Courage compensates for stage fright

GARETH SOUTHGATE’S lesson in management continued at the Riverside against Sunderland on Saturday — you don’t ease up in the final few minutes against a Roy Keane side.

Not unless you want to be punished.

Roy Keane admitted what every Sunderland supporter was thinking on their way home on Saturday, that Boro were decent and good value for a win. That they didn’t is a great testament to the new breed of player at SAFC. We’re determined and thirsty and won’t lose without a fight, no matter how badly we’ve played.

Unfortunately, that’s about as far as I can go with positives to take from the game. Whether the lads suffered stage-fright in what is hyped as a derby match is difficult to tell, but having played the likes of Manchester United away and enjoyed Liverpool’s travelling support, you wouldn’t have thought so.

If that is the case, then they need to have a reality check, as do most of the press who hype this side up so much. Middlesbrough are always tagged as part of the “Big North East Three,” which always irks both Mackems and Geordies alike, considering they are actually part of Yorkshire. It’s not often you hear Leeds described as a North East club. Red and white hate black and white and vice versa. The Teesside tussle is only really cared about by the Boro fans. And even then, they struggled to attract 30,000 to come and watch.

As for the match, we struggled to string two passes together for most of the game, although in a high tempo affair it doesn’t help when you have a central midfield of Dickson Etuhu and Dwight Yorke. One can’t run and the other can’t pass, which proved to be frustrating to say the least. Yorke’s effort can’t be faulted, but Etuhu’s recklessness has now seen him pick up five bookings in seven games and Dwight’s creaking legs won’t be able to be rested just yet due to our depleted squad. Which is a shame because used sparingly he still has a lot of class on the ball.

Yorke’s lack of mobility meant both wingers having to come infield to pick up the ball, giving us a rather narrow feel. This was mirrored by our two forwards. Without any crosses to feed them, they had to survive on scraps all afternoon, making the most of a bad situation. It’s no surprise really that our two goals came from midfield. Hopefully the return of Carlos Edwards and Dean Whitehead to our engine room will ease the crisis and allow us to come closer to the free-flowing football we’re half expecting and used to under Keane.

We did look a tad shaky at the back, which is bizarre considering the only absentee was the accident-prone fans’ favourite Nyron Nosworthy in central defence. Greg Halford came in to replace him, but unfortunately the former Reading and Colchester man is seriously struggling to make an impact on Wearside. Fortunately he looks like the only questionable summer signing, as Chopra and Jones are slowly but surely building an understanding up front and the additions to the back line of Gordon, Higginbotham and McShane all look sound.

On the plus side, the absence of Nosworthy was the only change to the starting line up that Keano has made in three games. It looks like we have a settled side, having taken a year to get to this stage. Once the players start to gel and we get a little bit more cohesion, you can see us playing more football, putting in better performances and coming away with better results. It’s certainly going to be worth waiting for.

I’d love to comment on the manager’s tactical genius in getting the most from his relatively disorganised team, although on this occasion it was simply down to the never-say-die attitude reminiscent of Roy’s playing days that saw us snatch a draw. The secret to any good team is picking up points on your off-days and if we can get results like this when we’re poor, then our better days will hopefully be enough to see us through the season intact.