Visit our other sites:   

Search the site

  

About this blog

Untypical Boro is a lively topical blog by the Evening Gazette's award winning football columnist Anthony Vickers that aims to get behind the headlines to flesh out the stories that Boro fans are talking about.

Incisive, provocative and well informed it seeks to engage with articulate supporters and give them a platform to help set the agenda on the issues that matter.

Recent comments

Recent Posts

Sponsored links

Archives

Links

Advertiser

Sponsored links

March 2006 Archives


Getting Shirty Over Strip Tease

Posted by on March 1, 2006 2:01 PM

THE BIG Boro venture into tabloid telly popular culture and e-mail electioneering rumbles on. And on.

Someone with an idiot grin gabbled excitedly at me this morning that shirt ‘B’ had been eliminated and that it was getting “exciting”.

No it isn’t. It is still tedious. It is a long drawn out, slo-mo focus group giving you, the public, the chance to flick through the Errea catalogue and vote interactively for the least worst.

Continue reading "Getting Shirty Over Strip Tease" »

Yak Talk Worry For Fans

Posted by on March 3, 2006 2:11 PM

YAKUBU: “I won’t walk away!” trumpets the Gazette today.

Well that’s nice to know just seven months into the new Riverside fans' favourite's lucrative five year deal.

Yakubu spoke to the media yesterday to say all the usual nice things: “Fulfill my ambitions here... blah blah blah ... playing in Europe... club with potential... good manager... get on well with the lads.... fans are special... blah blah... nice countryside....want to be manager one day....I love your ‘parmo’.

Continue reading "Yak Talk Worry For Fans" »

Critics Find Viduka Strike Hard To Swallow

Posted by on March 4, 2006 11:32 PM

IT WAS HUMBLE pie all round for Boro's fickle fans as Mark Viduka cooly rounded the Birmingham keeper and slotted home the goal that banished any lingering relegation fears.

The goal was warmly received and fans who were said to hate him chanted his name loudly while team-mates widely claimed to despise him joined in what looked a warm and genuine celebration.

When he was subbed late on it was to generous - and reciprocated - applause from the terraces and from team-mates and he was hugged by his replacement and by the boss on his departure.

That's quite a public endorsement from all quarters for a man who not long ago was a hate figure being blamed for the disasterous slump.

Continue reading "Critics Find Viduka Strike Hard To Swallow" »

Roma Clash: The Biggest Game Ever?

Posted by on March 6, 2006 10:20 PM

HOW big is the Roma game? How brilliant is it to see buzzing Boro go toe-to-toe with Italy's red hot form team? How fantastic is it to have all those wild Holgate dreams come true?

It doesn't get any bigger than this. Boro are playing one of the real giants. And not just in some poxy five-pound-a-ticket-we-might-get-a -glimpse-of-that-Belgian-lad-we've-got-on-trial pre-season glorified training session that has pit our heroes against Inter Milan, Sampdoria and Atletico Madrid in the past. This is the real thing.

But where does mighty Roma's visit fit in the list of all time massive orgasmic historical occasions at the Riverside? Is this the biggest game ever?

Continue reading "Roma Clash: The Biggest Game Ever?" »

Don Ricardino: Roma Fear Boro

Posted by on March 9, 2006 7:59 AM

LET`S talk Boro with the king of capuccinno and calcio culture.

Yesterday I was been chatting with James Richardson, the Armani-clad face of Italian football on small screens in England for over a decade. That's one of the plusses in this job; you get to shamelessly namedrop. And you get to collect the phone numbers of the rich and vaguely famous from Chubby Effing Brown to the Honeymonster.

Continue reading "Don Ricardino: Roma Fear Boro" »

Boro v Roma .... the big one...LIVE

Posted by on March 9, 2006 7:42 PM

THIS IS an experimental broadcast under combat conditions live from the Riverside press box up in the fabled Row Z so please forgive any typos.

