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THE WEEK ON THE TEES 19-3-08
Luke Raine
The summer before each Premier League season starts, the fixtures are drawn at random on a computer. It is therefore very surprising that the "Big Four" are contesting the newly named “Grand Slam Sunday” on a bank holiday weekend. Or is it?
There is no doubting that this makes for a potentially exciting day of football but it is another sad indication of the effect money and television has on our national sport.
I fail to remember the last time football was played on Easter Sunday and the fact that these four teams will be the ones to break the mould makes me even more cynical.
Bank Holidays mean that people are off work and have more time on their hands. No better time then to sign up for a meaty twelve month subscription to Sky Sports. To be honest it comes as a surprise that something like this hasn’t happened sooner.
In my opinion, the holiday weekends should be reserved for local derbies. You only have to look as far as rugby league to see the positive effect this can have. Fans wouldn’t have to travel as far and would save a lot of time over the holiday period.
Yet you only have to cast your mind back to Christmas when the Boro had two long trips to Birmingham and Portsmouth.
On to the subject of television in football, it is becoming hard to ignore the negative press that Middlesbrough keep getting, especially from the London-based media.
The first signs of this was the BBC's coverage of the Sheffield United FA Cup replay. Their presenter and pundits were negative from the off, practically urging viewers to switch off by predicting a boring game.
I find it hard to compare this treatment of a Premier League team to that of any other in the country.
Then on Saturday after producing a fine rearguard display to force a 1-1 draw at The Emirates Stadium, Setanta Sports pundit Tim Sherwood went on to say: “Their tactics were so defensive, at times it was embarrassing”.
In my opinion, this was another indication of the bad press that the team seem to get for no particular reason.
Maybe people like Sherwood would prefer Boro to go to The Emirates playing four players up front so we could concede a few goals.
For these companies, showing Arsenal in swashbuckling mood is much more appealing than screening two colossal performances from David Wheater and Robert Huth.
The phrase “Credit where credit’s due” comes to mind when thinking about coverage from the BBC and Setanta – and maybe they should take it on board more.
As for the team itself, the mood is slightly brighter than when I was writing this column a week ago. The team have produced two away performances that have oozed character and one of the reasons for this has got to be the return of George Boateng to the side.
I still agree with the decision by Gareth Southgate to take the captaincy away from Boateng, and I feel that this, coupled with his time out of the side, may have increased his level of hunger and had a positive effect on his football. He certainly looked back to somewhere near his best on Saturday.
After the Arsenal result at The Riverside, the team went to Pride Park and claimed a hard fought 1-0 victory.
This time around we welcome The Rams to The Riverside and it is imperative that we claim all three points on Saturday. If we don’t, then the two points picked up in the last week will pale into insignificance.
It is an ideal opportunity for the team to show that they can be consistent. It is coming to the time in the season where there can be no room for excuses. With the games that remain, surely three points on Saturday are vital and would go a long way towards securing our Premier League status.
Finally, another week goes by and more issues have arisen regarding poor officiating in England’s top league. The only surprise this week is that instead of one official making a poor decision against us, it is two.
Looking at the Mido incident, he was shown a red card for serious foul play. In my opinion that must constitute the player showing some sort of intent against his opponent.
If the offending player's eyes are fixed on the ball (like Mido’s were) then how can there be any intent? It was yet another decision from a referee which comes under the category of baffling.
Worse still is that Mido must serve a three game ban after Mark Halsey chose not to rescind the card.
There was also no chance of the club appealing after the Aliadiere incident. What sort of game is it when a club is scared to contest a poor decision because they are fearful of the consequences?
We have now lost two strikers for a combined total of seven games. We all saw against Arsenal just how good an outlet Aliadiere’s pace is. One wonders if his presence in the side would have made a difference against Reading in the league, and more importantly, Cardiff City in the Cup.
Luke Raine
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