The game against Newcastle on Saturday could be a platform for us to build on which will hopefully start a mini revival in our so far dismal season in the Coca-Cola Championship.
The last time to the two sides met back in December 2009 Newcastle brushed past a lacklustre Middlesbrough team at St James’ Park signalling the massive distance in quality and determination between the two sets of players at the time. The Geordies deservedly won that game 2-0 as Boro were sent packing down the A19 reflecting on how 12 months in professional football can take you on a long and forgetful journey.
Gordon Strachan’s years in football management will ultimately pull us through this bad patch of our journey as I’m sure he will mould a new Middlesbrough which will compete in the Premier League once again. That might not be for another season or two though and the Boro fans need to deal with that as Strachan needs time to do things his own way. Don’t worry though Gibson will not make the same mistake twice in succession in appointing a manager with an ambitious 5-year-plan that fell very flat in the third year.
Strachan, in my opinion, has brought in players that he feels will ultimately win us more football matches than losses and that is the most important factor for a new manager at any club. A solid foundation is needed before we can start to think about promotion and with that comes games like the one we saw at Cardiff last Saturday where we had to scrap and fight for everything but unfortunately were undone by a couple of decisions that were out of our hands, no pun intended.
The Championship is a league made up of brutality, sharp-thinking, spirit and passion which a team needs all of if they are to be successful. Strachan is slowly adding these elements to the once flat Middlesbrough we saw last season.
Players like Barry Robson and Stephen McManus, who in games I’ve seen, are capable of moving mountains if necessary just to get a strangle-hold on a game. We have missed players like this for a few seasons now and with games like the Tees-Tyne derby I expect we will not be short on commitment out on the pitch against the Magpies.
The former Celtic lads have all played in arguably the biggest rivalry in club football so they will have no problems in showing what they can do in the somewhat tamer version on Saturday afternoon.
It is very important to have players in a side that have experienced the biggest occasions and with Robson, McManus and McDonald we have three players that will be raring to go against Newcastle. Let’s hope that the rest of the Boro boys can mirror what those lads can do.
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6 comments ↓
Good luck 2ye in your derby. Not big fan of Strachan but wish all the best 2 the 3players you mentioned. Nothing like having players who want to prove themselves and who arent just happy to sit on their fat arses with whopping remuneration coming their way..
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yeah, watch for Lovenpants diving as soon as Barry R goes near him – remember his feigning it years ago when Alan Thompson’s head ‘touched’ Lovenpants’ – when down like a ton of bricks…
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Good luck against Newcastle, the two players you mentioned will certainly give their all, in fact I’d have Robson back, plays a captain’s role imo.
Never could take to Strachan, but I respected the wee man and would love to see him lead Middlebrough to the premiership
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cOME ON THE gEORDIES
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I think most Celtic fans will be cheering for Middlesborough on Saturday if only by virtue of the fact that a number of our former favourites will be on display and that the loathesome Lovenkrans will be turning out for Newcastle. If Barry robson gets near Loverkrans watch out for the diving and the amateur dramatics. you can rest assured you will get a Captain’s performance from Barry Robson and I wish big ‘Mick’ Mc Manus every success. For all the joy of transfer window day at Celtic Park a few of us looking across our back line at the Ibrox would have found a place for some of the faithful departed. In derby games people need to know what they are playing for. Robbo, Big Mick, and Skippy all know there responsibilities lie on the big occassion. If Skippy starts scoring eventually you will have unearthed a potential match winner as a few of the bigger clubs in Europe found to their cost. Fiannly on Strachan he led us through three very memorable seasons. however his pettiness and vindictiveness cost us in the end and his spiteful decesion to leave Aiden Mc Geady on the bench for the vist to Ibrox at the end of last season will long be remembered as the day we threw in the towel on the championship.
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Good luck to all the ex celts. Boro fans dont listen to the idiot who is going on about Strachan dropping McGeady. We should have got rid of McGeady as he has no guts and never turns up when we play the rank rotten lot. Robson should never have been sold as he is a class player who hopefully will do well at Boro and skippy will score plenty for you once he settles in. Think yourselves lucky though that McManus is on loan as hes not good enough and that the other guy Caldwell chose to go to Wigan as hes hopeless as well.
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