I don't promise kick-by-kick coverage - you want Stadtler and Waldorf on Century for that - but I will pass on as much of the colour and passion as I can, along with the hysterical snippets of tabloid tittle tattle, cynical comments from the crowd and the best of the chants... oh and maybe some football as well

Continue reading "Boro v Roma .... the big one...LIVE" »

Europe Through The League?

Posted by on March 11, 2006 10:15 PM

MARK Schwarzer insisted exclusively in tonight's Sports Gazette that Boro can still qualify for next year's UEFA Cup through the league.

Admittedly he said it having been ambushed in the mixed zone while still buzzing with post-Roma euphoria but it speaks volumes of teh confidence surging through the club.

A month ago relegation hanuted Boro looked poised to implode. Now they have one eye on overhauling sixth placed Arsenal. Can it be done?

Continue reading "Europe Through The League?" »

When In Rome

Posted by on March 13, 2006 10:35 PM

WHEN in Rome do what the Romans do. Well, that's 4-5-1 then.

Just as Roma pack the midfield so will Boro but while the onus is on the Italians to attack, almost certainly Steve McClaren will elect to sit deep and defend that precious 1-0 lead.


Continue reading "When In Rome" »

Mac's Italian Charm Offensive

Posted by on March 14, 2006 8:18 PM

STEVE McClaren pressed all the right buttons as he played footsie with the Italian press tonight.

The Boro boss - much maligned for his media image making in the past - played a blinder in the pre-match press conference in the Stadio Olimpico.

Continue reading "Mac's Italian Charm Offensive" »

Rumours Of War

Posted by on March 14, 2006 11:21 PM

BORO fans in rampage? Did I miss something?

Having come in from a pleasant but low key evening out and about in Rome I touched base with Boro fanzine Fly Me To The Moon to find that Rome is a warzone. Stabbings? Petrol bombs? Yerjokingarnyer?

Continue reading "Rumours Of War" »

Normal Service Is Resumed

Posted by on March 17, 2006 8:53 AM

RIGHT, I'm back from being pushed around by the goon squad gorillas who think football is a police state with a few apologies.

Continue reading "Normal Service Is Resumed" »

Cup Glory Is Leagues Ahead

Posted by on March 18, 2006 11:24 PM

RELEGATION jitters are abroad on Teesside again after the stiffs lost a second successive match. The gap is still ten points but there are some hard games to come and the glint of silverware is blinding us.

Yet there is also a growing hysterical belief that Boro can somehow stumble all the way in at least one of the knockouts. I buy into that and have done since about October when I became convinced that it was 1997 all over again and we were going down in a blaze of glory.

But if I was asked right now to sign a Faustian Pact offering an open topped bus parade down Linthorpe Road come May in exchange for my soul and going down with the Mackems I would willingly sign in blood.

Continue reading "Cup Glory Is Leagues Ahead" »

Vot's In Eine Name?

Posted by on March 20, 2006 2:22 PM

ARE YOU going to Basle? Or maybe to Basel instead?

The sports desk massive is currently engaged in a vicious internal war of words, split over not only the pronounciation of Boro's next UEFA Cup opponents but also over the logic of Anglicing some foreign place names but not others. We use Beijing in the paper for instance. But not Mumbai.

Plus there is an opportunist sub-textual squabble going on over the headline possibilities determined by this policy decision.

Continue reading "Vot's In Eine Name?" »

Should Roma Be Banned From the UEFA Cup?

Posted by on March 21, 2006 1:25 PM

DOES ITALY need the kind of short, sharp shock English football got with the five year exile from Europe?

That draconian measure forced the game to face up to some harsh realities. Between Heysel and Hillsborough English football was involved in a deep-seated re-examination of almost every aspect of an anarchic, lawless game that was sliding towards oblivion.

But there were Italian fans at Heysel too, waving guns and knives and goading Liverpool supporters. Has the Italian game considered it's own deeply disturbing terrace culture?

