Mayday. Listing And Adrift

There is an inevitability towards our slide to the Championship. Another defeat,we battled hard not to win, but to make sure we did not lose. One mistake again within the last ten minutes and you know for certain we will not equalise.

We are reaching the stage where you begin to to repeat yourself in analysis and comment because the same mistakes and same outcome occurs. The statistics against Southgate are damming and in any other football club would be fatal and even trying to be generous regarding his philosophy and principles relating to football management; something is missing from his make -up, that prevents one feeling confident that he can arrest the decline he has presided over.

Sadly, I feel it is terminal, that he and Gibson together have cut the club to the bone, with an over emphasis on youth combined with a lack of solid senior coaching experience to guide us through difficult periods. The Premier League has proved to be unforgiving for us but heading towards the Championship will be unbearable.

Southgate must be living in cloud cuckoo land when he says that Gibson will not make a knee jerk reaction and sack him but will not allow us just to plod on and lose games.

Isn't that exactly what we have been doing all season-LOSING GAMES.The silence from Gibson and Lamb has been deafening recently and legend though he was on the field it really is time for him to go.

Distance sometimes helps you see things with a more relaxed perspective. But I'm afraid the view is getting murkier. If we had scraped a draw I think we stood a fighting chance of survival but I think we are cast adrift now. I

have always had some admiration for GS as a player and his demeanour as manager. But I think he should call it a day now and let someone else have the pain of guiding us gently down and figure out a resurection strategy. At least I will have a reason for not shelling out on Foxtel for a couple of seasons.

John, Aus

Having backed Southgate all season I have now come to the conclusion that Gareth does not have a clue as to how to attempt to win games.

When I saw the line up of three centre halve and two wing backs I thought here we go, trying to get a draw which was not much use anyway after this weekends results, Surely there is some one on the coaching staff who can see the wood for trees.

Trying to get a draw from the Stoke match was total suicide, we had to go out and attack them and score goals, what do we get? A neat passing game with no threat to Stoke what so ever. Johnson must play along side Downing and let them create some goal scoring chances and take our chance that two centre halves and two fill backs can handle the opposition.

I am not an Alves fan but either he or Emnes must play alongside Marlon King to give us any chance of winning. Boro's tactics are unbelievable from people who are supposed to be Football wise. It may be too late now, but at least let us go down fighting, and not in the manner of the last two games

Gareth can't bring himself to try and defend his position so he's shifting some of the responsibility to Gibson & Lamb with his "I have full backing" stance.

Marlon King as a goal threat ? Add that to his veiled criticism of the crowd last week and you have an assessment that lacks honesty, courage and judgement.
We're 'tres buggered' mange toutes !!!!

Bye bye Emirates hello Bloomfield Rd.

When we do drop please spare me the ultimate insult/cliche of saying WE got what WE deserved.

Well thats it then aint it?

Well, this may come as a shock as many people would expect me to be sharpening my knives once again, but I actually feel really sorry for Southgate.

We withstood all until their bombardments and the one time we fall asleep it is a goal that puts relegation firmly and squarely on the cards as we are now truly adrift from the pack.

We are not down yet though and a couple of wins with results going our way and things could change.

Personally, I think Southgate should concentrate on our strengths and also focus on throwing a bit of caution to the wind and going for all out attacking formations all the way now.

What we need to understand for future reference is that players must learn the ability to keep their focus for 90 minutes plus, because just one lapse in that concentration loses games.

This must be taught off the field first of all and then it must be reinforced by a " real " leader on the pitch who has the ability to identify those players who are alseep, need a jolt and a reminder to wake up and to keep their focus.

Leadership doesn't just exist because a player is super aggressive or off his nuts. Leadership is a natural ability that then must be developed in order for the raw materials to be of any real use.

Players are taught tactics and so on, but they are never taught how to be leaders ( managers ). We all have to go on courses in the world of business in order to learn these key skills and footballers should do too.

This side is seriously lacking " real " leadership and in a side that rely's increasingly on academy players it is more vital than ever.

Southgate's real personal killer failings are not his inexperience or his lack of knowledge. Southgate's biggest failing is that he did not draft in new people to fill in the gaps of knowledge that he did not possess and he did not draft in new people on the coaching side with more hunger, more drive and more desire.

TB

AV’s statement “then were undone by one late slip to a set-piece we all saw coming.”. Yes we conceded late on again but this was not our undoing.

Ultimately it was the abject failure to score against a very poor Stoke outfit.
Conceding one goal away from home is not a disaster. It should be expected in fact.

It is clear that the management do not have a pre-determined plan/s to adopt under certain conditions. Every scenario should be carefully thought out during the week and a plan put in place to overcome it. And that includes “how to score when on top…”. Instead we firefight on the day.

When we were on top (for most of the game) we seemed to HOPE that we would score without ever looking convincing or committed enough to do so.

The tempo and urgency should have been upped in order to force the ball into the net by putting them under so much high tempo pressure until we do indeed force the elusive goal. Instead we plodded on with fingers crossed, playing nicely nicey football hoping we would get the breakthrough.

It was as though we didn’t want to press too far up in case we were hit on the break. Result? We don’t get close enough to cause damage, then the inevitable sucker punch comes. Zero points when they were there for the taking. Again.

If is wasn’t so depressing, it would be laughable that GS’s favourite line is “we have to learn lessons…” when all season long we have not learned how to defend dead balls or how to score goals. That is why we are in relegation deep water.

Well the writing that was on the wall sometime ago is now in 'dayglo' colours so that even the stary eyed amongst us can't miss it!

Major management errors have been made over the last couple of seasons and now we are reaping what we have sown.This could all have still been rescued as near back as January but inability/unwillingness to act has now sealed our fate.

I personally do not lay all this at Southgates door as i think Gison had a bigger part to play in this train wreck. He was the one not willing to make the blatantly obvious move of getting rid of a man so completely out of his depth and drowning.

What worries me more is come the end of the season when probably ......Downing, Tuncay, wheater, Johnson, Alves, O'neil, Shawky + Mido leave along with a couple of others.....what will we have left?

The money raised will no doubt be channelled to pay off debt and very little will be used to sign players but who would want to come anyway?The worry now is not just relegation to the championship but how far we fall till someone decides to open the parachute!

The situation we find ourselves in has not just happened, we've been sliding towards this for two years, in fact probably since Southgate took over. Our ability to concede late, late goals has been with us since last season certainly and this coupled with this seasons inability to score goals is proving fatal.

A club like ours is always bound to be up and down, we've had 13 out of the last 14 seasons in the Prem and that's an achievement in itself, this being the longest spell we've had in the top flight since we came down in 1953. I can take all of this as it's all part of supporting a club like Boro, the good times are bound to come to an end sometime and the inevitable relegation eventually happens.

However, what really upsets me about our current situation is that this did not have to happen right now. The team is better than it's league position and we should be nearer halfway in the league rather than in the bottom 3.

The seeds were really sown with the capitulation to Cardiff in the cup last season. We saw then what a Gareth Southgate 'inspired' team was capable of producing, and I don't think we've recovered.

His stubborn insistence that he is right to play one striker, select Alves at the expence of Mido early season, substitute 'like for like' even when the game looked lost, his inability to change the play, selecting players in unfamiliar positions, all these things resulted in him 'doing what he'd always done', so as a result we 'got what we'd always got'.

Steve McClaren was not very popular but you could always guarantee that his substitutions would be a bold attempt to change what was happening out on the pitch. His spell of management could well be looked back on in years to come (and now to be honest) as our finest hour.

The economic situation has affected the Gibson O'Neil company as much as everyone else. This makes it inevitable that the football club is going to be affected in a similar way. In short, there's just no money.

