Gazettelive - Anthony Vickers' Untypical Boro - New

Promotion Hopes Running On Half Empty

2009-11-09T00:40:31Z

MEANWHILE, with a damaging defeat at Crystal Palace, Boro's stuttering promotion campaign is now running on half empty.

The shot-shy side squandered chances and were caught cold at the back on the break (again) , a serial self-inflicted twin design defect that has gradually blunted the bright start and ground down optimistic early hopes.

But more than that, it has crucially stacked the vital numbers against Boro as new boss Gordon Strachan starts his rebuilding on the hoof and under the cosh. Boro have now suffered six defeats - and that is too many at this stage for a team with promotion ambitions.

The second half Palace coup means that Boro have now taken their defeats tally to the half-way mark of the outside limit of what is possible for a team with genuine promotion pretentions and the two on the bounce under the new gaffer mean any feelgood factor from a dug-out change has dissolved quickly without a discernible immediate dividend.

Six defeats. That is half of the figure that any club can realistically afford if they are to make it into the play-offs, let alone grab one of the precious automatic promotion spots.

The 2-1 defeat at Bristol City - the first this term - was a sickening late lapse blip in the middle of a promising early run of five wins.

West Brom was a painful but instructive systematic dismantling by ruthless rivals as Boro chased the game after two unfortunate early set-backs.

But with Leicester, Watford, Plymouth and Palace the worries have mounted (and the old boss was axed). All those archetypal limited but organised Championship sides delivered single sucker punches in Groundhog Day games in which Boro had the edge for long spells and the chances to win but ultimately could not break down a determined defence and stick the ball in the net.

It is easy to sit and dissect those games in isolation and come to the conclusion that it is about fine margins, and to conclude that Boro are structurally sound barring a prolific poacher; what would we give for a Slaven, a Branca, a Yakubu, a Viduka; even a sporadic striker like Fuchs or Ricard would do.

And it is easy too to counsel calm and argue that Boro are creating chances and that all it takes is a slight tweaking for Leroy Lita and Marcus Bent to click up front, or the midfield to start chipping in, or a new hero to be grafted on to turn this chassis of a team into a viable vehicle capable of driving us back into the promotion race.

Boro are not far from being an outfit that could and should be among the contenders in what is in truth a poor Championship populated by limited but effective teams.

But those four frustrating 1-0 defeats in the last seven games have now tipped the numerical balance decisively against that. At least for this term.

The margin for error is now being eroded at an alarming rate.

Generally in recent years the teams that secured promotion did so having lost 12 or fewer games over the season.

Last season Wolves were champions having lost ten games while Birmingham went up in second having suffered just nine defeats. Burnley squeezed up through the play-offs having lost 12 while of their rivals in the end of season shoot-out, Sheffield United had lost 10, Reading 11 and Preston the relative rarities having limped into the lottery despite a hefty 14 reverses.

In 2007/08 West Brom went up having lost 11 games with simplistic Stoke in second with nine defeats. Hull won the play-offs despite having lost 13 while Bristol City had gone down 12 times, Palace 11 and Watford 12.

And in 2006/07 champions Sunderland and Birmingham had both lost a dozen games as did play-off winners Derby.

In the past three seasons then only one team in has gone up having lost more than 12 games - and Boro are at six defeats already with just a third of the season gone.

That means they can realistically only afford six more defeats in the 30 games that remain and given that they are so brittle at the back and so often lack the teeth to turn spells of pressure into an unassailable lead, to achieve such a record demands an immediate and fundamental change in performances and results.

Given those mathematical imperatives the breakdown of remaining fixtures suddenly looks ominous. So far Boro have won seven games. Six of those - Ipswich, Reading, Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Derby and Sheffield Wednesday - were against teams below them in the table while the other was against Swansea who were down there at the time but who have just leapfrogged above them.

Of the teams above them they have played, Boro they have been thrashed by West Brom and been caught napping late on by both Leicester and Bristol City as well as losing at Forest after extra time in the Carling Cup. And all three of those have arguably improved markedly in form and confidence since Boro met them.

That is worrying, not least because Boro still have most of the teams above them still to play. In fact, those tough games now dominate the fixtures.

Of the 30 games remaining - of which remember they can only really afford to lose six - Boro must play leaders Newcastle twice, third placed Cardiff twice, fourth placed QPR twice, fifth placed Blackpool twice, in-form Forest in eighth twice plus travel to second placed West Brom and Leicester in sixth.

Strachan will have to work very hard indeed to make his team far harder to beat if they are to negotiate that particular programme without adding irretrievable mass to the 'lost' column. They will need to become tougher, more focussed and better organised at the back and sharper and more ruthless up front. Consistently.

The next half-a-dozen games will be decisive. Between now and Christmas Boro face a Forest side who are unbeaten away at the Riverside and go to struggling Peterborough then a resurgent QPR before crunch home games against Jason Euell's Blackpool and Cardiff and a derby sunday showdown away at Newcastle.

How we fare in that six game run will determine whether we go into the January transfer window with Gordon Strachan looking to fine-tune his improving side ready for the second leg of a quickfire promotion push... or start rebuilding completely for next year.

*****

A COMMERCIAL BREAK....

NATIONAL treasure and precious posh polymath Stephen Fry has now decided that trendy 'Twitter' is a bit silly after getting some 140 character long bites of banter - and indeed, if you use it to relate vacuous ephemera while stuck in a lift or ask for help in deciding which preserve to have on your breakfast toast it, that may well be the case.

But I am sticking with the trendy Blackberry generation social networking tool. After all, without it would I have been able to lean across the aisle and tell Kenwyn Jones, an incognito fellow passenger on the 1900 KX-Darlo on Saturday after the game on Saturday, that Craig Gordon had broken an arm?

Here's some of the stuff I have linked to on my Twitter in recent days:

A good Remembrance article in the Mirror about when international call ups meant something far more significant than football and when players really were heroes

And a counter-balance or two to an hysterical and slightly sinister bullying tabloid campaign to name and shame football clubs that refused to jump onto their populist poppy/shirt high horse.

The Lingo of Calcio... Italian tactical nuances explained.

Where's Whaddon Road again... there's a totally engrossing interactive lower league football geography quiz.

And a happy 140th birthday to the Gazette - a link to a brief history of Teesside's best loved institution (apart from the Bongo, the Boro and maybe the parmo) on our sister blog Remember When.

To have your browser pointed at similar stuff plus the odd quip and occasional exclusive snippet of breaking news you can get down with the kids and "follow" me on Twitter here.

Boro Dogged By Palace Coup.

2009-11-07T19:21:31Z

EVERY dog has his day. Or not. Gordon Strachan denied the defeat at Palace was down to bad luck. "When the ball is going in the net and a dog runs on the pitch and stops the ball, that is bad luck." Boro failed to score. Again and again. Four decent chances went begging. It was ruff justice

Marcus Bent missed a sitter, spooning wide from eight yards out then soon after passed the ball back and forth with Lita in the box with neither marked or looking willing to pull the trigger. Gary O'Neil went one on one but had his chip tipped over.

And Leroy Lita broke free and with three team mates running clear and unmarked inside he opted to go outside and wide of the one remaining defender and took it took it wide before putting in what could have been a cross or equally could have been a shot from an angle that only exists in theoretical mathematics.

Jonathan Franks had a snapshot blocked too but didn't have a lot of time and it would be harsh to point the finger at him. The rest though came down to rank poor decisions over shooting and passing. And they were by Boro's most experienced players.

And the opposition scored from a poorly executed Boro set piece. For a second week running. Grrrr. Promotion hopes are fading fast. Unless Boro start to hit the target this team may not even make the play-offs.

Already people who had been screaming for Southgate's head are starting to wonder if they had not been too hasty in their early triumphalism. When Southgate went Boro were a point off the top. Now were are nine adrift and have slumped back to tenth, have not scored under the new boss and have not been magically transformed.

