Smog On The Tyne - Woodgate Be Jealous? || Middlesbrough F.C. news, reviews and comment

WOODGATE BE JEALOUS? 26-2-08
Chris Bannister

I was ten years old when Boro lost the FA Cup final. It was my first full day of being ten, my birthday having been the day before.

It was my birthday party and following a frenzied kickabout in the park down the road, punctuated by a plethora of Ravanelli-style celebrations as I banged toe bung after scuffed slice past my indulgent and football-challenged father, my Manchester United supporting friends and I went home, drank fizzy pop and sat down to watch the FA Cup final.

Forty two seconds later the worst, best and most inexplicable season took another ill turn as Roberto Di Matteo fired Chelsea into a lead that they never looked like relinquishing.

By the time Eddie Newton had doubled the lead only my mum and I remained in front of the television; my so-called 'friends' had gone back into the garden to play football again and emulate their Premiership winning heroes.

By the final whistle I was doing a fair Juninho impression, sat down on the verge of tears, attempting to come to terms with two lost finals, relegation and the prospect of Phil Stamp not being replaced.

This reminiscence has come about not through self pity but by watching a Tottenham side win the greatest cup competition in the world on Sunday.

It has also been borne through one man's role in that: Jonathan "Proper Manager" Woodgate. He scored the winner and picked up The Bolo Zenden Man of the Match award, not a bad haul for someone who moved clubs less than a month ago to 'win trophies'.

The jubilant scenes on the Wembley pitch were well deserved. Everyone likes to see Chelsea lose but I felt somewhat cheated by seeing Woodgate involved. It's not that I want him back but that he felt he had to move clubs in order to win anything.

The commentator's comments that Woodgate's career had been on the slide before he'd come to Tottenham and that it was now finally back on track didn't help much either.

While watching Woodgate play and by seeing Tottenham win, I remembered not the jubilation of our 2004 victory but the dismal feeling of failure of 1997. I asked myself why did Woodgate have to move to win things?

And the answer I came up with upset me even more. He didn't.

We've got a better chance this year of winning the FA Cup than we've ever had. I'll be desperately disappointed if we don't make at least the semi-finals and Saturday's performance showed that if we actually concentrate, we can push the "Big Four" all the way in any game we play against them.

If we can see off Sheffield United then give Jimmy a return to forget against Cardiff, we could really do it.

Woodgate's motives for leaving are his own but his victory has made me even more desperate for us to achieve without him.

I hope that at the end of the season he'll look at his Carling Cup medal with a little less pride than he did on Sunday after seeing David Wheater scoring the winner at Wembley on his posh London telly.

These are obviously just pipe dreams and I'm getting way ahead of myself. But what else have we got this season?

Our league form has picked up enough for us to worry a lot less about relegation than a month ago and I really don't think we should measure ourselves against the Geordies when it comes to league places, as if we're below them in May there's something wrong with football and life.

Regarding the greatest day of my life, 29th February 2004, has anyone else got any special plans to commemorate the great day?

In the spirit of last December's fantastic 'call yourself Tony Mowbray day', I'm planning a call yourself 'Bolo Zenden, Gaizka Mendieta, Gareth Southgate. Day'. I will be plumping for Joseph-Désiré Job due to his amazing haircut and brilliance in that game.

If someone could oblige in setting up a Facebook group (I'm not down with the technical side of things) I'd be your first member.

Finally, sorry to both my readers that I've not written anything insulting or hilarious about Newcastle United but it would appear Messrs Ronaldo, Rooney and Keegan have already done that for me.

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