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READING BETWEEN THE LINES 5-12-07
Toby Higgins
It's 6am. The alarm sounds. Its piercing siren echoes vibrantly around the darkened room. You jump, although you've been awake for hours.
This is it, the moment has finally arrived. The moment you clung to during what has otherwise been a crap week, the moment you fell asleep dreaming about for the last seven nights, the moment you thought would never come.
It's away day.
You're out of bed and in the shower in seconds.
By 6.30am you're striding proudly through the darkness, out of your house, up the drive and towards your taxi. You make idle chit chat with the driver about having to work at this time of the morning, and what time the sun comes up. And by 6.52am, you're on your first train.
It's going to be a long day. Indeed, eighteen hours after waking up, you're back at home, just in time for the closing credits pf Match of the Day.
The extra excitement of away days is something that can be likened to the anticipation of Christmas morning when you're seven, or the almost unprecedented glee at waking up and knowing that you have seven to ten days abroad away from all your troubles. It really is that captivating.
Sitting on the train(s), I wondered why we put ourselves through it. So did the lady who I ended up sat next to, as I regaled her with stories of my various trips away from Teesside to watch the Boro.
I told her it was something built in, something you can't help having; an undying passion to follow the Boro everywhere, especially when they need you the most.
She asked if I got to many away games. I told her I got to as many as my student lifestyle and budget would cater for, but that this was my third away day this season.
As she left the train at Birmingham New Street, I began trying to work out how many away games I've been to, and how many times I've seen us lose.
It's been fourteen away games since my first in 2003. This was away to Leeds, just over a month after my fifteenth birthday. We won 3-2, and thanks to the goals from Massimo Maccarone, Juninho and a special one from Geremi, I left Elland Road delighted.
Remarkably, in the fifteen games since I started following Boro on the road, I've only ever seen us lose twice - at Bolton in September 2003, and at Manchester City in October this year.
I've been very lucky. I've been to Manchester City, Blackburn, Preston and Leeds (twice) to see us win. I have also watched eight draws. These were at Liverpool, Bolton (twice) Manchester United, Coventry, Wigan, Arsenal and now Reading, Six of these eight draws finished 1-1.
Had I made some graphs to look at my own record on the road with Boro, a 1-1 draw is the red hot pick.
I didn't though, and even if I had, I'm not sure I'd have backed us to get a 1-1 at Reading. You travel to these kind of games in hope - hope that we don't get mauled, hope that we don't get beaten, and, even if it's a bit selfish, hope that even if one of the first two do happen, that we score first, or equalise. We hope for just anything to celebrate and make the day worth it.
As I stood with ten minutes to go, having watched Jeremie Dadaliadiere contrast glimpses of Thierry Henry with flashes of Henry Paul, and Adam 'Jinky' Johnson hit the post, I thought that was it.
Then, into the limelight and out of the nothingness, emerged a man named San to rise higher than anyone and power Young Luke's cross past the helpless Yank, Marcus Hahnemann. He sent the travelling army into hysterics. With seven minutes to go, our eighteen hour day was instantly rewarded.
To say the game was even would be to do ourselves a disservice. We were the much more progressive side and played some decent football. Reading's handful of half chances were just that, long range efforts that Ross Turnbull was able to deal with comfortably. All except the goal of course, which yet again came from a defensive error that was born in the back four.
Southgate has got to make some huge decisions in the next few games about what to do with his plethora of centre-halves.
David Wheater's progress has all but stopped. For every three booming headers he wins, he is also out jumped, out thought or out muscled by a striker half his size.
Jonathon Woodgate can't be held unaccountable for his role in Reading's goal either, as he let Dave Kitson get a march on him as he latched on to Kevin Doyle's flick to lob the stranded Turnbull.
Robert Huth's appearance during the closing stages finally indicates a return for the German, and, while he's almost certainly not 100% match fit, he now gives Southgate the luxury of having a fully fit defensive line from which to choose. Who he drops, and who he keeps, could determine whether or not we stay up.
Things are looking up elsewhere too. That Julio Arca is nearly fit again clearly inspired George Boateng into putting in another fantastic display in the middle of midfield and, on that form, Boateng is getting close to his best. 'Undroppable' is a term which, despite not actually being a word, was used to describe Boateng during the seasons before he took on the captains armband, and again he's not far from it.
It's surely no coincidence that Boateng's return to form has come at the same time that he has stopped making brash media statements regarding the clubs position and his importance to the team (something that never goes down well with fans).
The aforementioned return of Arca, who performs much better when paired with Fabulous Rochemback, and the impressive early form of Gary O'Neil and now Adam Johnson, means Boateng actually has a fight on his hands for his place.
As the saying goes, 'you can't lose something you never had', which is why the claims that Boateng has lost his pace, was something that I struggled to accept. At Reading he was first to everything, didn't give the ball away, and looked like the guy who, eighteen months ago, we genuinely feared would walk away from us for nothing.
The sudden return of players like Huth, Pogatetz, Johnson and Arca mean that players now have a genuine fight to keep their places.
Everywhere except in attack that is. Two of Southgate's biggest decisions since he became manager have been firstly, to sign Lee Dong Gook, and secondly, to play him on Saturday. Hopefully, San the Man will go on to score the goals that will drive us away from the drop zone.
Southgate's future is no clearer now than it was last week. He's got to get two wins from the next three though, or that'll be it for most Boro fans.
Also, a quick note on Stewart Downing. Sometimes, I wonder if this guy wants people to hate him, gifted as he may be. He blatantly dived on Saturday, more than once, and was given the free kicks every time. He was booed every time he touched the ball because of it.
The guy needs to have a look at himself, and decide how interested he is in playing for this club before he wears the jersey again because he's doing nothing to make himself popular in terms of commitment.
He's my nomination for cheat of the week. There is no place for it in football at any level.
Same time next week
UpTheBoro
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