Already the honeymoon is over. Now there is an international break before the next match at home to Forest. It is crucial that Strachan's Boro are seen to have made progress in that time and that they put in a productive performance or the discontent will bubble back through the cracks and the anger put on hold for the new boss will reassert itself ... and this time it will not be aimed at the manager.

More later.

Won't Get Fooled Again?

2009-10-31T19:07:01Z

MEET the new boss, same as the old boss... unfortunately, we did get fooled again.

There was an air of deja vu about an all too familiar game: Boro bossed the first half but squandered a string on good chances to take control and get a buzzing and expectant crowd right behind the team then slowly lost their way and shape and ignored a few warning shots before being struck by a bolt from the blue. By a team who were second bottom. And hadn't kept a clean sheet all season. Welcome to the Brave New World.

The goal conceded was sloppy. Wheater was shockingly slow as his three yard start evaporated and he was easily nudged aside before Mackie slotted home. And to be fair they had already carved out some good chances against a disjointed back line. Wheater and St Ledger don't yet look a cohesive unity. Hoyte is uncomfortable under pressure. Pogatetz is not ideal at left back.

Then to compound the agony of missed chances Boro missed a penalty and then disintegrated into a chaotic mess. Yes the referee didn't help. But neither did the lack of guile and gradual reversion to a long ball approach that suited Plymouth just fine.

And Southgate nostalgists will have enjoyed the 'square-pegging' - Arca was pushed out wide right, Poggi was in his worst position, Williams continued in midfield - the moments when Johnson was most effective down the right, the disappointingly low crowd and, yes, a little bit of frustrated booing there at the end.

But let's not rush into any premature judgments on the 'failure' of the Strachanovite revolution. For all it is easy to invest all the blame retriospectively in individuals it is not always helpful. Boro's problems are mainly due not to the evil or incompetent machinations of the deposed boss but to a chronic lack of investment in the squad over the past three years which has left a group that is structural weak and lacking in numbers, nouse, experience and options and a particular weakness in dealing with teams that come to sit deep, defend in numbers and hit on the break. The problems that were there a fortnight ago remain. There is no magic bullet.

Many may have expected an instant transformation (some poor deluded fools were even putting their daft quid on 4-1, 4-0, 5-1 and other overly optimistic scores) and plenty more were wary. Not least the many thousands who were not persuaded to return by the change in the dug-out. It makes you wonder if Southgate was a red herring with some all along. One caller on the Teess phone-in raised the stakes and said he will not now return until Lamb has gone. Then no doubt Gibson, Mark Page and Roary.

But chill. It is early days. There is only one new face in the squad in Bent. And there was one experienced player returning to the fold - the increasingly battered and bruised Pogatetz who lasted just 50 minutes before being whizzed off to casualty with a suspected fractured cheekbone that could put him out for up to two months.

This is still the team that has shown itself signally unable to break down team at home. It was a fourth defeat and fourth blank in five home games.

At least GS2 has now seen his team in action and will have seen exactly where the faults lie. There is plenty of industry and a zest at times going forward but a lack of killer touch in front of goal (Emnes should have buried that, Johnno should have rammed the penna home) and a fatal lack of rogidity and concentration at the back.

There is a lot of work to be done.

GS2 Gossip, Marcus Bent And Number-Crunching The Southgate Reign

2009-10-29T09:50:42Z

UPDATED new and improved 12 inch remix****

BORO look set to take much-travelled former Brentford, Crystal Palace, Port Vale, Sheffield United, Blackburn Rovers, Ipswich Town, Leicester City, Everton, Charlton Athletic and Wigan Athletic and two time England Under-21 international striker Marcus Bent on loan from Birmingham. And he wasn't even on the (now dismissed) wish list!

And that's Marcus Bent. Not Darren. Or Junior. Or even Stockton/Geordie discontinued voiceover merchant Marcus Bentley. "It's day five in the Big Boro house and Gordon has called Justin to the diary room after he failed the defending challenge the .... "

Marcus Bent - poised for a debut against Plymouth tomorrow - ticks a lot of boxes: he has scored 107 goals in 498 career games which works out at about one in five, which is considerably better than Jeremie Aliadiere and Caleb Folan put together.

Those figures include long barren spells at Everton and Charlton where he got just 11 in 101.... but perhaps more importantly he has had two very prolific spells down in the Championship. He rattled in 20 in 48 games at route one Sheffield United in 18 months over 2000-2001 and 13 in 43 at Ipswich in Division One as well as 10 in 27 in the PL. He also got a healthy 11 in 34 during a Blackburn promotion season although he failed to net in ten in the top flight with Rovers. So he has done it over the years.

Another important criteria has also been met - he scored the winner against Boro while at Everton. Fact fans may like to know that the accumulated transfer fees for the not-quite-good-enough-for-regular-Premiership-action hitman come to a hefty £9.4m. The important Heat/Nuts reading part of the blog's demographic may also be keen to know that he has been linked in the tabloids to Scouse serial WAG Danielle Lloyd (best not do a link). But then again, haven't we all?

****3pm update**** It's official

Meanwhile, here are the results of the Acklam jury....

The stats fron the big interactive surveymonkey poll carried out on gazettelive.co.uk last Wednesday (that is after Southgate was axed but before GS2 was confirmed) have landed in my in-box. And very interesting they are too.

The comprehensive results are here but among the highlights of the survey of 1,500 plus readers are:

80% supported the sacking. Only 17.55% thought GS deserved more time

There was a tight three way split as to the reasoning with poor transfer dealings (27%) just shading poor tactics and poor man management on the rap sheet.

Most interestingly, despite the widespread vitriol against Southgate only 13% rated his reign as "awful" and 36.7% as "poor." You would have thought the opinion was harder and more entrenched and damning than that. My vote would have gone with the 35.9 who said "average". Again, the lunatic fringe weighed in with 2% saying it was "excellent."

45% of respondents wanted GS2 as boss with only Alan Curbishley even vaguely popular (19.7%) and a small lunatic fringe of sentimental nostalgists wanted Brucie back.

And the pressure is on the new boss with a whopping 69.4% setting automatic promotion as they target for GS2 this season. A shade under 4% after giving him the leeway of the play-offs with the same again willing to accept "building a strong side for next season."

And talking of juries...

The dispicable Marlon King has been deservedly banged up for his sexually aggrovated violence against a five foot nowt women who objected to his drunken groping. He asked for 10 other "don't you know who I ams" to be taken into consideration. It is embarrassing to think he played (not very well) for Boro.

He was out celebrating his winning goal against Boro when on loan at Hull and also the news that his wife was expecting when he ran amok. Which is nice. He has been jailed for 18 month - mainly because he has 13 previous offences and there was no self defence or 'I'm Sparticus' collective dissiptaion of guilt as in the Gerrard or even Woodgate/Bowyer cases. This was a full on Barton... a horrible super rich ego believing celebrity and cash put him beyond the law and free to act like a complete dick.

Commendably he was sacked by Wigan. Although arguably they have been trying to get shot of him for the past two years. No doubt when he is released he wil be swiftly rehabilitated into the ammoral and cynical results-at-all-cost bubble of football.

The bits that survived the cut from yesterday's blog...

Jeremie Aliadiere is out for six weeks after an ankle operation. Which should take him up very close to the transfer window. And the arrival of a new striker. Which combined with his failure to impress Strachan when at Celtic on loan could nudge him well down the pecking order and who knows, towards the exit door.

Stoke's benchwarming defender Andy Griffin - one of the names on the GS2 Boro wish list - has confirmed he would welcome a loan move to Boro. With quotes!

"It's something I'd really have to consider, playing for a manager of his calibre, it's a good club," he said. "If I get a phone call, which I haven't yet, then we'll have to wait and see. Middlesborough have got a great chance of moving straight back into the Premier League, great training ground, great ground, it's a big club. I would be interested in going out loan - as long as it's commutable every day."

Meanwhile one time error prone defender Derek Whyte has bigged up the boss in the McSun.

There are some match previews by some of our regular bloggers who moonlight over on Come On Boro. You can read Stewart Flaherty's head-to-head numbercrunching here and Ian Gill's tacticsboard here.

