AS NEWCASTLE UNITED fans demonstrated a few miles up the road, Middlesbrough’s players had just finished demonstrating why they deserve to be in a relegation struggle. Three points clear of the drop zone and without a league win since November, Steve McClaren should feel grateful that Newcastle and Sunderland have attracted the bulk of the attention-cum-derision in the North East. That will not continue indefinitely if Middlesbrough continue to perform so badly.
Despite the Middlesbrough manager’s involvement in the national set-up, McClaren is increasingly a footnote in the debate about who the best home-grown candidates are to replace Sven-Göran Eriksson as England head coach. He claimed not to be panicking over his Middlesbrough team’s slide, but the fans soon will be.
“We’ve not had a settled back four through injuries, but you can make all the excuses you like,” McClaren said. “The crux of the matter is, our defence has been the platform of the team over the last four years and it’s not there at the moment.”.
By half-time on Saturday, Wigan Athletic might easily have been more than halfway to the seven goals Arsenal scored against the Teessiders a week earlier. Jason Roberts and David Thompson, on his debut, gave the visiting team a two-goal advantage, which was cancelled out after the break, only for Neil Mellor, another debutant, to win the game in the final seconds.
If good teams are said to have a strong spine, Middlesbrough were invertebrate, absent down the middle of the pitch. What should have been 50-50 balls were 75-25 in favour of Wigan because the visitors were quicker, hungrier, more committed.
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As Paul Jewell, their manager, pointed out, though, they struggle to defend set-pieces and bad defending allowed Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, the substitute, and Yakubu Aiyegbeni to score from corners. It took Wigan a while to recover from the shock of surrendering their lead but in the third minute of injury time, Middlesbrough failed to clear a corner and Jason Roberts’s back-heel across the six-yard box was gobbled up greedily by Mellor.
On loan from Liverpool after a year of knee problems, this was Mellor’s first match since Liverpool lost to Burnley in the FA Cup 12 months ago. “The last year has been an extremely hard time for me because it was a serious injury,” the 23-year-old said. “I don’t think I realised just how bad it was. ”
At the start, Mellor looked as if he might struggle to last ten minutes, let alone 90, but he obviously possesses stamina. He famously scored a last-minute winner against Arsenal in November 2004 and is eligible to play against them in the Carling Cup semi-final, second leg tomorrow.
“I have loved all my time at Anfield and everybody has treated me very well,” Mellor said. “I have only played two reserve games (this season) so there is no way I was expecting the gaffer (Rafael Benítez) to throw me in at the deep end. He was always good with me, putting his arm around me and encouraging me as much as he could during my time out. Now I just wanted some games and Wigan have given me the opportunity, which I am grateful for.”
Stewart Downing surely has a future with England. Back after missing nearly five months with a knee injury, the Middlesbrough winger was outstanding. “I’m tending not to think about the World Cup at the moment,” he said. “Obviously, I wasn’t picked in the last squad, which was disappointing, but I need to play well for Middlesbrough.”
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To escape the heat the squad headed for the sun, flying to Marbella yesterday for four days. “I know it is a break and the manager thinks we need it, so we have to go,” Downing said. “I think the lads are a bit disappointed because we just want to stay and play games.” Next up in the Barclays Premiership: Sunderland, a fixture that will either alleviate Middlesbrough’s woes — or exacerbate them.