I have now got used to the idea that next season is almost certainly going to be played in the championship. The challenge then (and now) is in my view not to go straight back up but to ensure that we don't do a Leeds/Sheff Wed/Coventry/Notts Forest/Charlton/Southampton. All these clubs were established in the Prem and suffered financial disaster after relegation.

On a slightly different note, was the John Powls post that was unprintable something to do with the appalling rumour that was going around the Riverside at the Portsmouth game? That is, the club were close to going into administration?
Can you comment on this AV or is this another 'snip'.

**AV writes: No, thing to do with wild and recurring rumours like that. And they are just rumours, as with the ridiculous idea that somehow Boro were trying to get relegated for financial reasons. The new prudent economic regime is designed to prevent a situation where Boro can ever be in such a dreadful state again that administration needs to be considered..

The annoying thing about the past three seasons Southgate has been in charged is that Supporters can see he is not the man for the job, too nice to be a manager etc but why can't the Chairman or board see this simple fact.

He is clueless about tactics and we are definitely going down this season.

Hopefully he will then move on/be sacked whatever, The players will move on to better clubs, we will have to pick up the peices as supporters.

He has sold our most experienced players who may have been able to get us out of this crisis, then blames lack of experience for results. It's your fault Southgate.

To sell our two best strikers and bring in a no hoper Alves is disgraceful.

I am sick to death of Southgates interviews and feel really embarrased to be a Boro Fan at the moment.

Well, that's probably it now. Even two games ago I felt we would pull through but the goals simply aren't coming, the demoralising and sapping albatross which has characterised our season.

More frustating still is the galling frustration that this is just not the season we should have had.

Beyond the top six, only Tottenham perhaps can lay claim to a better squad and many, many players from teams such as Stoke, Sunderland, Blackburn, Bolton, Hull and so on are far inferior individually and collectively. As supporters, and the club too I think, we expected a good season, a tilt at Europe a realistic proposition.

An on form quartet of Downing,Tuncay, Alves and Mido did not suggest a lack of goals, indeed there was a feel of spring in the Riverside air last August.

Yes, Luke Loung was a bad sale but £6M was a good price and Steve Gibson clearly had an eye on the wider economic crisis and the logic, like it or not, was there.

The timing of the move and hapless justification by the club however let in a self doubt that has not gone away but festered, possiblily among the players as much as fans. But it shouldn't have undone the season.

For that Gareth has to take some blame but it is the unremitting waste of chances in front of goal that has been our undoing. Had Alves, a goal a game man pre Boro, taken just another half dozen or so then we would at least be sitting just above and not way below the waterline.

How must the players feel to see their work squandered every time at the death? Alves is not alone here, no one else has weighed in but the mental and practical pressure it puts on a team is immense. No wonder we concede so many late, set piece driven goals.

Had we taken a few chances yesterday and away at City, Blackburn, West Brom even, then the late goals would not have mattered so greatly, if at all.

In fact, writing this I am even now starting to convince myself that if Alves does find his shooting boots then he will get the chances to save us...

We are potentially a good side. We all bought into Gareth's pre season dictum of youth, pace and energy and the great shame of relegation is that we will lose that opportunity and fall several rungs down the ladder.

There is a similarity with the 1997 relegation in that key players will be lost but only Tuncay shines out as a someone who wil be difficult to replace, a Paul Merson equivalent is needed here.

Summer sales should bring in £40M+: £12-14M Downing, £6-8M Tuncay, £8M (abroad only) Alves, £3M Mido, £4M O'Neill, £3M Huth and assorted others. The prospective loss is sickening but Downing and Tuncay aside, and in spells only, these senior players have not done it.

Assuming the clubs banks £20M, that leaves £20M plus the parachute payments to spend. With a nucleus of Jones, Hoyte, McMahon, Wheater, Riggot, Bates, Pog, Walker, Digard (?), Johnson, Ali, we remain a couple of strikers and a creative type short (as ever).

To return we have to so it next season otherwise the isolation of Leeds, Nottingham Forest and others looms. A good start to the Championship and in six months time the mood and crowd will be bouyant again.

Maybe we really do need to re-evaluate and a year outside the premier league could be the only way to do it.

The premier league years have been hard full stop for the Boro and not just of late. We have rarely had a winning streak and even the 2005 seventh place did not equate to Jack Charlton's side seventh of 1975 when even in March that year the championship remained possible.

Gareth though had a good template and was manager of the month last August only. With some irony he is probably the best placed manager to bring us back up straight away. I suspect too that he will be given that chance.

Then again, Alves starts to find the net in the last eight games...

AV - has the Gazette ever considered publishing pen pics of your regular contributors alongside their daily musings? It would be fascinating to see what some of them look like. You never know, they could even bond and form another vocal Boro faction. Worth a thought.

**AV writes: We don't want to scare our younger readers....

The fact that we adjusted our tactics, team formation and selection to deal with a team in the relegation zone just up from the Championship says it all really.

The level of confidence that that must have put through the squad must have been rock bottom. No Tuncay in Midfield etc. Playing with Wing backs, if that is not clear and absolute confirmation that Gareth has sadly even topped Robbo in the "lost" stakes then nothing will.

There is no point in even berating GS now, its too late and the whole task is beyond not only him but the entire club it would appear.

I am now beginning to wonder if like the Titanic, there was knowledge a long time ago that there was not enough lifeboats on board! Long before we set sail in fact and in some bizarre twisted mindset we are now in fact getting the club we deserve?

We need to start winning. If we score nil, we can only lose or draw.

Same story again. Our best striker on loan. King is very, very average. The performance didn't seem that bad, but I've seen very little of it.

It doesn't really matter how many points we are from safety, we need approx. 40 points to stay up. I doubt we will get them, but our only hope is to do what Fulham did last season.

I can't see it myself.

The only two question that remain are:

Will Boro finish 20th or 19th?

AND

Can they take the Muggles with them by winning at Sid James Theatre of Laughs?

My observation on Southgate is that having been a good defender himself he is daft enough to play two carthorses at the back that virtually any decent forward can turn inside out. This indicates that he really is not bright enough to be a top flight manager.

The summer and next season will be very difficult for Boro but not as bad as it will be for the Muggles who are in a Leeds style plummet towards oblivion. Don’t be surprised to see them in receivership. Boro have had a good run but now they are returning to traditional comfort of being an average second tier team that from time to time produces players to sell on. Southgate will be able to handle that.

How to defend against the long ball.

You firstly position a player on either post prior to the throw, because the outcome is already written. Then you make certain you know which players attack the throw, because it is a regular occurrence. That assures that you have closed every exit door open & it's very watertight, barring luck. Whoever coaches hasn’t got a clue about defending and that fact has no holes in it.

How much more heartache must we take before we are finally hung?

Last season Fulham were in a far worse state than us and somehow found the strength to pull off what was a minor miracle with less games to play. That is what we are all clinging on to with hope.

There is an inevitability towards our slide to the Championship. Another defeat, we battled hard not to win, but to make sure we did not lose. One mistake again within the last ten minutes and you know for certain we will not equalise.

We are reaching the stage where you begin to repeat yourself in analysis and comment because the same mistakes and same outcome occurs.

The statistics against Southgate are damning and in any other club would be fatal and even trying to be generous regarding his philosophy and principles relating to football management; something is missing from his make -up, that prevents one feeling confident that he can arrest the decline he has presided over.

Sadly, I feel it is terminal, that he and Gibson together have cut the club to the bone, with an overestimation on youth combined with a lack of solid senior coaching experience to guide us through difficult periods.