And to get us in the mood for Saturday when the thousands of stayaways will flood back to boost the Dawning of a New Era crowd to the highest this season...

GS2: It's Game On.

2009-10-26T09:22:29Z

GORDON Strachan was finally unveiled as Boro boss at a Riverside press conference today and revealed a simple - and we hope effective - manifesto:

"I'm looking to make the players better technical, tactically and mentally," he said. "My aim is developing the players to make them better, fitter and more able to pass the ball."

As the margins between success and failure this term (and last too) have so often been frustratingly thin it should only take the ability to squeeze an extra few per cent in performance individually and collectively to turn Boro into an effective unit.

Strachan looked assured and confident as he was first quizzed by Sky Sports David Craig and ticked all the right boxes: he was here because he wanted to be, he relished the challenge, he thought the club was stable and ambitious, had a good structure; he had nothing to prove as he had taken a team from second bottom to eighth and the FA Cup final before; he had rejected other offers because they weren't right; he didn't have to be here, or need to be here but "wanted to be here"; and he would have the time - and he hinted the resources - to develop the Middlesbrough team the way he wanted to and he was determined to succeed in that project.

It was hard to pick fault with that broad set of aims, with his quiet determination or with his proposed methodology. He wants to get on the training ground and work with the players. Four times he stressed he wants to 'develop' the players, especially the younger players, and make them better, which will reassure any with doubts that they will get a chance to flourish and learn under the new boss.

He stressed that he would work on some key areas where there are clear flaws that readers on here are well versed in pointing out: fitness, work rate and mentality.

And he indicated there would be no radical reshuffle. He has met the staff and is ready to work with everyone at the club, he wants to see continuity and stability.

But he is aware of areas where the team need improving. He several times referred to the need to be fitter and stronger mentally and there was an oblique reference to the need to strengthen the attack 'one way or another,' a subject he has already brought up with scouting kingpin Gordon McQueen, possibly a discussion that led him to write out his now infamous 'PR blunder' shopping list.

He was less keen to answer the questions from Tyne Tees' Dawn Thewlis about transfer targets for January, plan for Plymouth and the problem of performances at home. "If you say its psychological then I'm ready to believe you," he said, although you felt it was close to adding a dismissive "hen" on the end of that sentence. Whether he was distracted by any inate swirl of sexism there is hard to tell.

He was certainly a bit peeved at the distraction of the chatter of hacks at the back of the room and was at one point driven to scold them like naughty school boys. I'm hoping there is a lot more of that. It is always funny to see your peers in trouble. And it is nice to have the first inevitable televised put down out of the way too.

There was a sprinkling of the quiptastic one liners we expected, and yes, they are mildly amusing - when they are used to divert other people's questions. Given that the previous two incumbents have been criticised for not being straight with the fans that could soon wear thin.

Journalists questions at times may be bland, inane and sometimes blindingly obvious but that doesn't make the interrogator stupid: they are asked in that time honoured way as an open mechanism by which the manager is invited in a non-confrontational way to make their observations or any point they want. They are asked to produce information for the public and when a manager refuses to speak, or is surly, sarcastic or dismissive it may be mildy amusing to see a hack who is just doing his job squirm a bit but ultimately it is you the reader who is being given the second hand snub.

What do readers think of the performance? First impressions?

Some other questions:

Who will flourish under Gordon Strachan and who will crumble? As a fan of workrate and honest endeavour he will surely love Gary O'Neil, Rhys Williams, Leroy Lita and possibly Tony McMahon and Mark Yeates too. But those who disappear in games and don't get stuck in may find themselves out in the cold... Jeremie Aliadiere will have his work cut out in proving to GS2 - "the Wii Fella" - that he is a fundamentally better player than the on-loan Arsenal man he left on the bench at Celtic.

Can Strachan deal quickly and effectively with the key problem areas? Namely the nervous late slow motion retreat, the panic that sets in when the fourth official starts to fiddle with his board, dead balls into the box and the profligate failure to convert chances into a commanding lead when Boro have teams on the rack.

Who will he bring in and get rid of between now and January 31st?

And - the only one that really matters - are we now more or less likely to go up?

***

Some interesting background to the launch of GS2, which promises to bring more exciting and realistic gameplay to Boro than ever before...

Gibson risked knacking GS2 - and spoiling any chance of him coming here - with a series of heavy "let him know your here early" tackles when they crossed studs in the chairman's annual Far East five-a-side frenzy.

And GS2 wasn't always so keen on clubs like Boro. When viewed from the summit of Mount Celtic a provincial Premiership struggler let alone a cash strapped Championship side didn't have such appeal 18 months ago.

Red Zone Repeat At Preston

2009-10-24T22:20:17Z

COOPS was seconds away from joining John Pickering in an exclusive club of Boro bosses with 100% records when some sloppy defending deep in the red zone allowed Preston to scramble to a late leveller in a game that should have been dead and buried.

Both Boro goals were moments of quality and there coudl have been more but their keeper made a brilliant save from a cracking O'Neil free-kick, Johnson carved into the box but opted to shoot across the face of goal with Emnes and Lita unmarked and screaming for the ball and then Williams put a pildriver against the post..

Both Preston's raised serious questionmarks over the discipline at the back.

Boro were briefly on top for a few milliseconds late in the first half but had to settle for a place in the scrum. It was two points dropped at the death again. Had the late goals not been conceded at Coventry and Bristol City as well Boro would be five points better off and clear at the top. Fine lines as Gareth said on Tuesday.

The former boss meanwhile has spoken for the first time about being axed in the Mail.

More later.

GATE CLOSES FOR GARETH

2009-10-21T06:34:16Z

BORO won but the crowd finally dipped below the political trigger point of the half-way mark and Gareth Southgate was axed. Over 10,000 fans lost in just seven games. That stark statistic forced the issue. It was always going to be the decisive figure. That and three miserable goalless defeats at home.

A crowd of just 17,459 turned out to see a scrappy laboured 2-0 win over Derby that just wasn't good enough. Good enough to stop the rot but not enough to put the brakes on the unstoppable bandwagon against the boss.

Despite Boro moving to within one point of the top, the axe fell in a midnight meeting in the Riverside boardoom. A hastily issued club statement said simply: "Middlesbrough FC have tonight announced that manager Gareth Southgate has been relieved of his position with immediate effect. Football consultant Alan Smith will also be leaving the club as part of the change."

Steve Gibson added: "This has been the most difficult decision I have had to make in all the time I have been in football. Gareth has given Middlesbrough Football Club magnificent service as a skipper and, in very difficult circumstances, as manager.

"I appointed Gareth in a situation that was greatly unfavourable to him. He is a good man and has all the qualities and integrity that we wanted in a manager.

"However, the time is right for change and that change has had to be made. Gareth will always be welcome at our football club. English football needs people of his stature and we feel certain that this experience will serve him well.

"Gareth deserves another opportunity once he has had the chance to rest and refresh himself."

More from the chairman in today's paper Gazette.
********

Obviously we set the scene yesterday but here's a sneak preview of my initial political analysis for today's paper ... more on the Southgate legacy (I think he deserves a lot of credit for picking up the poisoned chalice) and the all important succession later.

******

A SCRAPPY home win over a dismal Derby was never going to be enough.

Enough to put Boro back to within touching distance of the top, yes.

And enough to buy maybe a week of breathing space from the growing mob gathering around the gallows beside the Ayresome Gates, yes.

But it was never going to be enough to heal the yawning rift that had opened between the crowd and the club.

And it was never going to be enough to arrest the alarming slump in crowds that finally last night dipped below the half-way mark.

That is the real problem that sealed his fate: politics and bums on seats, not results.
It seems harsh to axe the boss after a win that puts you within a point of the top.
But there is a bigger picture, and it is a far from pretty one.

There has been a growing estrangement between the powers that be at Boro and the supporters who have grown increasingly hostile to the entire trajectory and philosophy of the club.

