I've seen the benefit a win over Sunderland has for Middlesbrough and they could do with another
The immense value which can be gained from a victory against Sunderland at the Stadium of Light cannot be under-estimated.
The impact of a derby win in the Middlesbrough dressing room can be tremendous. It lifts everybody and considerably increases belief. Such a success can have a positive rub-off effect on future performances and results.
All the more reason why Boro need to be at their very best in this year’s mouth-watering Wear-Tees derby. The task is arguably more difficult than in recent seasons, considering Sunderland’s superb start to the campaign. It also means that the rewards for the Boro will be even greater if they can pull off a victory.
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The benefits to be gained from a derby win were obvious when Steve McClaren took Boro to Sunderland for the final time in late January in 2006. We tend to look back at the 2005-06 season as being the height of the Boro’s Golden Era because the team enjoyed a glorious campaign in Europe and reached the final of the UEFA Cup.
Yet, despite McClaren having put together one of the best squads ever to represent the club, Boro were actually going through a dreadful spell in the Premier League as they boarded the coach to Sunderland. In fact, they had gone nine league games without a win in a run which stretched back to November and just a couple of weeks earlier had been humiliated by 7-0 at Arsenal.
The squad included such leading lights as Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, Mark Viduka, Yakubu, Gaizka Mendieta, Stewart Downing, Gareth Southgate, Ugo Ehiogu and Mark Schwarzer. Yet only Hasselbaink, Viduka and Mendieta were fit from this octet to play at Arsenal and even then Boro rarely got the ball out of their own half.
After Arsenal, Boro lost 3-2 at home to Wigan Athletic, who had been promoted from the Championship at the end of the previous season. Boro had been badly missing skipper Southgate, who returned from injury against Wigan along with key winger Downing and striker Yakubu.
Yet Boro were pretty poor, particularly in the first half. The visitors led 2-0 at the interval with the travelling fans chanting “We want seven”. Goals from Hasselbaink and Yakubu brought Boro level in the second half but all the hard work was undone in the final minute when Neil Mellor grabbed the winner for Wigan.
The following week Boro were at Championship side Coventry City in the fourth round of the FA Cup. It wasn’t a great Boro performance but a goal from Hasselbaink was good enough to earn a replay. And so to the midweek fixture at Sunderland, who were struggling much more badly than Boro at the time and were propping up the Premier League table.
Mick McCarthy’s side had actually won their last league game by 1-0 at West Brom, albeit courtesy of an own goal. However, they had been humbled in the FA Cup just three days before the derby, when going down 2-1 to League One side Brentford in the FA Cup.
Before West Brom, the Wearsiders had also failed to win any of their previous 14 in the league, ironically stretching back to September when they beat Boro by 2-0 at the Riverside! So the latest derby was a crucial game for both clubs, with Boro having slipped to fourth bottom of the league as a result of their poor run.
Sunderland started the more lively side but were clearly deflated when Boro came forward to take the lead in the 19th minute. Emanuel Pogatetz, playing at centre-back, got up high to meet a Downing free kick and sent in a looping header which entered the net off the underside of the crossbar.
Boro sent the travelling fans wild when they made it 2-0 on the half hour mark. A mistake from future Boro man Julio Arca allowed Stuart Parnaby to make a strong forward surge which opened up Sunderland at the back. Parnaby exchanged passes with Viduka and continued his forward burst before scoring with a fine low drive.
Sunderland were revitalised by McCarthy’s half-time team talk and began to put Boro under pressure in the second half. In addition, tempers began to fray on both sides. Doriva had an altercation with Jon Stead while Pogatetz and Liam Lawrence had to be kept apart following another altercation.
Schwarzer preserved Boro’s two-goal lead with a fine save from Lawrence and Boro breathed again soon afterwards when future Boro man Dean Whitehead missed a gilt-edged chance. However, Boro took the sting out of Sunderland’s fightback when they scored their third goal 20 minutes from time.
Tommy Miller gave the ball away in midfield and it was picked up by Mendieta. The Spaniard immediately played the ball through for Hasselbaink to finish clinically with a low strike. A relieved McClaren spoke afterwards and admitted: “We needed the win, it has been a while. The players deserved it but it was not so much about the performance as the result.”
The win should have been just the tonic which Boro needed yet ironically they took what appeared to be a huge step backwards in their next match, which was at home to Aston Villa on the Saturday. David O’Leary’s Villa, who were no great shakes at the time, won by 4-0 with young striker Luke Moore grabbing a hat trick.
Boro were completely ineffective up front, with McClaren responding by taking off strikers Hasselbaink and Viduka at the interval and bringing on Massimo Maccarone and Yakubu. But it made little difference.
This was the infamous match when a disgruntled Boro fan ran onto the pitch following the fourth goal and threw his season ticket in disgust at McClaren. As the fan was escorted away he received an ovation from the Boro faithful, who were witnessing a dreadful performance.
While Boro had been poor up front, they also defended badly and had now conceded more goals in the Premier League than any other team. Boro were at home to Chelsea the following weekend, but first of all had to settle the cup tie with Coventry. McClaren’s men were again hardly impressive but they got the job done when a goal from Hasselbaink proved the winner.
Remarkably Boro returned to their best when they faced Chelsea three days later. They settled everybody’s nerves when winning rather comfortably by 3-0. The Brazilian midfielder Fabio Rochemback put them ahead after just two minutes and further goals were added by Downing and Yakubu.
Success breeds success. Boro were next in UEFA Cup action away to German side Stuttgart and pulled off a superb victory with goals from Hasselbaink and Parnaby. They lost the second leg by 1-0 at the Riverside but still went through on away goals.
Then Boro switched to the fifth round of the FA Cup, taking care of Championship side Preston North End at Deepdale by 2-0. Yakubu scored both goals. Back in the Premier League, Boro went to West Brom and won 2-0 with a brace from Hasselbaink, before a single goal from Viduka was good enough to beat Birmingham City at the Riverside.
Next up were Roma at the Riverside in the UEFA Cup, Boro winning 1-0 thanks to a Yakubu penalty. The win at Sunderland had started a run of seven wins out of nine in which, apart from the Villa debacle, Stuttgart were the only other side who managed to score against them.
Boro never looked back in the league after that and were able to concentrate a little more on their two runs in both the FA Cup and the UEFA Cup. In many respects, any win at Sunderland is to be savoured but history has proved that it can have far reaching benefits. Hopefully Boro will run over a few black cats on Saturday.