The Premier League has proved to be unforgiving for us but heading towards the Championship will be unbearable.

Richard (Evans) I have to agree that we have superior individual players than most of the bottom half teams, but I cannot agree that they are collectively better.

“Collectively” in the context of the way a team is set up, the way they attack and defend in numbers as a unit, how the midfield gels with the forwards, how they adapt to changing situations on the pitch…I could go on. Although the players can have some influence on these facets they are generally playing under strict instructions issued by the manager.

The team collectively is mainly down to the tactical knowhow, innovation and leadership of the management and the coaching staff. Unfortunately that is the area where we have been failing in recent months. Potentially we most definitely could be better collectively than most other teams but we are a splintered unit under the current management approach.

The players must have been as frustrated as the fans after the Stoke game. Had they been given a free rein to attack the opposition then I believe we would have won that game handsomely. Instead we witnessed another bizarre team selection and set up that cost us dear.

The constantly frustrating thing is we will never have a better chance to get out of a relegation battle as there are/were so many permutations yet, like Alves, we keep blowing the opportunities.

As for the plastic mackem, why are monkey hangers to a man seemingly so bitter about Boro (unlike most proper Mackems)? Bad result again for your team yesterday btw.

Well I said a couple of weeks ago that all the futre holds for us is the parachute payments and the kids. It will be Goodbye to Tuncs, Stewy, Ali, Alves and others too. I thought the passion and effectiveness had returned with the WH and Scouse game but I was, sadly, proved wrong.

Its total despair time now. Standby for trips to places we haven't visited for years. I am depressed! Why has this happened? Why was it allowed to happen?

Bugger..........just doesn't sum it up!

Draws are no good now.

A point return of 1 per match is no longer good enough. For Premier League survival, Boro need to win football matches. And to win football matches Boro need, somehow, to score goals, because even clean sheets on their own are no longer good enough.

And Boro have been unable to find the net on any more than a paltry 21 times in 30 league matches this season. The options have closed down. There is only one strategy that can save Boro's season. All out attack!

Yet, therein, lies the intrinsic problem. The fast attacking flowing football that Gareth Southgate promised would be a hallmark of Boro football this season, has been the football that has yielded the meagre haul of 21 league goals and has failed to score at all in 14 of the 30 matches played. By comparison, Boro's opposition have only failed to score on 6 occasions.

With the best will in the world and making whatever possible allowances for other factors, from the accumulated evidence, statistical and otherwise, Boro are simply not good enough.

They have failed to keep up with the standards required for Premier League membership and are not only prime relegation material, but must be close to being odds on to finish a thoroughly miserable season in bottom position.

A less measurable, but no less tangible comparator for gauging the likelihood of survival, is the relative "connection" between teams and their respective support. Against Portsmouth in last week's drawn match at the Riverside, Boro support were uninspired by the team and the team, in turn, received derisory responses from the crowd.

This week, in contrast, the Britannia Stadium was a cauldron of noisy, enthusiastic, passionate fans determined that they and their team were good enough to remain in the Premier League. It didn't matter that their football wasn't pretty, or technically precise. It mattered that they won and that they were effective. Winning ugly is better that drawing or losing. Particularly in the present relegation threatened circumstances.

The plain fact of the matter is that for many months, it has been apparent that Boro have not been good enough. The squad is neither deep enough nor populated well enough with the range of quality of players that it takes to compete successfully in the Premier League.

Shortages in on-field leadership, experience, predatory and clinical goal-scoring capability, failure to see and effectively address tactical frailties game after game have frustrated the supporters and conditioned them into resigned expectation.

Why has it happened?

Simply stated, the main reason is lack of money.

But that story started a lot further back than the January 2009 transfer window.

See if you agree:

http://borobanter.gazettelive.co.uk/2009/03/running-out-of-time-and-money.html

Gareth, I feel, has been mugged; mugged by those who saw him coming. Those with the most to hide and the least to say. Big Sam or Little Martin would have found them out but, of course, they never got the chance, sadly.

Southgare keeps saying we were not good enough in the final third of the field!!Huh?

How can you be when there is no one in the final third? Five across the back and our most impressive and inventive player sitting in the stand is just asking for defeat. Not long ago we were boasting of how many good kids we have knocking on the door of the first team. What happened to them? Davies, Morrison, Catts,all gone... Johnston in the stand and the rest out on loan with the Dutch player of the future Emnes also in the stand. No wonder we are where we are.

And subs.. .Alves ?? For King? He was doing ok in my book o k a couple of bad first touches maybe but still a better option than Alvezs. But if King was to be taken off surely Jinky would have been a better choice. No I'm afraid my faith in Southgate has all but evaporated. And it seems to me he has no Idea how to save us from the drop

In denial is Soutgate, indeed is he:

http://www.gazettelive.co.uk/boro-fc/boro-fc-news/2009/03/21/southgate-i-ve-got-full-backing-of-gibson-84229-23200213/

The only significant different factor in the last few years has been Southgate, the other aspects of the club were the same under McClaren.

Money is a false issue, Sven Goren Eriksson did better than Pearce or Hughes, with far less money than Hughes. The teams around us against which we struggle, have had less money over the past 2-3 years. Money may have prevented us from finishing in the top half, but did not make the difference that kept us lower than 12th.

Watson chose Bruce over Southgate. He scored in the past two matches. Had he done so for Boro, we would be tied with Stoke for 18th and behind Portsmouth only by goal difference.

On another site, a supporter posted:

" Steve Gibson is facing an extreme commercial challenge in the current credit meltdown but this in no way explains Wheater at RB, set piece defending, last 10 minute goals conceded, one up front, Arca selected when desperately out of form, our "goal machine" not being serviced, Mido dropped when scoring, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on. "

I have always been dubious about appointing Southgate as a manager, but I have been willing to given Gibson the benefit of the doubt until it had been shown to be a failure, which it clearly was on Saturday.

The problem is that not only has Southgate been a failure as a manager, he would be worse in the Championship. We have done the worst against Premiership teams that play in the Championship style.

If Gibson keeps Southgate next year, there is no reason to expect anything better than League One in 2010-2011. At a minimum, Gibson could get Ian Dowie tomorrow, and he has a record of some success in the Championship, and certainly experience there.

Staying with Southgate now can only make matters worse, as fans would then desert the sinking ship.

Hey what do you think, get rid of Southgate NOW, or if he walks NOW, with the international break, there is time to get someone else in. I know there might not be anyone out there, but maybe, just maybe the CHANGE, no matter who it may be, might just make a difference. Or am I just hanging onto the feintest of threads?

Reading reports from the game on Saturday one paper suggests that a group of 20 or so supporters were shouting 'Southgate out'. Im sorry it was more like 500.

The only reason it wasnt heard was because the home fans where still celebrating and the small minority at the front near the tunnel where filtering the animosity from further above the stand. southgate applauded the fans and was roundly booed yet that wasnt reported.

A broken man was one headline in a sunday paper and i cant think of anything more reasonable. He is down. He knows he is taking us down and he knows he can't do anything about it.

It is probably to late to get anyone in now but we have two weeks before our next game so why not try a new face to jig it up and shake up the squad. We have eight games left, eight games where i cannot see for the life of me the current regime getting a win, getting some life into the side or setting us up for a great escape.

We didnt create much on saturday, we were toothless in attack and taking King off for Alves and McMahon for Hoyte was just bewildering. We had the opportunity to take the game to them in the last 20 minutes yet we failed to do it holding out for a draw. It just isnt good enough, it hasnt been good enough and barring the miracle of all miracles we are down.