A club can never make progress and achieve its ambitions unless it is totally united from top to bottom and Boro were well on the way towards being a squabbling group of warring factions, a divided and dysfunctional entity at odds with itself.

And when the manager becomes the focus of the fighting and disunity there is only one way out, no matter how great or loyal his past service. We have been here before with Lennie Lawrence, Bryan Robson and Steve McClaren. We know how the infighting can quickly become the main event and detract from and undermine the team.

Something had to be done to halt the slide towards that debilitating political paralysis.
As the pressure mounted a lonely Gareth Southgate has been teetering ominously along the edge of that chasm for months.

But whatever people may have thought, the boss was not bulletproof. Southgate's exit was inevitable - he had lost the crowd.

The booing had become the soundtrack to the season. Protests were become more vocal and vitriolic as positions became entrenched and, crucially, for the first time the finger was being pointed higher up the chain of command.

And it wasn't going away. Results were not going to sway the masses back on message.
Most had long ago made up their minds. Many at West Brom away last year when a dismal grave-digging defeat signalled the imminent end of the Premiership dream.

Many more made their mind up when the drop was confirmed, when the new recruits failed to fire the imagination, or when the drab opener this term against Sheffield United showed that a quick return was far from inevitable.

Yet more made up their minds as Boro laboured through three successive home defeats without scoring and without any indication that they had the nouse, drive or belief that they could break down even average teams to win.

Layers of loyalists had gradually, reluctently moved into the opposition camp and were not going to be won back.

Even the most understanding of fans have become openly hostile to the new prudent cost cutting financial strategy and its most visible expression, the departure of match winning quality players with the ability to excite.

Angry at not just the exit of big names but the signal failure of the boss to consistently recruit adequate replacements with what were restricted but still relatively generous resources.

They have grown sceptical and increasingly angry at repeated arrogant foot-in-mouth public statements from the Ivory Tower heirarchy seen to have grown aloof and isolated from - or even dismissive of - the widespread and sincere fears and frustrations felt by the fans.

And they have been dismayed at the sobering realities of watching a bargain basement Championship side so soon after the champagne cavalier dash through Europe and the UEFA Cup final - and by the meek acceptance of the new lowly status.

And crucially they have become totally demoralised: the vast majority had lost any faith in Southgate's ability to put together, organise and motivate a winning team. And they had lost any belief in the prospect of promotion - or that if the team did somehow go up that it could survive.

That disenchantment was most visibly expressed in the contagious red rash of empty seats that had spread across the Riverside.

Boro have haemorrhaged 10,000 supporters from last season's impressive, defiantly loyal average of 28,000. Even a chairman who had shown steadfast commitment was inevitably going to waver once the crowd not only edged towards revolt but also starts to evaporate.

Given the political dynamics below the simmering surface the plunging gates were always going to be decisive. Against Leicester and Watford the gates were just above 18,000. It did not have to fall much further to reach the politically sensitive trigger point of 17494 that would scream unavoidably that the ground was half empty.

Against Derby it was 17459.

We must hope that is now rock bottom and that the slump can be arrested, unity be restored and the club galvanised.

But the political problems remain. If we are to solve them and move forward it is crucial that Steve Gibson gets his next decision right.

Southgate's Massive Must Win Match

2009-10-20T08:23:24Z

HOW IMPORTANT is this game? For the strategic impact on the promotion chase, for Gareth Southgate's immediate job security, for the political dynamic within a simmering crowd, for the fragile mental health of a dysfunctional community?

Defeat will not be a mathematical knockout blow but it will deliver a piledriver to the under-fire gaffer's already precarious political authority. Could he retain any credibility with a hostile crowd should Boro slump to an catestrophic fourth successive defeat? Would it be game over? Make no mistake, this game is as "must win" as they come.

If you thought Leicester was a political powder keg waiting to explode - and nothing has changed - wait till the fuse starts fizzing tonight. The tension will be unbearable and will intensify with every minute that Boro don't score.

The prospect of defeat is unthinkable... yet everyone can think of little else. Defeat and the possible consequences. I couldn't sleep last night. This is a watershed moment. If Boro lose tonight it will be almost impossible to stem the tide and unless swift action is taken we will descend into nasty bout of bitter recriminations and divisive internecine squabbling that will make any prospect of promotion a pipedream.

Stubborn-as-an-art-form Steve Gibson has backed his boss to the hilt but could even that previously impregnable position start to crumble in the backlash that will engulf the Riverside if Boro fall to a devastating fourth successive home defeat? Especially to a side of poor travellers who have taken just two points from six games on the road. More so after the abject failures to break down limited and unambitious sides posing the mosty basic of tactical problems in the previous two outings.

And could even the chairman who has shown steadfast commitment to the Southgate project start to waver if the crowd not only revolts but also evaporates?

We talked at the start of this crucial season about the layers of loyalists who had already made their mind up on the manager and how every set-back would prompt ever more 'don't knows' to take sides (and how every victory would buy not lasting political capital but merely a short breathing space). And so it is panning out. Thousands more have made their mind up after the 'set backs' of West Brom and Leicester - any poll now would show a damning massive actively majority against the boss.

Many have simply voted with their feet and walked away in powerless frustration. Boro have lost 10,000 fans at home from last season's average of 28,000 to drop game by game to just above the 18,000 mark, and even that figure is treated with scepticism in some quarters. It would not have to fall much further to reach the politically sensitive figure of 17494 that would scream that the ground was half empty. Defeat to Derby and we could see that barrier fall for the visit of Paul Whitehouse's Plymouth.

Tonight could be a line in the sand. It would almost impossible to spin defeat as anything other than a disaster. And will be no good blaming the fans again. That will not wash. It is down to the players to deliver and it is down to the boss to motivate them, organise them and impress upon them the urgent need for a stirring performance and a victory to regain momentum, head off revolt and give supporters reason to believe.

Ironically, away perfromances and results have been broadly excellent. The side is set up to hit on the break and has looked industrious, effective, determined and united - but that only increases the frustrations and anger of those who pay £400 or more a year to watch a one dimensional shot-shy side labour fruitlessly at home.

Three games, 275 minutes without a goal and three brusing successive defeats. Fans have every right to not just complain about the lack of entertainment but also about a lack of tactical ambition, leadership, zest and a steely sense of self belief.

It Southgate is to maintain his authority on home turf - and ultimately his ability to do his job - then he must demonstrate tonight that he can turn out teams that can win games. If he can't then there will be very little wriggle room left and no escape from the mob.

Home Sickness Strikes Again

2009-10-17T18:25:35Z

HOME SICK Boro went down to a third successive defeat at the Riverside to a limited but hard-working and effective Watford side. Didn't they read the pre-match blog about cracking the Riverside riddle? Don't they know what to expect from visiting sides? Did they nod off during Alan Smith's powerpoint?

Shot-shy Boro squandered a string of good chances... there were two good saves, a disallowed goal, Lita nodded wide from close range, McMahon did a Geoff Hurst, there was one good penalty call and one dodgy one plus the usual quota of high, wide and handsome efforts from a side who are mentally fragile and really need to go on the couch with a good psychologist to get over this problem at home. It is now three games and 275 minutes since Aliadiere scored against Ipswich on September 12.

But we can't just blame the strikers. Their goal was largely self inflicted. In a jittery spell Boro caused problems for themselves at the back by failing to clear their lines in routine situations. Yeates at one point appeared to be dribbling towards his own goal before being dispossessed by a Watford man, Wheater looked shaky and twice St Ledger dithered over the ball and almost got mugged before the fatal weak tap into space that was scooped up by a suprised but alert opponent for the goal.

The bottom line is that Boro don't have the tactical nouse to unpick the massed defence of a well organised team that comes to the Riverside to park the bus, who pack the midfield, shackle Johnson and sit back and deny them the time or space to use their pace to get round behind them. Neither do they have either the brute force to batter a way through or the cutting edge from set-pieces... I lost count of the corners and free kicks we had and not once did their keeper have to make a save from one.

