely and even so, an unreasonable level of expectation is being laid on the Turk's return. He won't be able to fix a leaky defence or a porous midfield. Several players need to show Southgate's faith in them is justified. Sadly, the pre-season concerns about the midfield and the lack of experience or sheer numbers in the squad are coming home to roost.

The manager's judgement and reputation are on the line now. His pre-season planning met with far from unanimous agreement. Those who silenced their doubts after a bright August have no reason for such reserve now. With seven games between now and the end of November, the next six weeks will have a crucial bearing on whether there will be another winter of discontent as we peer nervously over our shoulders. Southgate's credibility is barely over the bruising of last season's shameful defeat to Cardiff. Many more debacles like Saturday, and the damage could be terminal.