It is a fairly bleak prospect at the moment, the daffs may be out but there seems scant chance of the buds and green shoots appearing around all things Boro.

We are not down yet but the our odds have gone from evens to 4/9 with Sky Bet. The bookies are normally right but others have escaped from this position.

Richard lays a fair amount of the blame at the Premiership, others have pointed out that similar size clubs seem to be managing.

If we look back through our experiences of supporting Boro, the team that Jack built went up as ManU went down. The same ManU that had thrilled us not many years earlier with league and European titles.

Our second successive promotion under Rioch saw us go up with Villa. Who did we beat in the play offs to relegate them? Chelsea.

Everton were playing sublime football when Heysell deprived them of the chance to play at the highest level. It took them many years to get back amongst the top six, same with Villa.

Toon, with their (now) massive following look likely to go down. They were in a mess when Keegan first joined them. Got promotion and challenged for the top prizes. Nearly got relegated but Bobby Robson took them into the top european competition.

Leeds came from the second division not long after Shankly's Liverpool and were on of the two powerhouse of the top flight. Revie's team started slipping and we had the short stay of Cloughie, short because he told it as it was. Leeds gradually drifted down to lower divisions only to rise to win the title, to slip again, rise again and then implode.

Blackburn came from nowhere to win the title then drifted only to come back agin, drift again. Forest, Derby, Soton, Charlton, Coventry, Leicester have all got into the top half or had success only to fall back.

What I have tried to illustrate is the cyclical nature of football. The premiership has had an impact and changed the dynamics but all the blame for our current predicament cannot be laid at its door.

Other clubs can get points from matches against teams around them. Rather than look for reasons outside our sphere of influence let us put our own house in order first. A well run, coached and managed medium sized club should survive in the top flight but dont underestimate the effect of gravity and the cyclical nature of football.

No one issue is the cause of our current predicament be it the premiership, our current failings, the impovement and ability of others or the possibility the fickle finger of fate is telling us it is our turn.

When this season is over and the anger and passion have subsided we will look back and realise that we were relegated because before the start of the season we lost an experienced goalkeeper, an experienced midfield ball winner (plus two other midfield 'squad' players) and replaced them with two unproven inexperienced keepers and an inexperienced midfield player recovering from a major injury.

Added to that the fact that we put all our goalscoring 'eggs' in one £12m unproven in the prem 'basket' and there you have the reason for our demise.

The last time we were relegated I saw our season in the Championship as a blip and one season of 'inconvenience'. Not this time, I'm 're-programming' myself for life in the championship on an open ended basis.

This may all seem premature to some but for me there is no way out this time simply because the squad does not have a goalscorer in it and no goals = nul points.
Gareth Southgate will have my support until the bitter end, May is the time to discuss what happens going forward.

I want to go on record and state that I still back Southgate. I think the majority of his decisions have been right and i think all season we have been just tiny percentages away from being an excellent team. Unfortunately we have not been good enough.

The best team always wins and we haven't won enough. But there is no other manager in Britain i would want to step in to replace him. I hope he finds those tiny percentages in the remaining games. I hope we secure safety and he stays with the club. If we do get relegated I still hope he stays because I certainly don't want to be watching championship football played in the style of Stoke City.

We can scream and shout all we want about finances etc but the facts are there was £2m to spend on Watson and possibly another £4m to spend on Harper! That's despite the financial down turn. Despite the credit crunch the money was there to be spent. We chose not to and one player chose not to come.

The overall affect of that decision culminated in the position we are now: thread bare squad, no experience, no goals, shaky defence and a player exodus waitng to happen.

Yes the financial constraints of the club are a worry but its been discussed at length on this blog over the season. The facts will prove at the end of the season the Middlesbrough Football club were relegated for not being good enough and finishing in the bottom three. what has that got do with finances?

Bolton survived for five years under Allardyce with nothing to spend, Everton are in the top six and have stated on numerous occasions they need an investor, Stoke spent very little, Hull got in free transfers and managed the team they got promoted with, Wigan sold two of their best players yet are in 7th? Is that down to finances?

Football is about what happens on the pitch and Boro have not been good enough nor consistent enough. That is the fault of the manager, it is the fault of the coaching staff and it is the fault of the club as a whole.

The season is nine months long, numerous suggestions have been bandied about on here how to change things and I bet 99% of us dont have coaching badges or have never played the game at a decent level. But we see the same game as the manager, coaches and chairman. Do we analyise it differently?

Damn right we do because football is a simple game. You score more then the other team and collect three points. Whats difficult about that? Forget tactics, forget square pegs forget zonal marking whatever - go out play football give your best for 90 minutes and try to win the game......

Boro have not done this consitantly and that is why we are where we are.

Paul:

I'm choking with laughter at someone giving a lecture about people not understanding football in one paragraph, while describing Tuncay as a holding midfielder and Gary O'Neil as a defensive midfielder in another.

As for Gareth, it sounds like the reception he recieved was pretty disgraceful, a minority of our fans letting themselves down again. The man is a Boro legend, criticise his management by all means, but he does not deserve 1% of the personal abuse he is getting at the moment.

Full credit to him for sticking with the job, rather than walking away, which he must be sorely tempted to.

Southgate deserves all the criticism he gets, he is not good enough. We should have turned on him months ago even after the Cardiff debacle.

Get him out and a new manager in for the last eight games, we have nothing to lose. If it stays as it is, we are down anyway.

Saw the whole game on Aussie TV. Dont really think we went to win. Very impressed by the level of support Stoke received from their fans. Something Boro has never been able to bank on. I go back to the fifties and still cant nail it. The passion of N`castle and S`derland isnt there...

I dont want to see Boro playing with one up front and Southgate thinking a 0-0 draw is an okay result. My son is ashamed to wear the shirt and I cant blame him!

With it getting to crunch time Southgate will have to go for wins while it is still mathematically possible to stay up and we may yet see two up front with Tuncay behind them and a more attacking formation that we want to see and was promised .

In any league the lowest scoring club still playing with one up front while heading down deserve what they get. Go for it Gareth you know you want to. Your reputation is mud now anyway. Put some strikers on man!

Quite a few posts saying all our best players will be off. Hmmmm. Our best players haven't achieved a great deal or covered themselves in glory this season have they?

As far as i am concerned the whole club needs a clearout from top to bottom. We have been found wanting at boardroom , management and player level. We are a club on the slide and f we go down it will be quite a while before we are back.

There are bigger clubs than us waiting for premiership status and I fear we have gambled and lost with the appointment of our third rookie manager, mathematically we still have a chance but four wins out of eight games is a tall order - and even that may not be enough. It's been good while it lasted though.

The international break will be a two edged sword.

It will be a chance for everyone to clear their heads and focus on what we do next.

But I am sure Gerrard was whispering in Barry's shell like about moving to Liverpool. Our players on sundry international duties may be the subject of well meaning conversations about their welfare. It will not help concentration for the tasks ahead.

Ian

The other issue about the International break - aside from the possibility of even more injuries - relates to what Gate has been saying about using the time to work with the squad for the Bolton game.

But the lads in the U21 set up will disappear today and may be back early next week. The full internationals, Tuncay, Pogi and Stewie will be away from midweek to midweek - back on the Thursday before the Notlob game and with only Friday to get one session in with the full squad before they travel to the North West.

So, clear heads and focus on what's to come - maybe. But, in the light of the above - and the opposition - the betting has to be on 'same again' at Notlob.

The team on Saturday was an indication of Southgate's management skills. It wasn't a brave change of tactics to play three centre backs but a failure to address the problem of Pogatez, who is a good centre back but useless
captain or right back.