What is more worrying is that the home sickness will become a deep seated complex. After the Leicester game the gaffer growled at the crowd as he explained that the pressure of playing at the Riverside was becoming a noticeable debilitating factor. After this game he went on at greater length about it and the need of the players to overcome it but he did so with an with an air of helplessness. There is a danger here that we will talk ourselves into some kind of psychosomatic paralysis.

So three defeats in a row, three without a goal.... and yet amazingly we are still fourth after other results were relatively kind. And at least Danny Graham didn't score. That would have been another stick to the club with when we are already spoilt for choice. Derby on Tuesday. If Boro don't win it will be very, very difficult to hold back the wave of anger that will engulf the Riverside.

****

DID any of the expats or part-timers outside the Tees broadcast area log in to the live blog from the match? If you did, did you find it useful? Entertaining? Confusing? A mildy diverting reason for not going to B&Q? Or Kaufhof for our Deutsche contingent (I don't know any Middle-east High Street brands.) And what can we do to improve it... don't say more frequent updates becuase our hands are tied legally on that one.

All feedback on this will be useful. I need to know if I am wasting my time.

Let's Crack The Riverside Riddle

2009-10-15T22:02:20Z

TIME To deliver on the Home Front. Boro's away form has been impressive and has provided a platform on which we can build a genuine promotion push - but only if we can crack the Teesside tactical conundrum.

Amazingly, We are the big boys in this league. I know, I know. Teams come to the Riverside and set themselves out to 'park the bus' and get a draw just as we did going to Anfield or the Emirates. They string five across the middle, double up on the main creative outlet of Adam Johnson and then drop deep, sitting back and letting Boro have the ball 40 yards out while trying to take the tempo out of the game by putting the ball out as often as possible.

With play condensed it leaves very little space for Boro to operate in making it very difficult to find space on the flanks for the likes of Project Emnes or tattooed love god Aliadiere to use their pace to get behind the full backs and to the byline to deliver balls into the box, or for the team to pick their way through the middle with the short, quick passes to feet. There's no space and a lot of bodies so passes are either cut out, charged down or the recipient is crowded out before they can take effective control. It is not easy to crack that, which is why teams do it.

The temptation is to go long, throwing balls into the box but most teams at this level have monster centre-backs who are happy to just head crosses away and have the advantage that Boro's only big lads who are good in the air are at the other end. That is why Folan was brought in, to give Boro the option of using a battering ram when they were chasing the game or trying to force something in the closing stages.

When visiting teams sit back home supporters expect - demand - their team respond by going hell for leather, throwing bodies forward and playing at a persistently high tempo, thinking that is the quickest and most effective way through. Often this results in too many men pushing up leaving the team vulnerable to a quick break out, especially late on when the all out attack has taken its toil and left legs tired. As we know only too well.

The alternative is for Boro to sit back, play possession football on the halfway line and try to draw the opposition out to create a bit of space to exploit but that tactically astute Italian methodology does not sit well with an English crowd culturally attuned to a high empo and demands for all out attack at home. That is an invitation to boo. It is asking to be denounced as negative, unambitious and, well, crap.

Sometimes it feels that some Boro fans think there is only one team on the pitch. Boro are rubbish. Boro can't get an early goal. Boro can't set the pace. Boro can't stretch the opposition defence. Boro are better than this lot, why aren't they winning three nil? Boo.

At risk of straying into Steve McClaren territory and saying "the fans need to be educated", we as supporters need to recognise that the opposition are out there too; they are highly organised, highly motivated and they have a game plan to close down quickly, press and deny space and break play up with niggling fouls, finding Row Z and going down in agony after the slightest knock. When West Brom came they were time wasting over throw ins after the first three minutes. It is frustrating but effective.

Last season we faced that maybe only five or six times as bottom half teams came to Boro looking for a draw, In those games - Sunderland, Bolton, Wigan, Blackburn, Portsmouth... you know, the insipid ones that were purgatory to watch - Boro failed to solve the tactical problem and ultimately that sealed relegation. This season we must expect almost every team to come to Boro with a similar mindset and ambitions.

Boro need to find a way to deal with that unaccustomed problem - but so do fans!

The team can try to counter it, they spend all week training for and understand the tactical nuances and know that patience, persistence and hard work can win the day. They are cold and calculating professionals. But fans are passionate and engage in the match on an emotional level so face a cultural problem when watching games that are tactically cagey.

It is counter-intuitive to want your team to slowly break the opposition down. We are a crowd brought up demanding "attack-attack-attack" and we go into the games we "should win" armed only with double edged emotions: optimism and expectation are good things but they can quickly evaporate leaving a vacuum that soon fills with fear and frustrations if things don't go smoothly and that can then be directed at the team.

Opposition teams work hard to quieten the crowd in the first 20 minutes knowing that an early wall of sound will quickly crumble and that as the game wears on the more anxious supporters will break down the debris into rocks to hurl at their own side as they become increasingly agitated at the lack of goals and increasingly certain that the other lot will score on the break. As fans of a club that other teams see as big boys even if we don't, we need to learn to be patient while we grind them down.

That is partly the point that "football supremo" Alan Smith went to great lengths to explain this week when he called for a new unity of fans and team, a point he made persuasively with the help of a power point presentation to the press corp, a presentation he has already done for the players and for the staff.

It is hard to disagree with most of what he said. Boro will be more effective if there is a united front between fans, team and club. The team will perform better if they are not being barracked. That is not to say that fans don't have a right to express frustration and anger, but those rights don't need to be exercised so readily, so frequently or without understanding the effects it has.

We know that divisions exist within the fan-base and we know that they are not going away any time soon. But we also know that it is essential that Boro go up this season and that we must do it, more or less, with the players that we have. It is no good retro-castigating them because we are angry with last season.

There are two massive home games coming up and if we can bank six points - four if other results go our way - we can be back up there and leading from the front. We need to be winning games at the Riverside, we all know that. It will be easier if we the fans are behind the team all the way, even if the opposition come to spoil and squeeze.

*****

EXPATS, offshore workers, shift workers, part-timers, those outside the golden five mile radius of the BBC Tees transmission area and bloody-minded refuseniks - listen up!

The Evening Gazette are trialing a fantastic all singing, all dancing new multimedia interactive, live matchday experience for the Watford game. Yours truly will be doing a colourful quip-by-quip rolling report - and you can join in with sarcastic comments, world weary one liners, questions and calls for Southgate's head.

We are using Cover It Live (those of you who have followed Gazette webchats will be familiar with the system) so you can log on via the gazettelive,co.uk home page, click on the link and follow the report as it unfolds. You can submit your own comments and questions but remember, I get to see them first before they are published and the usual rules apply - no swearing, no libels, no 'humourous' pseudonyms.

Broadcast rights red tape mean it can't be a comprehensive match report (that will still be on-line soon after the whistle) but I'll bring you the highlights every seven minutes and try to add a flavour of the atmosphere and banter in between. See you then.

Pigment of the Imagination

2009-10-13T12:11:30Z

THERE is a picture on the back page of today's Gazette of Boro's tattooed rock god Jeremie Aliadiere. The French forager is sporting the en vogue colourful sleeve of artistically interlocking tattoos favoured by American pseudo-punk groups like Blink 182, or hairy bikers of the type more concerned with bloody gang feuds with rival drug cartels than blind baking choux pastry cases for a summer fruit tart, or indeed those waiting on death row in Alabama State Penitentiary.

On the other wrist he has a barcode, presumably to keep a tally of his goals, a design which can be updated every time he notches. Or annually, which ever is the sooner.

Nice tattoos, and expensive too no doubt, and perfectly in keeping with the mash-up inflections of Jezza's syntax mangling French-Cockney-Jamaican patois ghetto accent that echoes the capital's multicultural urban dispossessed. Innit?

But where did they spring from? The tats, not the urban dispossed. They weren't there last season. At least not with such explosive retina scraping urgency. When he arrived he had one distinct but relatively understated and discreet monochrome tattoo, on the inside of the other arm which he explained was his DOB. Y'know, in case he forgets.

