I TALKED one of my regulars down from the ledge and sent him away upbeat last week, quite a feat as he one of life's confirmed pessimists. After a Boro defeat the Batphone at Gazette Towers is red hot with angst-ridden readers looking to unload and we scribes are expected to combine our main role of 'telling it how it is' with touchy-feely counselling skills and a chipped shoulder to cry on. It is like a cynical Samaritans.
The would-be jumper is exiled in funny speaking Brumshire and gleans his information from wild websites and manic message boards and pieces it together through the jaundiced prism of the Midlands editions of the national press and the relentless black propaganda of Villa, City and Baggies fans. He wanted reassurance after getting the distinct impression Boro were torn apart by Everton, the axe was imminent for Southgate and that the cash-strapped club were on the verge of an implosion that would be sparked by the inevitable defeat at Bristol City. I delivered a positive pro-Gate polemic to calm his fears and give hope for a brighter future.
Then on Saturday I went against the tide of bleak chicken run certainty, the advice of Sky Sports Saturday's poisonous panel of pundits and the weight of our cultural history and backed Boro to win on the fixed odds. Oh no! I'm turning into a ra-ra!
Admittedly a few months ago I was worried. Not so much the twitchy black mania of those convinced that relegation was a foregone conclusion, more despondent that the season would drift into yet another water-treading grind, that the crowd would continue to shrink and retreat into indifference and that the growing estrangement between fans and club would leave us dysfunctional, demoralised and directionless. The trumpeted new era of crisp movement was not forthcoming, a mono-paced midfield wasn't getting forward to fill the vacuum where the guaranteed goal-getter should be, the team was wildly inconsistent not only between games but within them and with on-going injuries and some influential players looking flat there were few bright signs to suggest that things would click into place any time soon.
But since the darkest hour - a week when a brittle Boro were dumped out of the League Cup at Spurs then turned over at Everton and the season looked to have peaked too early with a pro-celebrity side winning a charity seven-a-side - things have been inching slowly towards a more coherent and confident style that has hinted heavily that there are better things to come.
Don't get me wrong. The past six or eight weeks are far from a Great Leap Forward. Tentative steps maybe. It is hard to seriously sell being perma-locked into lower mid-table, a string of draws against some fellow strugglers and smash-and-grab raids at the worst Premiership side since Sunderland's 15 pointers and a Pompey side seemingly legally obliged not to score at home as a New Golden Age. Especially as without the stunning Riverside result against Arsenal the points and performance return would feel a whole lot less satisfying.
But there are signs of something bubbling beneath the surface. Boro have shown in flashes that they have all the ingredients bar one to be a polished side that can entertain serious hopes of breaking through the glass ceiling into the top half.
There is a steel that wasn't there in the early part of the season and the gritty display against the calculated physicality of route one Bolton (and the robust return of the Mad Dog) showed that this side could mix it when they had to. Coming from behind to snatch points against Spurs and Reading revealed a rediscovered resilience. The comprehensive defeat of previously unbeaten Arsenal showed what the team was capable of at full strength and full pace. And the victories at Portsmouth and Bristol City, bouncing back from defeat to win as '"underdogs" show a much needed mental strength to carry them through tricky games where in the past they may have buckled.
Meanwhile the emergence of hero-in-waiting Tuncay has been a massive lift for flagging fans crying out for inspiration and imagination and a huge creative boost to a side that had been one dimensional and predictable. And it is nice to have someone up front that can give David Wheater and Stewie Downing a battle for the Golden Boot.
And Gareth Southgate has continued to develop too. Despite the relentless pressure of patchy results, the cat-calls from jittery and sometimes openly hostile sections of the crowd and the blood-lust of a malicious media machine who annointed him as the next sack race casualty he has remained calm, articulate and honest and has stuck by his principles on the pitch. Maybe he has a leeway that other bosses may not have and his position is buoyed by the long term support of Steve Gibson - even if Boro go down - but he has picked up other plaudits too. Lee Dixon revealed on Match of the Day this week that Arsene Wenger has spoken privately in glowing terms of the Boro boss as a great dug-out prospect, and not just because Boro battered the Frenchman's culture club. Wenger does not get many of these calls wrong.
And there are encouraging signs off the pitch too that the club are doing CPR on their flagging relationship with their supporters. Votes on goal celebration music and a shirt design may seem trivial tinkering around the edges but after years of defiant ivory tower isolation the political significance of this Glasnost should not be under-estimated.
New personnel, new ideas and a new determination to re-engage with the fans and the community are starting to take a grip at a club who so often in the past have gone unarmed into the battle for hearts and minds. It will be a tough task to win the crowd back, not just in numbers but also in terms of their buying into a vision of where the club are, where they are at and how they will get there, but unless the leadership rise to that challenge - and the signs are they are ready to give it their best shot - then there is no future. At a club this size if we are not all pulling together we can never make progress.
Results have improved too. Looking over the last six games - yes an arbitrary number but the standard European unit of measurement of 'one formbook' - Boro have won three and lost three. Hmmm. Nine points from six games. Alright it is not European form but it if far from relegation form and far from the bleak return in the opening stage of the campaign.
Of course there have been stinging set-backs. Defeats at Birmingham and at home to West Ham hurt and losing to Everton was a bitter blow too, not least because it allowed our former heavyweight hitman the chance to gloat. But, despite what my misinformed Midlands mate and many of those who booed on the whistle may think, Boro were far from outplayed by ambitious Everton. In fact they were by far the better side throughout the game: there was some exquisite fluid movement, Downing had one cleared off the line, Tuncay had a strong shout for a penalty and Gary O'Neil brought a brilliant save from Tim Howard before under-fire Everton made their two chances count in a sickening late double blow.
Which brings us to the 'bar one.' What let Boro down against Everton and in a string of other games this term has been the glaring inability to turn passing, possession and potential into points. Not scoring when they are on top has left them vulnerable to sides who are that bit more clinical in front of goal, sides who have players up front who know where the goal is.
But we all know that. Southgate knows it, Gibson knows it and the players know it too. Boro are two quality strikers away from being a team that can really hurt the opposition. It is no good looking back and saying we had two - Yak went on a go-slow to secure his exit and Viduka wanted whatever we offered plus more. We need to look forward.
We may well already have one of those two strikers in Mido but we probably won't see it this season. It may be that Boro don't sign the other in the January window and we will need to bite the bullet and wait until the summer. A few more points between now and the sash slamming shut may well persuade the boss that we can get through to the end of the season comfortably and he may opt to get the right man later rather than a stop gap now.
But that should not be seen as a failure or a lack of ambition, more a steely resolve not to be rushed into a compromise that in the long run will be waste of time and money. If a quality striker is available now - and in January that is a rarity - then naturally Boro must go for them and if a cost effective loan marksman that can do a job is up for grabs we need them - but we must avoid any hysterical urges to spend for the sake of it. Boro are close to being a good side and it is of paramount importance that we get the next crucial signing right rather than early.
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