Two centre backs should have been enough to deal with the Stoke aerial threat and we should have started with Wheater and Pogatez/Huth. Taylor is not a premiership class left back but unfortunately he is the best left back we have at the club so play him. Southgate was afraid to leave Pogatez on the bench.

McMahon is a future captain and I just hope it is with the Boro, sign him before a bigger club does.

Most people I speak to thought that King was loaned to play up front with Alves and take some of the physical pressure from Alves. To play only one up front against Stoke in a game we needed to win was unbelievable and
has confirmed that Southgate is not a natural manager.

A manager like Moyes has done wonders on less money than our recent managers and a proven manager like Hodgson shows what can be done with experience.

We will struggle to survive in the championship next season and for those clowns on here and other sites who include King in their lineup next season, don't they read the newspapers? He has more chance of starting next season with the Pentonville XI than the Boro next season.

Just lumped twenty quid on Boro and Newcastle finishing 1st and 2nd in the Championship next season.

A year from now and I reckon that North East football will be buzzing again!

I was there and I chanted 'Southgate out' after the goal. There were loads joining in then - a majority of those there - but you couldn't hear it on the telly because Stoke were celebrating the goal.

There was about 200 of us shouting when the players came off and it definitely got through. I think they usually ignore a bit of stick or whistling at home because it is mixed in with the foam handed clapping and they can leg it down the tunnel and then when they leave the car park is full of ra-ra autograph hunters telling them how great they are but at Stoke they looked really rattled by it.

I applaud the Boro fans who finally stood up after months of accepting rubbish and pointed out the real problem here, not the players but the manager who can't organise, motivate or scare these millionaires into beating some of the worst teams in a poor league.

The only regret is that we didn't do it much earlier, after West Brom for an eg, when there was still time to do something.

(PS why has no one mentioned the blatant penalty against Tuncay not given in the last few minutes? That would have at least let Southgate paper over the canyons for another few weeks)

Go on my Smoggie marras, you rip yourselves to pieces. We could do with you already dead and buried and in disarray when you come to the home of North-east football.

We have been a bit shambles this year but we are not in your league (soon that will be literally). And how funny will it be when you European fallen giants surrender and hand over the three points that saves us. lol

John

A couple of issues arising from your erudite (or was it araldite) response to my comments about the international break.

1. Potential injuries on national duty or two weeks at Rockcliffe?

2. Being away with international coaches or with Gate, Crosby, Coops and Agnew?

3. Being with international players or the academy and stiffs?

4. Being stuck with the misery of a relegation battle or clearing the mind amongst successful players?

Just made all that up but I rest my case m' lud!

Steve of IB loving the fact that his abuse had 'really rattled' the players of the club he reckons he supports?

Sums it up.

Where is Steve Gibson? Why is he saying nothing? He needs to say something.

If he's gonna keep Southgate then he needs to come out and give the kind of speech that Churchill made to inspire the Empire, or the speech that Queen Elizabeth made when the Armada was about to invade. LET US KNOW WHATS GOING ON, YOU OWE IT TO US TO LET US KNOW.

**AV writes: It's funny you should say that. Steve Gibson speaks exclusively to the Evening Gazette tomorrow.

Desperately unhappy to lose to a dreadful Stoke side after we played them off the park. The lads didn't deserve the abuse they got from a handful of fans (nowhere near the 100 or 200 we've heard mentioned) near the tunnel - yes we lost, but every single player gave absoluetely 100%. Gutted.

It's looking unlikely, but we can still do it. A win at Bolton would put us back on a ladder and get us off the snake we've been on for so long.

Too late to sack Southgate now. Not too late to bring someone in to help him. So come on Sir Steve, bring in an experienced guy to help Gate thru to the end of the season and show us all you still care deeply. I can't believe you will just let it drift. And let's face it, we couldn't do any worse.

Short term contract for Keegan, anyone? At least we'd go down attacking. Might even win a couple of games 4-3!

Marlon King has scored 6 goals, but despite starting nearly every game four of them have been penalties. So that's two goals in open play in 30 games. Also in 15 games for Wigan prior to this he scored one goal. So yes i do think King is one of the worst strikers in the league if not the worst. Yet Southgate signed him to help us stay up. Idiotic.

Also I would like to point out I am firmly behind all the supporters who screamed for southgates head as you can see in my early posts. BoroPhil was quoting my comments when he used my name earlier. By the way Tuncay is a holding midfielder for Turkey!! If you ever watched international football you would know that, it is only Southgate who continually chooses to play him out of position.

Hey why play an international midfielder in midfield when we have a young right back who hasn't played for two years, oh yes and an Argentinian who has also not played for two year, instead?

These decisions combined with ones such as paying £3.5m for a right winger, brilliant we'e finally solved our weakness on the right wing, oh no we'll train him as a striker instead and not play him. Oh well we've sold our three first choice midfielders, not to worry though we'll sign a player who has only played a handful of games due to injury as hopefully with us he'll stay fit. Oh that didn't work either.

Finally in response to the Stoke game it made no sense to have three centre backs. The idea was to make Stoke redundant at set pieces and throw ins. Surely if this is the case then had Pogatetz played at left back he would still have been covering for free kicks and throw ins as his position would have been in the box. Taylor hardly helps when defending set pieces. So all Southgate did was play a player who could have been replaced by a far more attacking player who could actually have helped us create something more than the scraps we did create.

We have to be more attacking, we have to try and win games. Then every fan on this website inluding all those who want Southgate out would stand united behind the team. We all want to see Boro stay up, but what we don't want to see is negative, boring tactics in must win games that inevitably lead us to defeat.

If we went at teams, if we played our strongest line up and still lost fans would hold their hands up and say fair enough we deserved it, but at least let us have a go. We have an England international left winger, a Turkey international midfielder, believe it or not a Brazilian international striker. England and German international centre backs - we are better than the sides around us and that is what frustrates everyone. Now is the time to line up our team to attack the opposition. We have nothing to lose and so much to gain.

Come on Boro, but most importantly come on Southgate. If you're not going to walk then at least show some bottle and go for it. Only then will you get the supporters and players united behind you.

I managed to catch the flu towards the end of last week so my recollection of the Stoke game was through the haze of a fever - at one point I had convinced myself we were being managed by Bob Dylan but eventually realised that MOTD kept showing profile shots of the Gate with his ever-growing locks blowing in the wind.

Back in the world of grim reality it's now looking kinda grim. I guess we should start steeling ourselves to our likely fate - though it's not over till it's over and Boro are still one of the PL's enigma's.

So now we only have the slim hope that Boro somehow realise that we are now in a 'cup' situation and start going for it. In theory, winning the next three games is not beyond the team - my fear is that Boro tend to fall back into bad habits with every good performance behind them.

Let's pray that a few rays of weak March sunshine on the back of our Brazilian goal machine will awake him from his slumber as 17 attempts on goal against Stoke should have been enough to take the points - let alone all the previous games worth of missed chances.

Though if we go down it will not be because of our 'cloth cutting' it will be because of our poor transfer decisions of the last year or so. Alves - 'overpriced and over-rated', Mido - 'bad attitude and never fit', Emnes - 'we needed someone ready to play straight away', King - 'a championship player not suited to our style of play'.

Hello, Boro fan from India. :)

Next year, I guess typical Boro would mean beating the likes of Reading, Watford and Crystal Palace and losing to Doncaster or any League One club that gets promoted.

**AV writes: Yes, in extra-time of the play-off semi-finals.

The odds are stacked against us. Backs against the wall. Toe to toe with Newcastle and Sunderland to stay up. The likes of Man U and Arsenal to play for our survival..... bring it on.