And he was similarly unscribbled on at the start of last season when he did a mean and moody photo-shoot to launch the (then) new away kit. Mysteriously he then spent most of last season wearing long sleeves - I know, I've been through the Gazette's electronic photo-library and there are almost no pictures of him bare-armed - and while many thought he was just being a bit of a Gallic wuss covering up in when it got a bit chilly (gloves and everything) it was clearly a deliberate covering up of his easel to build up the anticipation and speculation while the living art installation was completed.

And wow! Send for the Turner Prize judges. Now the sleeve has a vaguely religious mystical feel about it with stars and lightning bolts and shafts of evocative sunlight straight off a medieval cathedral stained glass window. All we need is the celebratory choir of angels and some hint of stigmata and we are thrust deep into the emotional tumult and pyschedelic peasant fervour of the hysterical Cathar heresy.

Or alternatively it could just be a footballers trend. Beckham, Bellamy, Djibril Cisse.... they are all at it. Wayne Rooney either showed a fantastic self deprecating sense of humour and an astute self awareness belied by his mono-syllabic media utterances or has been the victim of an cruelly ironic artist when he had the title of Stereophonic album "Just Enough Education To Perform" inked on his person.

(Which opens a whole new avenue of unarguable appropriate album tattoos on footballers.... Born To Run - Marvin Emnes; Rumours - Ashley Cole; Appetite For Destruction - Joey Barton; Last Night A DJ Saved My Life - Stewie Downing... etc)

Fernando Torres has his name on his leg (again, just so he doesn't forget) only written in "tengwar", the fictitious Lord of the Rings language invented by Tolkien to be spoken by hobbits, hippies and sad polyglots who presumably also have a smattering of Klingon.

In the past tattoos were for dockers and criminals and footballers sporting them were very rare. The first overly inked hardman I can remember was Bolton's Stig Tofting who was a real life Hells Angel in his spare time - which gives him much more right to look like a Yakuza assassin than being a decent golfer or unbeatable at CoD on the Xbox does.

Now you can't move in a dressing room without feeling like you are in a dockside bar in Tangiers. Getting a tat is now de rigeur for any player who make it big. It comes as an optional extra with a Porsche Cayenne and you get complimentary designs of your name in Hindi in the Sky Sports goodie bag when you go on the Soccer AM sofa.

They are such common currency in the game that Liverpool perma-crock Daniel Agger has crossed over from customer to needle wielding artist. He has "done" quite a few of his very trusting team-mates while he has been learning ("You'll Never Walk Alan") and is now branching out as a professional... I think he is available for childrens' parties.

No weekend is complete without seeing a shirt ripped off in celebration to reveal a torso with ever more outlandish and frankly stupid designs (have you seen the state of Stephen Ireland's angel wings? What a clip! You'd never go in a swimming pool again. Unless it was a harp shaped one and you owned it yourself obviously) making Match of the Day a cocktail of poncy high end fashion mag, Prison Break and a BBC4 late night documentary deconstructing Maori tribal markings.

Of course, the upsurge in fashionable ink is not confined to footballers. Poor tattoos are everywhere - literally - in every town in the country: and it is not just DIY 'Mams' or crude borstal spots - check out those tribal bands, hoolie colours, 'tramp stamps' and cheeky cartoon characters on bingo wings in the swimming pool.

But footballers can take it a step further. As predominantly working class lads with plenty of time and money on their hands - and no need to worry about future employment prospects being blighted by a fragments of the Cistine Chapel poking out across the backs of hands or behind ears - why not gradually colour themselves in as part of the battle against boredom, always keeping inside the lines naturally. There's no harm in it. I mean, its kept saucer-eyed Robbie Williams sane, artistically sharp and drug free.

So, Jezza's tats. Nice. But the one that fascinates me is David Wheater's.

He has a work in progress on the inside of his arm which includes a series of scrolls that have been left blank. Either he fainted with the pain and never went back to get them inked in or he is reserving them deliberately for some future legend, a first born child's name perhaps, or, more optimistically "Boro, Champions League 2016."

Or maybe, to reflect his down to Earth Teessideosity that goes up to 11, maybe 'Mungle Jungle' or 'Pride, Passion, Parmoes". Or something bingo related. Boro should encourage him to run a competition to complete the missing slogan. What do you think?

Opinions, Accountability And Shouting From The Cyber Soapbox

2009-10-08T11:47:53Z

GARETH Southgate should get his tin hat on quickly because after the beginning of what will be three days of exclusive head-to-head interviews with Uncle Eric in the Gazette (here's part two) he can expect a lot of incoming high-explosive.

Given the bi-polar nature of public opinion on the Boro 'street' any utterance is merely the prelude to the same old arguments being chased angrily down the same old cul de sacs and the same irate people become increasingly frustrated because their own favoured crescendo to the debate is not on the agenda.

For some Southgate soberly assessing where last season went horribly wrong - the hasty exit of Luke Young, the departures of Cattermole and Boeteng without new faces coming in to replace them, Alves failing to ignite, the slow motion slide towards relegation and the effect of key players wanting away in January - is a good thing. Recognition and acknowledging mistakes is a key step in preventing them being repeated and doing it in public helps show that the club are willing to take responsibility for relegation.

But for others - many others - the interview will be seen as a provocation, a brass-necked public picking at barely healed scabs and a premature attempt to play the popular politicians' card of 'drawing a line under it.' For them because heads have not rolled - an assistant in the BBC and a masseuse or two hardly constitute a full blooded Night of the Long Knives - the architects of the downfall have escaped responsibility.

Last week there was much talk of opinions without accountability and for the harshest critics such interviews are objects lessons in just that. The conclusion will be drawn that if Southgate is putting his hand up to the mistakes that led to relegation (and he bravely moves away from the collective mantra that was the soundtrack to the summer to take personal culpability on many issues) then he should carry the can.

Southgate was very open and never ducked a question. The answers may not be what people want to hear - and let's be honest, some people want a full scale public rigourous Maoist self criticism session combined with the medieval self-flagelation of a wretched sinner, preferably with the sound of a gallows being knocked up in the background - but that is always the case: beauty is in the ear of the beholder.

In covering all the bases and admitting mistakes - Cattermole, Young, Alves - the gaffer is simply pointing out a selection of sticks to be used to beat him with. Knowing that yet going ahead with the interview (two hours in the Hurworth canteen) shows real steel and willingness to front up and take responsibility... which brings us back to the notion of "opinions without accountability."

In his weekly Gazette growl today an affronted Bernie Slaven tackled head-on some of the issues pointed to by Southgate in last week's rage at the machine. The gaffer had pointed to the rumblings from radio phone-ins and inescapable cyber soap box of internet message boards as contributing directly to the negativity in the ground and the booing that piled pressure on a young team that, after all, very much in the shake-up.

Bernie was naturally fighting his own corner - his job on the Three Legends is to facilitate just the kind of populist hue and cry that Southgate has suggested helps if not create, then certainly perpetuate the white noise of dissent - and made a string of good points in a sterling "we're no living in Russia" 'free speech' defence of his role.

"When I hear Gareth Southgate having a pop at the fans in the national press and talking about supporters who boo the players and who criticise them on phone-ins and internet message boards as being "opinions without accountability" I take offence at that. I take offence because I work for the biggest phone-in show in the region and that means whether he meant to or not he is having a pop at me, my colleagues and my callers.

"But I take offence speaking as a Boro fan too because when you are talking about "accountability" then what fans want to know is who is taking accountability for relegation, for being the lowest scorers in Britain and for a string of players like Alves who cost a fortune but who were disasters?

"Fans don't boo for fun. They aren't being unreasonable after one bad game. The booing is because year on year the team has got worse, results at home have been terrible, we've slipped back from Eindhoven to the Championship and performances have been rank bad along the way. Fans have every right to an opinion on that! For me anyone in football who points the finger at the supporters is trying to hide from their own responsibility. Fans don't lose games, they don't pick the team or make the substitutions.