Continue reading "Should Roma Be Banned From the UEFA Cup?" »

Gazette Campaign over Scandal of Rome

Posted by on March 23, 2006 2:26 PM

THE FURIOUS reaction of Boro fans to the aggressive Third World policing in Rome is to be channelled into some positive action.

The Gazette has reacted to a bulging mail-bag of horror stories from supporters who were bullied, intimidated and detained a gun-point by the Carabinieri by launching a campaign demanding action from UEFA and from the Government.

The campaign, which is backed by Teesside's MPs and Euro MPs, will be unveiled tomorrow. But you lot can have a sneak preview...

Continue reading "Gazette Campaign over Scandal of Rome" »

Proud Crowd Staying the Cup Course

Posted by on March 23, 2006 10:39 PM

WHATEVER the bitterest of the sad seat-counting Geordies say on the Three Stooges tomorrow night, Boro's diehard fans can be proud of the magnificent turnout at Charlton tonight.

We will get slagged for taking the lowest number of away fans in the quarter-finals, you can be sure of that. I can hear Malcolm MacDonald chortling away now at the wit and wisdom of those who ring in the mistaken belief that trophies are handed out for bums on seats.

Continue reading "Proud Crowd Staying the Cup Course" »

Fixture Chaos: The Price of Success

Posted by on March 24, 2006 8:51 AM

BUBBLING BORO could set for not just three games but three semi-finals in eight days in what is shaping up to be a stength-sapping end of season fixture frenzy.

We are already set to finish this term playing a minimum of 60 gruelling games - and hopefully it could be as many as 65.

Even in the madness of the double Wembley heartbreak campaign of 1996-97 Robbo's Boro side only played 54. The big question is Where will we fit them all in?

Continue reading "Fixture Chaos: The Price of Success" »

Mad Dog Talks Language of Righteous Anger

Posted by on March 27, 2006 10:15 PM

THE GERMANS have a fantastic way of joining up existing words in a crazy linguistic lego that brings complex and often contradictory concepts togther in one uncomfortable 20 syllable saliva drenched whole.

So they must have compound word that sums up that mixture of self-righteous public tut-tut-tut condemnation and sudden explosion of guilty pride in seeing a loved one inflict harm on someone who, while possibly legally blameless this time, really deserves it.

Ah yes, "HowayMadDogPogasondeckthedirtyBoltongetz."

Continue reading "Mad Dog Talks Language of Righteous Anger" »

Robbo's Wem-Boro-ly Dream Dashed Again

Posted by on March 29, 2006 12:26 PM

IT IS easy to forget an anniversary. There was a lot on my mind, pet. I've been really busy at work, honest, what with mighty Boro's home and abroad double silver quest. Sorry. I'll make it up to you. Here's some garage forecourt flowers and a bottle of cheap plonk.

Lest we forget, in our post-Cardiff glow of optimism for the future and arrogant assumptions of glory, on this very day in 1998 Bryan Robson's Boro were taking on mighty Chelsea in the Coca Cup final.

It was Boro's third trip to the Twin Towers - 'Wemboroley' as it was then dubbed - in just 12 action packed months. And it was a hugely significant moment. After relegation, the double cup final heart-ache, the trauma of the three points saga and the departure of the iconic Brazilian and the Italian Whine, revived Boro were back.


Continue reading "Robbo's Wem-Boro-ly Dream Dashed Again" »

Basel Brush Boro Aside

Posted by on March 30, 2006 8:19 PM

PFFSSSSSSSSST! That's the first can open. European football is all about the preparation and the game against the Swiss has been tricky.

Most of our other games have been straight forward. Ostrava: Budvar. Villarreal: San Miguel. Sporting: SuperBock. Roma: a nice Chianti.

But what do we know about Swiss popular culture? Cuckoo clocks and cowbells, numbered accounts and Nazi gold. But I've looked at the map and it is practically in Germany so I've settled for a six pack of Becks and a Toblerone... game on.

Continue reading "Basel Brush Boro Aside" »

Advertiser