This is Boro. This is the type of club we are. Forget the dream time of Eindhoven. This is the real Boro, not knowing what division we will be in next year with a handful of games to go, dropping ourselves in it then pulling away as it comes to the wire. These are the situations that have shaped our folklore, beating Chelsea in the play-offs, beating Aston Villa and Liverpool as a second division side to get to Wembley, staying up and stopping Newcastle getting promoted on the last day. Teessiders are at their best when they chips are down.

I don’t understand why so many so called fans have thrown the towel in. We all knew the squad was too thin and young, the midfield was weak, we can’t play against the likes of Stoke and Bolton. Why the shock now?

I agree with those who say it is time to get behind the lads. This is what supporting Boro about, digging in when things get a bit hairy, underdogs scrapping against the big boys for our pride. I can’t wait.

Ian (9.51am)

As I've been led to believe you need to spend money to score in a brothel!
Not at all clear how these things work, but the more you spend, the better the service usually? Hmmm!

I'd have thought it could have been quite a service for £12M - but then again, it appears you don't get much for your money these days!

Anyone know if you can ask for money back in a house of ill-repute? And if you do, are you likely to get a refund or perhaps a credit note? (But if the service fails to give satisfaction in the first place, why would you want more of the same?)

Then again, I suppose once you've bought it, you feel compelled to use it, in the hope that next time it'll have the desired effect!

All conjectural, you understand!

Vic just noticed your Gazette poll - stacked 60/40 in favor and unable to vote due to site error.Your not telling us the jist of the Gibson interview before the story are you?

**AV writes: In short, today Gibson reiterates he has no intention of sacking Gareth Southgate and an explanation of exactly why not. There's more excellent from the horse's mouth reading tomorrow and Thursday on how he sees the relegation battle and what rides on staying up plus the truth behind the club finances. Only in your super soaraway Evening Gazette.

Curses! I know exactly how DGL felt and Alves must feel every Saturday. And the keeper was on the floor and way out of position....that's the last time I will try a back-heeler. (Must have been the lack of vocal support from those sitting behind me in the office, otherwise I would have done it).

Richard

One rumour I heard was Gate had taken the squad away on a bonding session, booked them into a house of ill repute but they all came out virgins.

I think Gibbo asked for a receipt but as it was a take away couldnt reclaim the VAT.

In the end it didnt matter because the owner refunded all the fees as watching them blow all their chances, failing to get the balls under control at vital times and missing the target was the best laugh they had for years.

Alledgedly.

I've just heard the statement put out by Steve Gibson in support of GS.

I know a lot of people won't agree, but I'm proud to hear this statement. Southgate has been given a virtually impossible job this season. I don't think he has always got it right, but maybe a season or two in the Championship is what we need to properly build a team.

That said, I still haven't given up hope for this season.

An additional point. I've picked up tickets for Saturdays game Peterboro v Leicester. My ticket £20.00. My 9 year old free. My 13 year old £5.00. I can get a refund on this ticket if he can't get away from his activity in time for the game. WHAT A DIFFERENCE FROM THE TICKET OFFICE AT MFC.

**AV writes: To be fair, you can get a ST deal at Boro that will let you watch Premier League football for £20 a game with both your kids at £5 each. You might not get a refund if the nipper is busy that day but you could always take another potential wide eyed young zealot in his place.

If only this man was available to play for us again, we'd probably be top of the (fair play) league..

http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/opposite-of-work/

**AV writes: That blog is a consistently good read.

AV

Appreciate what you say about the paper copy of the Gazette v. the GazetteLive site.
But what about those of us who can't get the paper copy - or at least not until days later - and rely on the website? I would have thought that this sort of stuff was pretty exceptional and deserving of the widest coverage.

Are you going to run a thread when the whole content is in the public domain?

**AV writes: I will kick the server monkey and try to get this on our site. Certainly the stuff to follow in the next two days is more detailed and deserves the widest possible readership, and preferably on our own site. Feel those clicks.

John Powls

If you drive up to Middlesbrough this afternoon can you drop off a copy of the Gazette to me in Derby on the way back to Reading tonight so I can read an un cut, unpasted, unsullied version of the words of Saint Gibson.

If we cant trust the ancient Greeks, Romans and sundry translators for the bible I hate to think what modern media will do.

Of course, I could always trust the fine people at MFC.

Most of the people on here slate GS and some are stating categorically that the man is not a legend at Boro. They are probably the same people who say that Mogga is a legend.

I once read an article where Mogga said that he would be mad to risk his legend status by managing his home town team. He can walk down Linthorpe Road with his head held high.

I wonder if GS feels he should not have accepted the job because without doubt, if the last three years were erased he would have the same status as Mogga, probably more so. And what if Mogga had taken the job with the same financial restraints as GS? I wonder what the mood is like on the i.c. brummie website?

Well that will get troops putting their lives on the line eh? Pretty much a waste of time and an admission that we are going down and he is prepared for it. Still 'One of Us' is he?

Werdermouth said:

- at one point I had convinced myself we were being managed by Bob Dylan but eventually realised that MOTD kept showing profile shots of the Gate with his ever-growing locks blowing in the wind.

LOL! That's the funniest thing and actually cheered me up through all this mess. Actually, his bobness can't put a foot wrong at the moment, bring him in as manager! At least he has a million song quotes to dip into at half time to inspire the players. Can't be any worse than what Southgate is using at the moment! Workingman's Blues indeed! Bob could have had Boro fans in mind. Anyone think of another appropriate Dylan song title....??

**AV writes: Shelter From The Storm?

To say that this will all end in tears is an understatement. Sadly though the writing is on the wall and the Fat Lady hasn't even entered the stage let alone started to sing!

My biggest concern whilst watching MFC disembowel itself is watching Boro fans reach new levels of despair, frustration and anger. At what point will the people supposedly responsible for running the club adopt the very basic business management principle of forecasting?

Now I don't mean forecasting results or tactics (its far too late for that) but indeed forecasting human emotions and behaviour. History has repeatedly told us that the Peasants are revolting. It has also taught us that when the Peasants did revolt it often involved scenes of rebellious acts and mobs shouting abuse at the reigning Sovereigns. I desperately hope that SG wakes up before "the revolution", the signs are there for all to see, sticking his head in the sand is not an option because in the history books Sovereigns ultimately lost them!

I sincerely hope we do not witness Boro fans turning their bile on one another or taking their angst out on symbols of misplaced idolatry (e.g. Goal Machine banners). Any more proclamations of trivia and insulting trite emanating from people at the club who should know the Middlesbrough public better need to be tempered with a huge dose of reality and quickly.

Took me forever to read the comments on this page and it's exhausting, demoralising and depressing to see how many people feel the same way - almost resigned to our plight.

To be totally realistic, I have decided to revise my predictions for these final eight crucial games which will decide our fate and send us plummeting the way of Saints and Charlton (absolutely no doubt about that then).

Where other teams in this situation realise just how serious their predicament is and make an effort to pull out all the stops and start going on unbeaten runs n (even if they are just draws as opposed to wins) - see Blackburn, Portsmouth, Tottenham this season, and of course, West Ham, Fulham, Bolton, and Portsmouth again in previous seasons - Boro simply submit like a punch-drunk boxer that has had the wind knocked out of its sails and continues to flounder.

This Achilles Heel has been our undoing for uncountable seasons now: I mean, when was the last time we went on a winning run of four, five or even six consecutive wins in the league, for example? Never!! Trying to win two on the bounce is a Herculean task in itself in recent campaigns, let alone the even rarer
occasions when we can string together a hat-trick of wins....