It is hard to disagree with any of that. And to be fair I don't think Southgate would disagree with the rights of fans to express an opinion. What he did say though was expressing it had consequences, in this case possibly demotivating a young, recently reassembled team that were trying hard and are overall in a good position.

And Bernie himself admitted that the booing was a double edged sword.

" I know that as a player if you are booed as you come off after a game where you have really tried hard but it hasn't quite gone right that you do resent it and you do talk in the dressing room. You do! Some like me get fired up and think "stuff you" and go and score in the next game to prove a point but others let it get to them and heads go down of they can stop busting a gut.

Perhaps the most pertinent point the Glaswegian fence climber made was about how the upsurge in populist opinion - radio and TV phone-ins, e-mails being read out live, internet forums and, yes, blogs too - was partly down to the way clubs have gradually tried to take control of the free flow of information.

Clubs have launched their own magazines, TV stations and websites as potential revenue streams and see themselves increasingly as rivals to the traditional media, while collectively they become far more strident in protecting their product and copyright. At the same time players have become media savvy and know they too are a product and that they should control their own image rights where possible. As a result much that is in the media has a sanitised "official" stamp on it.

So maybe it is no surprise that passionate fans have tried to reassert their cultural control of the game's soul by expressing forthright opinions on every platform possible - especially when they see their own role denigrated, sidelined or insulted. As Bernie said:

"It really gets my goat when football clubs - all football clubs, not just Boro - try to control people's opinions. And they do want to control opinions. They can control what is written in the programme, when and where you talk to players, who is allowed to broadcast from the ground. They can try to manipulate what is in the press or on TV.

"But they can't control the fans' opinions and every time they even try it is a slap in the face for the people who care most. If there is one sure way to rile fans it is to tell them they are wrong to express an opinion. Our switchboard nearly went into melt down when Steve McClaren said Boro fans needed to be educated and when Keith Lamb said the club didn't care about season ticket holders and preferred match by match fans.
Now Gareth is telling the fans not to boo the players!"

And Bernie also points out that people are far more informed about the game than ever before. That is undoubtedly true. When I was a kid foreign players never entered my consciousness until the few weeks of the World Cup forced them in via TV and Panini sticker books, and even then you knew so little of their capabilities. Now my boy, 10, has a mental list of continental superstars, knows what positions they play, what their relatives strengths are and their inside leg measurement all through playing endless hour of Football Manager, FIFA and ProEvo.

The internet, wall to wall TV coverage from the G14 Brand Fest of the Champions League down to the Conference, YouTube, endless acres of newsprint all make the game as comprehensively covered as an any area of human endeavour in history. Fans still have the same basic spectrum of emotions and perspectives - but now they have far more information to back them up when it comes to justifying them.... and far more outlets should they be inclined to evangelise. As Bernie said:

"Look, I know there are blokes out there who can't even spell 'football' and taking stick off people like that really hurts. But there are a lot of fans who have watched the game for years and are very knowledgeable. There is football so much on TV, on the internet and computer games. Fans are more informed than ever.

"And yes, there are more outlets now for their opinions, the Legends is one, the internet is another... but that's healthy. For me it actually takes pressure off the players because it helps fans get their frustrations out in a good way. In my day fans worked nine to five all week and stored up their frustrations and really let rip at their team on Saturday."

Where I do disagree is his insistence that every opinion is equal, that all should be given the same air-time and all carry the same weight. In theory maybe. But it is a pseudo-democratic argument that helps to reduce the overall level of debate. Look at the comments stream on JustinTV for frightening evidence of that. And some forums are zoos. And that helps the clubs dismiss the genuine nuggets of insight and real political questions raised in such forums. Which is why I spike posts on here that are foul mouthed, hate filled and untruthful.

An ill-informed, vindictive rant peppered with insults and half-truths and regurgitate pub rambling bereft of context is easily used as evidence that fans are stupid and that by extension that the media are encouraging willful ingnorance.

Plus, and this is important, it is not as useful a contribution as shrewd insight backed by tactical, technical or historical knowledge or genuine understanding of the mechanics of the game. And that is not about elitism but a concern for the content. What makes such popular imput as yours valuable - and gives it political weight - is the selection and moderating process. But then, I would say that wouldn't I.

Gareth Takes A Swing At Critics

2009-10-03T22:09:07Z

AND SO the pendulum swings back the other way - for a week at least - as schizophrenic Middlesbrough's metronomic season continues. The crucial win at Reading on a day when our chief promotion rivals all faltered helped Boro claw back lost ground in the table and earned the gaffer some political breathing space after a week of sustained fire had him on the ropes.

Some, but not much. Those with foam finger fume poisoning may well now feel vindicated for their brave stance against the midweek mob but the rusty bedsprings faction who hoped for defeat today won't go away. It was after all only Reading. And third is not an automatic spot. Nothing has changed. It is just double or quits carried forward onto the next game with a fortnight off to lick wounds, grind axes and generally simmer before things swing back their way.

I didn't go today, Big Phil T baggsied this one pre-season because it was a new ground for him. It was the first match I have missed since Wolves away in the FA Cup what seems like eons ago so naturally was listening to Ali and Gilly (isn't that a different experience from the polar opposites Punch and Judy show when Bernie was on?) while watching Jeff Stelling and the boys and following developments on here, Fly Me and the Beeb via the lap-top. So a bit of a busmans' holiday then.

[Incidentally I noticed there was a few people posting on the blog during the match... is there a viable audience for me trying live quip-by-quip coverage in some form?]

It was interesting to note after the game that Gareth resumed the high-risk assertive defence of his position that he had mounted in the Thursday pre-match presser. Then he had answered questions about the booing at the Leicester game by having a pop at the booing culture at the Riverside and dismissing the concept of "opinions without responsibility."

This time he edged towards a divide and rule strategy by bigging up the away fans. Now, the away fans have been magnificent this season and have impressed both in numbers and volume, of that there can be no question but it would be naive to think that Venn Diagram-wise there is no intersection between those hardy travelling hardcore of loyalists and the tetchy thousands who have roasted him at the Riverside.

Nevertheless, it suits his political ends to draw attention to the superb support away from home and the team's impressive results on the road in contrast to the more impatient, demanding and disgruntled home fans who he says have piled pressure on the team. After the game he said:

"We had incredible travelling support today. It's a hell of a long journey to come down here, I know we have a lot of support in the south but when you can reward that travelling support, that's great. We want to reward our home support as well and being together as a group is going to be crucial."

Asked why Boro have played with zest away from home but have struggled at home, Southgate said: "I don't know what to make of it if I'm honest. It's something that as club we've got to think about. We've got two important home games coming up and we've got to have the strength of character to win there."

That last phrase is the most important. It he wants to take the heat off the team and himself Boro MUST start winning at home. That the away fans have seen goals aplenty and a couple of superb performances is a fantastic reward for the miles and hours they put in but home turf is a far more important political constituency and the vast majority who only see the team at the Riverside have had to endure a grind against Sheffield United, the pummelling by West Brom and the purgatory of the first hour against Leicester need to be given compelling reasons to stay on side. Or at least not join the overt opposition.

After a bitter and damaging week in which Boro fans have marked out their territory, nailed their colours to the mast and been identifying and insulting members of the rival factions Southgate may have got a dig in - which is fair enough, his detractors have been free enough in making political capital from results - but he also added a note of sober reason to the debate.

"We were very professional about how we went about it and how calmly we played it out and we were solid as a team," he said. "But we won't get carried away with it, in the same way as we didn't with previous results. Other scores today show the topsy-turvy nature of this league."

Which is true. After battering Boro there were plenty on here who suggested that the engraver may as well get to work on the trophy that hey had already awarded to West Brom. Since then they have lost two and today could only draw. Boro, written off after the 5-0 gubbing, are now just a point behind them. Newcastle, still reeling at Jason Euell scoring in Blackpool's win have also drawn two in a row. Neither will run away with it. Boro are third, a point off an automatic spot and are averaging almost two points a game.

