The Boro Youth Column April 2005


By Laurence I'Anson
April 23 2005

Well here we are approaching the end of the season with only seven points from twelve league games in 2005. We are out of Europe and out of both domestic cups. We are also sitting pretty at the top of the Physioroom.com injury table, three injuries ahead of second placed Liverpool.

Our first team has no less than ten injuries at the moment ranging from Schwarzer, who may be back next match to Mendieta and Christie who may not play again this season.

But the table that matters makes good reading and lingering around those sixth, seventh and eighth spots in the Premiership, arguably the best league in the world, is not bad at all. Next up at the Riverside are Fulham who are followed by West Brom.

These two games can bring us six points towards our goal of European football next season, if another performance like we saw against Arsenal is put in.

I thought we played extremely well against the Gooners, only to concede an unlucky goal which wickedly ricocheted off Doriva’s backside and into the path of Pires who wouldn’t miss from six yards. Even after that we had the chances to take at least one point from the game. Notably when under confident Hasselbaink passed the ball to Lehmann in the Arsenal goal when clean through. 1-1 would have been a fair result.

The mini-season that has been created from now until the end of the season is crucial. Six points can be gained from the Fulham and WBA home games, while the Tyne-Tees derby can produce anything on the day. Just like their game against Villa.

How funny it was to see Newcastle United in the news for all the wrong reasons. Have you ever seen two players from the same team fight with each other on the pitch in front of 52000 fans? I tell you what, I haven’t. And all because Dyer wouldn’t pass the ball to Bowyer. How childish from a grown man.

That Tyne-Tees derby at St James is the biggest game of the rest of the season in my eyes. Our best chance to prove that we are the north-east top dogs, drive on into the UEFA Cup spots and boost the Geordies downfall into the bottom-half of the table. A repeat of the Newcastle v Villa game will do very nicely indeed.

Hopefully we will get a big enough ticket allocation to give the team a twelfth man and produce an atmosphere worthy of a Tyne-Tees derby. Our fans this season have been brilliant on our travels and I just hope it can continue for the last few games, especially away at St James, Anfield and Man City.

There is talk of McClaren extending his contract at the Riverside on the MFC website and I am as yet unsure. I sometimes see the situation like this.

Since Lennie Lawrence left twelve years ago, Bryan Robson took us onto the first level, putting us the Premiership - despite the relegation - getting to three cup finals and nearly qualifying for Europe with that highest league position of ninth.

McClaren has taken us onto the second level, keeping us in Premiership since his arrival, winning the Carling cup, and giving us a taste of European football.

We now need to advance onto the third level and consistently finish top six or possibly top four. More cup finals and tasting Europe an a regular basis. McClaren needs to do this and the interview on mfc.co.uk suggests that we will move onwards onto bigger and better things by keeping young stars like Downing, Morrison and McMahon, extending the contracts of Boateng and Zenden and signing additional players to give the squad strength in depth.

However, this may well be a facade to the fans in order to gain support and keep up enthusiasm. Season tickets will soon be due for renewal...

Steve Mc has next season to show us what he can do and I would like to think that we can get a top six finish and reach the latter stages of the UEFA Cup. Should we qualify.

If McClaren doesn’t extend his contract and leaves the club at the end of next season then we need someone of the same, if not higher calibre. But as we all know, such managers are not freely available and are few and far between.

Names like Ranieri and Martin O’Neill may be possible but only if we push on and prove we are as big as we’d like to think we are.

For when we travel up to St James’ Park next week, we can't let them get away without any humiliation. So here’s to a variation on “All the Geordies went to Rome just to see the Pope”, as seen on FMTTM.

All the Geordies went to see Bowyer and Dyer fight
All the Geordies went to see Bowyer and Dyer fight
All the Geordies went to see Bowyer and Dyer fight
And this is what they said
Who’s that team they call the Boro
Who’s that team they all adore
They play in red and white and are fucking dynamite
And we’ll support the Boro ever more.

COME ON BORO!!

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