So, on that premise, the prospects for the run-in are bleaker than ever, and I won't even bother supplying a disclaimer with this set of predictions now:

[okay, not in exact order of chronology, mind...]

Bolton 3 Boro 0
Boro 1 Hull 1
Boro 0 Fulham 2 (OR Boro 1 Fulham 1)
Arsenal 6 Boro 0
Boro 0 Man U 4
Newcastle 2 Boro 1 (OR Newcastle 1 Boro 1)
Boro 1 Aston Villa 3
West Ham 3 Boro 0

This means the only away game where Boro's lightweight lame ducks have any chance of scoring a single goal is probably at St James Park!

This gives a total of 3 points from 24 at most - from a maximum of three draws.....with ZERO wins, meaning Boro's miserable, feeble, futile, listless, directionless top flight campaign for 2008-2009 has yielded only one win in 26 games (Sunderland 2002-3 / 2005-6 and Derby 2006-7 anybody???) with a total of only six wins to their name and a paltry 30 points. Perhaps, even worse, the Boing Boing Baggies may overtake the Boro and end up relegated in 19th place whilst we slump to rock bottom.....

Alternatively, I can also see Boro bucking the trend and winning at least one of these home games but then losing every single away game into the bargain. And drawing maybe only one or two more at home - five points from 24 and 32 points in total from 38 games will probably still see us finish in 19th place and down.

Whatever the outcome, it's going to be a long grim journey down into the dark wastelands of the second tier. We'd better prepare ourselves now, because if Southgate is to stay then even God might not be around to help us anymore (whatever shape or form He might take).....

Steve Gibson quote from yesterdays interview:

"once the game kicks off at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon any manager is limited in what he can do to influence the result. And the result is everything.”

What total bull! A manager can influence a game before and during a game by his team selection, tactics and substitutions. I am seriously worried Gibbo has lost the plot and wants to drag us into The Championship.

My BIG worry is that Gibson keeps Southgate in charge should we get relegated. We need to bring in an experienced manager, who i don't know, maybe Alan Curbishley?

Bloodly hell, Boro heading into The Championship!!! a mixture of Southgate, Gibson and Lamb have done this. The unthinkable is about to happen and those 3 should be ashamed on themselves and resign.

Sadly Gibbo's address to the Boro Nation again was made up of words that didn't really say anything, or at least anything that Boro fans didn't already know.

But what did we want him to say, that Gareth, and his back room staff are a complete set of plonkers who are tactically inept and have no idea on how to motivate the players?

Let's be realistic, even if privately Gibbo thinks that, even if he does sack the lot of them at the end of the season, drop or no drop, he isn't going to publicly slate them if there is the slimmest chance that they can actually turn things around is he?

What I think Gibbo should have been saying was how much the club need the fans, and how he will be trying every trick in the book to fill the stadium for every home game left, reduced ticket prices, dad & lad combo's, whatever, just do it. And never mind if the season card holders get all riled because they've paid full whack.

This is our club we are talking about and it is heading into oblivion so the gloves have got to come off, and that Gareth means on the park as well as off it.

Sorry Stubbsy but despite revising your predictions I still think you're being far too optimistic.

For a start I'm sure Bolton will be already 3-0 up at half-time and I'm sure there's room for a 10-0 drubbing somewhere in that list, preferably at home so that thousands of boro fans can then head back to your place so that they can join you on your window ledge - maybe you could even charge them so that it will at least pay for your season ticket in the championship next season.

First of all I totally agree with Steve Gibson that sacking Southgate now would be pointless. If it had been me he would have gone at Christmas but at this stage a resounding no.

How many gutless spineless cowards post on here that have chucked the towel in? We are at the end game of a dogfight. It's not about pretty football but dogged determination to win four games out of eight and save ourselves.

Some on here would no doubt simply advise the Premier League that we are not going to bother fulfilling the fixtures and simply record them all as 3-0 defeats to spare us the embarrassment.

The reason he should stay for the last eight games is that there is no man on this earth that wants those four wins more, nobody who cares more and nobody who knows the players better at this stage. Somebody like Keegan would have spat his dummy out and cried off long before now.

In Boro Banter, one commentator, Stu, says:

"Boro's Gibson pledges faith in under-fire boss - DIFFICULT TO ADMIT YOU WERE WRONG..isnt it Gibson? As for the hard work Gareth puts in, nobody disputes his application the bottom line he is not a Good Manager. He is a novice who should of managed lower league teams to bank all HIS LESSONS LEARNT, well weve learnt the hardest lesson...."

And John Powls summarised the situation well in his post here at at 9:05am by saying,

....."That speaks to a confusion between cheapness and good value which is at the root of much of what ails Boro now in the squad."..., when commenting on what amounts to squad quality and depth.

Both these observations point to a common theme.

Regretably, the playing side of football is not an exact science and there's plenty of scope for getting judgement calls wrong, as well as getting risks to pay off.

Boro's moves over the past three years, probably necessitated by greater financial prudence, while perhaps helping to bolster the accounts, have eaten just a bit too hard into the playing capability. The balance hasn't been quite right and hasn't left enough in the tank for an acceleration out of trouble.

Scotty's view: "The engine's'll no tak' it Captain!"

Let's hope James T Kirk's leadership, "unflapability" and guts to go for it will coax the power units of Starship Boro to Warp 17 and maybe yet we'll conjure an escape from the gravitational pull of the "Championship" black hole.

Oh, for a Hollywood ending!

But even Steve Gibson's reaching for Harry Potter's wand and is possibly rueing having made just too many compromises. It was always going to be a delicate balancing act, especially with the presence of "wild-card" clubs like Stoke and Hull making predictability all the harder.

Sticking with Southgate is the honourable thing to do. It was in the full knowledge of a change of strategic emphasis that Gareth Southgate was appointed. It was in the full knowledge of Gareth Southgate's novice status as a manager. It has been a fully complicit partnership, and a team game-plan to take Boro in a direction less dependant on high-cost "experience". It would be unfair and unethical for Steve Gibson to do anything other than back Gareth Southgate at this time.

Unlike some executive knee-jerkers, Gibson will not hide behind or shaft a loyal acolyte who's done his genuinely level best with the resources he's been given. When you sponsor someone as a leader or manager, it's more the "character" than the skill-set you back. Skills can be acquired through learning and experience. "Character" has a genetic source.

Personally, although disappointed in the club's position, I'm genuinely heartened by the attitude and behaviour of the club executive at this time. Including, and perhpas especially, Gareth Southgate. Sure, maybe his skillset isn't yet fully honed, but the man's got integrity, sincerity and balls!

Those honourable human values are rarely demonstrated in the usually cut-throat and greedy, self-serving world of football. And that alone, in my book, is deserving of continuing support.

I actually believe that next season could be more enjoyable than this one! Let's face it, judging by the comments on here alone, that wouldn't be too difficult.

If we do go down, provided Steve Gibson finds a way to manage the consequential gaps left in the finances, I hope that the maturing youth coming forward will see us able to compete for an early return to the top flight.

If not, we'll have found our new level - dictated by degree of financial clout.

I cant understand why most of you lot are so upset at Boro's plight, after all most of you lot dont even bother to turn up to watch your team do you?

O.K. Chris D, maybe i did go in a bit strong but look at it from another point of view. How after one win in 18 do we still have a realistic chance? It's because there are some equally bad teams at the bottom.

I'll give you a couple of examples.The mighty Geordies have won one in 14 and equal our seasons total of 6 wins to date. The equally mighty Hull have won 2 in 20.
Now why do you assume these teams for example are going to win games?