There is a long way to go yet. Boro's best chance of promotion is sticking together when things get sticky, as from time to time they will. But there is no point in appealing for unity on some abstract point of principle when the crowd are divided. The only way the fractured alliance can be kept together is by Boro continuing to win. Especially at home. Over to you lads....

Lack-Lustre Leicester's Lethal Late Blow

2009-09-29T23:10:13Z

BORO created a flurry of good chances but could not make them count before getting caught late on to leak a killer goal against the run of play and slump to a 1-0 defeat to a team who had not won away all season. Who writes these scripts?

Boro battered a lack-lustre Leicester in the second half with subs Mark Yeates and Leroy Lita looking lively, Sean St Ledger having a diving header superbly saved and David Wheater having a close range sitter deflected wide in the closing seconds.

But once again they failed to kill off a poor side then got caught cold. Leicester hit the post as Boro failed to deal with a free-kick then while Boro wobbled City had a man over unmarked in the box to stick the knife in seven minutes from time.

Naturally Gareth Southgate was booed off as frustrated fans made the predicted calls for his head. Many of what had been the Riverside's lowest ever league gate had already left by then and others were too shell-shocked to join in the booing.

Gutted. More later.

Boro's Political Powder Keg Set To Blow?

2009-09-29T07:35:44Z

THERE will be a political time bomb ticking under the Boro dug-out tonight. If Boro fail to beat Leicester - preferably with a cavalier swagger and a bagful of goals - then it will go off.

Make no mistake, like the seconds evaporating while Gareth Southgate sweats over which wire to cut with his clippers, patience among punters is running out fast.

An incendiary faction of overtly and increasingly vocal anti-Southgate rebels are primed to finally explode after fizzing away in powerless frustration for months.

Last season's stark relegation stats piled up powder kegs of discontent and this term's bright early impetus seeming to splutter out has not helped defuse the situation.

Defeat against a newly promoted side - one that has battled back from the prospect of financial meltdown under the uncompromising leadership of a steely ex-Boro skipper - could be the spark that blows it apart.

Support for the gaffer, fragile even going into the season, has been crumbling fast. A good start bought a breathing space but a humiliation at home to West Brom showed Boro to be now well short of the only team who finished below them in the Premiership, then a sickeningly familiar late submission at Coventry has raised the temperature again and the boss is firmly in the firing line.

That may be unfair. Boro have had their best start for 15 years, have taken a healthy 17 points from nine games and are just three points off the automatic promotion places as we come up to the ten game mark that many people take as the first checkpoint. A win tonight would mean a two point a game average so far and project that forward and you get a tally of 92 - a figure that has been good enough for automatic promotion in nine years out of the last ten.

But fair doesn't come into it. The current table is only measured over the shortest possible span. Project the stats back over the past year - or more - and the number-crunching looks pretty damning.

Even this term's figures can be painted bleakly: Boro's wins have all been over teams in the bottom 13 - Ipswich, Doncaster, Scunthorpe, Swansea, Sheff Wed - while the four games against teams in the top 11 - West Brom, Bristol City, Sheff United and Coventry - have produced just two points and three goals.

So yes, Boro are within touching distance of the automatic promotion slots and yes, they have at times looked clearly a cut above the average Championship sides - but it is equally possible to colour it darkly and defeat tonight would have the masses rushing to grab the jumbo sized black crayons. Those that don't already carry them around.

The increasing disaffection with Southgate has been the political subtext of almost every result, signing and behind the scenes twist for the best part of a year. No debate has been possible on Planet Boro that doesn't pretty quickly boil down to the question of the manager's position, his security and the succession.

In fact, the question threatens to overshadow and undermine almost any balanced post-match debate about performances and prospects of every game in what is still very much shaping up to be a promotion campaign.

The only Southgate free zone came after the stirring 3-1 win at Sheffield Wednesday. That game apart almost every car journey home, ever mesaage board barney and every phone-in - even on the normally on-message BBC Tees - has danced, not always gracefully, around the political fragility of the boss's position. It is not going to go away.

Many expected - demanded - Southgate to get the chop over the summer as the pay-back for relegation and as a clean break ready for rebuilding and renewal.

That he didn't has only served to raise the stakes. And that ultimate supremo Steve Gibson has subsequently and repeatedly reiterated his support for his manager has taken away any prospect of smooth controlled change, it has hardened the battle lines and forced the rebels hand. It has also set many against Gibson himself, a new feature on the political landscape after two decades of unquestioned authority.

Layers of loyalists have simply walked away and refused to renew while Southgate is in charge - and that's not a decision taken lightly by battle scarred long-time diehards.
And they have made no secret of it. The position has been made perfectly clear in the pubs, on message boards and notably directly to Southgate's face by an irate caller on a tetchy pre-season Radio Brownlee phone-in Q&A.
It has also had a marked effect on gates and atmosphere this term. Crowds have dipped below the 20,000 mark for the first time - and tonight could be a new Riverside league low - and the matchday experience is fast becoming a simmering, angry silence punctuated by localised pockets of defiant enthusiasm and the occasional yelp of anguish. Most appear to be just waiting.

Although it is only anecdotal evidence dozens of irate and despairing fans have made it clear to me the reason they are not going to matches: the manager. For many that that issue is just the final straw after years of frustration going back via the gradual dismantling of the dream, the Cardiff Cup collapse catastrophe, the post- Eindhoven slump and for some right back through the soul-sapping grind of the McClaren era to the exit of Juninho. But the club's decision to stick by Southgate is the one they are pointing to right now, the catalyst for their turn from faith.

The numbers are hard to fathom and they shift by the week as results push people to take sides. There is a significant proportion - anywhere between 30 and 40% by my reckoning - who are totally convinced Boro can not go back up under the current boss and want to see him out no matter what.

They can't be persuaded back into the fold even by a sizzling run of results because they have already decided. In a rerun of the final days of Steve McClaren, for them the die is cast and there is no turning back.

And even if Boro win this one and 'paper over the cracks' - and I for one hope they do, let's keep on papering all the way back to the Premier League - it will only buys a short period of respite until the next defeat, the next late lapse to squander points, the next stuttering narrow win against a side that should be walloped out of sight.

Some, admittedly a minority, take their trajectory to its painful but logical conclusion and actually want the opposition to win in the belief that a heavy Boro defeat will hasten the departure of their Nemesis. We have seen that on here but it is played out in every pub, workplace and Boro supporting home in Gazetteshire and its hinterland.

Worse still for the boss and the club hierarchy though, there is another far more important group in the fan-base who while not openly hostile to Southgate as an article of faith are far from convinced of his ability to sustain a promotion charge, or if he does, to then re-establish the club in the elite.

In order to maintain unity and momentum this majority of waverers - again maybe 30 to 40% of the crowd - need to be kept on board and at least passively behind the boss if the current regime is to have any future - and that can only be done by winning games and winning well. Anything less than the play-offs and that group will evaporate.

Along the way groups of these waverers are peeling off towards the opposition with every set-back and once they switch over it is very hard to win them back. Only resounding wins and inspirational displays at home, good results and staying firmly in the promotion shake-up can head off a wholesale defection to the opposition.

Of course there will always be people who back the boss to the hilt, either ex officio, or because he is Steve Gibson's choice and that is good enough for them; or because they can't seen how given the financial constraints what the alternative strategy would be no matter who was in the dug-out or who would do better; or because they believe he has what it takes to be a succesful manager and given the resources - as in his first season - he can make a good first of it.

This group could be as high as 30% too, although after a poor performance and demoralising results that are a strategic set-back they are hard to find. Unlike under McClaren there are very few pro-Gateists who are still willing to make an articulate public case for the boss on footballing terms - and when they do they are swiftly surrounded and shouted down by passionate antis who have a long crime sheet and well rehersed case for the prosecution plus the scent of blood in their nostrils.

But that is not the key political battle-ground. It is the waverers that count - and right now the antis are winning the battle for their hearts and minds.

***This is the DJ Semtex Crisis Club Remix of today's Big Picture Column