McLaren a happy man, despite being left out!
McClaren watched a large part of the 0-0 draw which secured Boro’s place in the group stage of the UEFA Cup among a crowd of 5,013 after the fourth official could not find his name on the list of accredited representatives and repeatedly waved him away.
However, he ended the evening a happy man as his side held out comfortably to book themselves at least four more games in the competition.
“I didn’t see a problem,” he said. “Apparently my name wasn’t on the sheet - it was on the sheet. He thought I was an imposter in there!”
Despite the minor inconvenience, McClaren left the Skoda Xanthi Arena happy with the way his players had bounced back from Sunday’s 2-0 derby defeat by Sunderland.
“I’m delighted,” he said. “It was vitally important to this club, not probably in terms of finance but in terms of profile and to give something to the fans. Those who followed us last season know what a tremendous experience it is and we have given them another four games, but we do not just want it to end there, we want to progress, so it was an important result.
“It was a great team performance, very professional, full of character, attitude and discipline, and I’m delighted, especially after the result on Sunday.”
Having arrived in Greece holding a 2-0 first leg lead, Boro knew a clean sheet would be enough to see them progress, but after a flurry of activity in the opening 26 minutes during which Luciano forced a save from goalkeeper Brad Jones and Gareth Southgate blocked a Levan Maghradze effort, they had little trouble keeping the home side out.
There were 87 minutes on the clock when substitute Szilard Nemeth cleared former Teessider Emerson’s header off the line, although had Massimo Maccarone’s 33rd-minute strike been allowed to stand - a harsh offside decision saw it chalked off - the visitors would have left with a second win.
“It would have been nice icing on the cake to get the goal - it certainly would have made 60 minutes of my time in the stand a lot better if it had counted,” McClaren said.
“But we looked comfortable, we looked solid. The gameplan was excellent and the players executed it.”
Xanthi boss Ioannis Matzourakis was disappointed not to have made life more difficult for the visitors.
“One of the things that upsets is I didn’t upset Mr McClaren,” he said. “He has gone home with a smile.
“We created high expectations after the first game. We believed we could overturn the 2-0 deficit. We could have left the Riverside with a better result and the same goes for tonight’s game.
“However, it proved to be very difficult. Middlesbrough were very well organised defensively, but I have no complaints about my boys.”
: Pizanowski, Papadimitriou, Torossidis (Kazakis 47), Sikov, Paviot, Antzas, Maghradze (Garpozis 68), Luciano, Labriakos, Emerson, Gomes Andrade (Leo Mineiro 60).
: Jones, Xavier, Southgate, Riggott, Pogatetz, Queudrue (Parnaby 78), Doriva, Boateng, Morrison, Maccarone (Nemeth 71), Hasselbaink (Yakubu 71).
: Knut Kircher (Germany).
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