Yes we start at a disadvantage but would anybody in there right mind have put money on Boro to beat West Ham and Liverpool 2-0 in four days? There's a lot that can happen yet mark my words.

at the end of the day Steve Gibson cannot come out and say Southgate is sacked at the end of the season and Boro will be relegated. He would not and can not come out and say what we want to hear.

The time to act was in January when there was enough time and the transfer window was open and bringing in an experienced manager to wheel and deal could have got us out of trouble. I'm not saying that was a guarantee but surely we would have had a better chance than what Southgate is serving up.

One win in 18 games no goals scored and looking vulnerable at the back is a recipe for disaster. Gibson may as well have stayed quiet and said nothing because what he has said is meaningless in my eyes.

Is he telling us anything new? No. Is he trotting out the party line? Yes. Is he in denial? Maybe.

I cannot see how we are going to get out of this mess. If we were getting beat 4-3 then yes you could say shore it up and we will score but that the point we cannot score. Alves in the reserves last night had some great chances and didn't score again. what more can we do?

There are no more options we must go for broke in the next three games, get at teams from the beginning, open the game up and go down in a blaze of glory. Forget the last 30 games - our season is about eight games. Eight games to save our club and its existence...!

Steve Gibson's halo slipped for me when he promised us all a big name signing as the new manager then to everyones surprise appointed Southgate.

I would also add to the list of prospective new managers Gary Johnson of Bristol City who has done well with them and prior to that Yeovil Town - so he knows the lower divisions!I believe that he also was team manager of Latvia at one time.

My local club, Pompey, appointed their director of Youth football as boss in place of Tony Adams who swiftly brought in experienced coach, Brian Kidd. Surely it is not too late for Gibson to bring someone in especially to show the "strikers" how to do it. Just think what a help Mr.Slaven would be then we all know that would never happen as Bernie does not toe the party line.

I travel up from Hampshire for most games to enter the Riverside "Punishment Block" but each journey I am thinking 'what is the point?' After this season I shall be picking and choosing my games.

Ian,

It was mentioned on here as far back as october about the striking coach or the lack of one. JFH was available, wanted to (and still does) get into coaching /management and would have come here without doubt to help us out I'm sure. We didnt act on it, failed to spot the opportunity and let slip the chance to change the course.

Does the use of 'b----r' in various writings (a legal noun, verb and adjective) mean that I can say 'bull shit' as it is the phrase which always springs to mind when I think and occasionally write something about the Boro of the last 11 or 12 years?

**AV writes: As it is an academic question you can use it just this once. In general I think I would sub it down to 'bull', not because I am a prude or against the odd earthy colloquialism but because I want to set a tone on here of considered and structured debate and avoid more colourful language creeping in - and to be honest that is the case. I very rarely have to take out bad language.

I realise I am open to charges of hypocrisy but I reserve the right as author/ editor to use the odd emotive phrase for dramatic or creative effect.

I'm not sure Steve Gibson could have said much more than he did in his interview could he? This is not the time for highlighting past mistakes or discussing what happens in the Summer.

There are plenty of posters blaming Gareth Southgate for Boro's situation but as Richard pointed out its not that simple. football is unpredictable which is what makes it exciting and frustrating.

The reason for Boro's demise is quite simple, we bought a prolific striker from the Dutch league in the hope he could transfer that form and ability to the prem. sadly he hasn't been able to.

Perhaps the level of expectation was too high or the fact that he is the clubs only goalscorer of note was too much pressure, what ever the reason for his failure to score, the result is we are at the moment more than likely to go down. If Alves had scored 10 or 12 goals this season then we would almost certainly have stayed up.

Of course we still have some hope, although its diminishing fast.

As for Gareth Southgate, I like him a lot it seems to me he has all the attributes to be a good manager and leader, his down fall has been lack of experience and consequently too many mistakes have been made.

Premiership football is the only business sector I can think of that appoints completely inexperienced people into senior management jobs, its a completely potty idea, it makes no sense at all.

That said Southgate now has three years of experience so I would be happy for him to continue next season, alternatively there are plenty of experienced managers around who would love to manage the Boro, who even in the Championship would be an attractive prospect.

Nigel

I'm glad you pointed out that Gate is now an experienced manager - 106 Prem games under his belt to be precise plus quite a lot more in the Cups. He is in fact one of the longest serving managers in the Prem(4th, I think, after Old Beetroot Nose, Whinger, the Spanish waiter and the excellent David Moyes.)

He was a rookie when he started, but for two seasons kept us in the top flight. And at the start of this season Boro started off fantastically, let's not forget. Something like 21 points from 12 games. So he has in the past definitely shown the qualities necessary to keep us up and take us forward.

But it's all gone pear-shaped, of course. Gareth's had to trim the sails to get the team Teesside can afford. But there's also been a combination of poor tactics, poor transfer dealings especially as regards strikers (not all of them down to purse-tightening - Alves, Lee Dong-Gook, King, and even the attempt to turn Aliadiere into a main striker), poor defensive coaching, an inability at times to play the right players in the right positions, and most crucially of all for me, the inability to kick players up the bum where necessary and get them motivated for every minute of every match. How about playing for the last 10 minutes as well today, lads? This last one's been a worrying trend throughout his reign - remember Watford away, Cardiff, West Brom and Fulham this season?

I am most fearful because we don't score goals and I'm not sure some of the players will be up for it in a scrap. I'm not sure Gate will be able to get them up for it, however hard he's working and however hard he's hurting. We're hurting too. Are the players?

And all of this is why I think Gibbo should have taken a more decisive stand. Whatever Gate's many admirable qualities, it has been clear for some time that he doesn't know how to turn it round. Wins against West Ham and Liverpool should have been the launch-pad for a daring escape act, but instead Boro went back into their shells.

One win in 18 cries out for something radical. That's why I would have gone for an assistant, a new Venables, someone who could give the dressing room the vital lift it so badly needs. Sadly it doesn't seem as if Gibbo is contemplating that option, for whatever reason.

Not down yet, though. I'll be at Bolton shouting for the lads. A spawny win there could be the spark...... but Gate, we must go for it, and you must get them up for it from minute 1 to the very end.

Interesting that the response to the calls for unity from Gibbo - mostly aimed at fans, it has to be said - has been met by another volley of players saying they'll leg it if we go down. The latest are Pogi and Aliadiere, apparently.

In the case of the latter, the story is spun (doubtless by his agent) against the background that several leading European clubs and even Arsenal are interested because the are looking for a 'top striker'.

Are Jezza and his agent aware of just how ridiculous that sounds? Presumably not, living as they must do in some kind of Gallic, irony-free, money bubble.

Surely the definition of 'top striker' in any dictionary in any of the major European languages contains the phrase 'scores goals at a rate greater than the gods take advice'.

Wingbacks? Seriously?

I've been away on my jollies and so wasn't subjected to the usual "refresh" on the internet to see the Stoke goal go in. Good job too, I think the computer would have gone through the window.

But seriously though, Wingbacks?

That one word alone says that GS has lost it. Crikey, you used to be able to rely on him sticking with the same tactics, what happened to the Ali/Tuncay strike partnership and Downing down the left?

The key fact is that there are probably 17 other PL managers I would rather have in charge than Southgate, leaving out Jokin Ear and Ricky Scrabble. How did the North East clubs end up with these 3 jokers in charge?

It's gotten so bad I'd even welcome Megson with open arms. He may be boring as hell, but you can bet he'd figure out what the best team is and just stick to it.

The Bolton game is bigger than a must win game now. It's a REALLY, ABSOLUTELY, WITHOUT A SHADOW OF A DOUBT GET 3 POINTs game.

I'll be hitting refresh whilst hiding behind my fingers.