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HOPE SPRINGS ETERNAL 22-04-05
Match day beckons once again but this one is no ordinary match. It's Robbo's return and come Saturday afternoon, our illustrious former manager will lead out a team at The Riverside for the first time since that horrible day four years ago when the Boro faithful decided that he was worthy of a walk down the modern day chicken run.
It is no time for irony or sentiment though because after Tuesday night's abysmal performance against Fulham, we need the points as much as relegation threatened West Brom do. And what a good run they are on at the moment. If I were a betting man, which I am, I would definitely have a fluttter on The Baggies beating the drop this season. Robbo has galvanised and motivated his troops and turned them into a force to be reckoned with. What would we give to be able to say the same right now?
Despite facing a seemingly impossible situation when he took over, Robbo has lifted his side out of the drop zone and if the form that West Brom have achieved over the last ten matches had been prevalent throughout the whole of the season, they would be currently challenging for a UEFA Cup position. Just like we are doing, despite Tuesday night's horror show.
Dark clouds have once again descended over Teesside and negativity is once again the order of the day. Hardly surprising when you take recent performances into account and I include Arsenal at home because we failed to put our chances away in that one. The team is lacking in confidence, the management seem short of ideas and the supporters are tearing their hair out in frustration at the ineptitude that they are currently being subjected to. But there is hope. Yes, honestly there is.
Long standing Boro fans will happily wax lyrical about our tradition of usually doing things the hard way and it's true that we have often found motivation a difficult commodity to come by. You can hardly say that the team is ready to rock and currently firing on all cylinders at the moment. So where is the hope then?
Easy answer. It's a big game on Saturday and I believe that just as we have done so on countless occasions in the past, we will raise our game for this one. It's a big game because Robbo is coming home and because we have to win to keep our UEFA Cup ambition alive. So surely we will do the business?
So you would think anyway. But the lack of motivation that seems to have infested our team during the last two months is now becoming more than very worrying and the questions must be asked, where and when will it end and why were we reduced to this pitiful state in the first place? Where did the early season ambition and drive disappear to and why are we now taking the field looking already beaten?
Because we are unsettled, under-confident and unhappy, that's why. There is much more going on behind the scenes at the club than we could ever realise and whatever it is, it can't be good. Once again, Middlesbrough Football Club seems like a club with internal difficulties that have manifested themselves into poor performances on the pitch.
Rumours still abound about our best players being close to injury-enforced retirement or seeking pastures new and there is no certainty about the manager's future either, despite the occasional sound bite from the club hierarchy. We are in disarray and are a pale shadow of the all-conquering outfit that stormed up the league in the early part of the season.
On the other hand, you could quite rightly say that we are still in the best position that we have been in at this late stage of the season but the point is, it is all going to waste because something is obviously very badly wrong at the club. World-class strikers like Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink simply do not turn into bad players overnight and if anyone on the coaching staff is aware of the reasons why he has been turning in performances of such a low standard recently, then I just hope that they are doing something about it.
Up until last week, there was still belief in abundance that we could achieve our aim of a top six finish but the Fulham game has destroyed a lot of that confidence. That is because the difference between the performance at Craven Cottage in August and Tuesday night's shambles are blatantly visible and are nothing short of frightening. I can't ever recall a team turning from so good to so bad over the course of one season.
Gone is the spirit, fight and edge that we had in November, replaced by an awful truth that we can't see where the next win is coming from. But all is not lost yet. Hope springs eternal and if we can rouse ourselves to produce a decent performance on Saturday, something that we all know we are capable of, then we could be back on track very quickly.
However current form dictates that it will be a happy homecoming for Robbo instead. So that gives us a great opportunity to do something that we have always been good at. Turning the tables on the formbook and prevailaing as underdogs. That may sound strange when you look at the league table but if it's the attitude that gets us a win, then let's take it on. It could be our last chance of achieving this season.
Until next week.
Steve
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