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THE ROCKLIFFE FILES - TAKE ME HOME, COUNTRY ROAD 21-11-06
Toby Higgins
The old train bumbled cautiously out of the deserted station, and began along the rickety tracks which would guide my carriage, in a way not too dissimilar to Dorothy following the yellow brick road. I sat, surrounded be one or two other passengers, and torn, empty seats. The air smelt damp. I decided to plug in one of life's greater inventions in the hope that the sound of my iPod would over power out the sound of wheel-on-track, and hush the rest of the world around me.
I put the speakers into my ears, hit 'shuffle' and closeD my eyes. For a moment, there is nothing but silence. All I could sense is the gentle sway as the train rocks and bounces delicately in the wind. And then, as if fate had meant it, the silence is broken to the sound of drums, a beat, and trumpets. I felt a smile creep onto my face. Pigbag.
With my eyes still tightly closed, my mind begins to wander from the dank conditions around me, and I get to thinking of my spiritual home. I begin to visualise Zenden's strikes against Lazio, Viduka's wonder goal against Charlton in the FA Cup, and of course, Maccarone's infamous UEFA Cup goals - some of the best nights of my life. If football is my religion, then the Riverside is my church.
The song ends. The next one begins; but I don't hear it. I don't hear any of the next six or seven. I'm lost in a sea of red and white, a sea I would happily drown in.
My eyes are open now, and I stare out of the rain swept window at the fields around me. These rolling hills are a far cry from the site of smoke clouds disappearing into the glow of ICI on a cold winter's night. A John Denver classic arrives in my head.
Take me home,
Country road,
To the place,
I belong.
After a moments editing, West Virgina and Mountain Mama had been replaced;
Watch the Boro,
Eat a parmo,
Take me home,
Country road.
The excitement is almost unbearable, and I begin to shuffle with anticipation. I notice a man reading a paper raise his head from the other side of the aisle to look at what I was doing, but I didn't care. Hell, we were still just over seventy hours from kick off, but I didn't care about that either. I'm on my way home, to see the Boro v Liverpool.
Turns out I need not have been so excited. It's the seemingly age old thing now with Boro. The games you are really, really up for, the games you wake up thinking about three days before they are played are usually the most boring.
Don't be fooled, I see that there are positives to come out of the game. A third home clean sheet in a row, the performance of James Morrison and Emmanuel Pogatetz, and a point against a team who many thought would come to the Riverside and record an overdue away win.
But, aside from the biting wind and freezing temperatures, I came out of the stadium feeling not so much cold and disappointed as I was bored. Both sides seemed bogged down by negativity as Yakubu struggled up front alone, while Gerrard and Alonso struggled to break down the trio of Rochemback, Euell and Boateng.
Not once did Southgate throw off the defensive shackles and actually try and beat the team in front of him. Cries for Massimo were greeted, albeit belatedly, but in taking off Morrison, who was playing out of his skin as well as working hard, and shifting Maccarone to the right of midfield, instead of removing the once again ineffective Euell and sticking Massimo up front with Yak, Southgate undid all the work of his bosses from earlier in the week, and made his intentions for the season crystal clear.
This very website published an article in which Keith Lamb attempted to 'win back' Boro fans who, for various reasons, have chosen to stay away so far this term, leaving average attendances down by 1,800 per game.
In the statement, Lamb said that under Southgate, young, locally born players will be given the chance to cement places in the first team and given the chance to fulfil their potential, and that a key part of there development is having a decent crowd behind them.
The problem with all of this is that it doesn't matter how many local youngsters play if we go into games with a negative attitude, with the main aim being to keep a clean sheet and hit sides on the break. If we do that then fans will stay away. In taking off the only attacking threat, and then playing Maccarone wide right, thus sticking with 4-5-1, the game was as good as over. This isn't me over hyping Massimo; I didn't care who emerged from the bench so long as it was a striker who was to be played in his natural position.
4-5-1 is a formation that Southgate looks keen to play, and, as many have pointed out, it is not necessarily a negative formation, particularly when Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester United have adopted it in the past twelve months.
But we don't play that system the way those teams do. We play too deep, our wingers don't get forward to support the striker, we don't have competent forward passers of the ball in midfield, and we end up watching long ball after long ball drift over Yakubu's head. Indeed, it's very dull, whereas Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea give their wingers license to roam and drive at full backs, and play with urgency and at a quicker tempo.
Obviously points are crucial, but when action, excitement and goals disappear, so do fans.
This weekend's round trip cost me just over £70 - an entire week's budget gone if, like me, you're a student. Would you spend an entire week's budget watching the kind of game I sat through on Saturday? Would Keith Lamb?
One thing is for sure; I won't be doing it again for a long time.
Same time next week
Up the Boro
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