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BORO, YOUR DESTINY AWAITS 7-3-07
Peter Holmes
Expectant anticipation faded to the usual feeling of disappointed deja-vu as yet another Tees-Tyne derby passed by without the game being featured as a key fixture on old moneybags Aussie Murdoch's Foxsports TV.
From information I've gleaned out of Packwolf's excellent match report on ComeOnBoro about the messy contest, it was better to be tucked up in bed. It appears the game was about as pleasurable and interesting as sitting bollocky buff naked on a frosty winter effected lawn while watching the grass grow and listening to the larrikin times of cuddly Al Shearer on the radio!
Yes that bad!
In truth it was probably good for me that the Sky Sports game planner has a huge downer on the big north-east rivalry. An unusually passionless and very negative game albeit in wet and windy conditions, no doubt all caused by the Newcy Broon and those iffy pies at Sid James Megadrome, with the result proving that both teams were probably happy at the final whistle with a point apiece and thus the mid-table status quo. Local bragging rights would have been superb but in the scheme of things a low key approach to the up coming challenges may be more beneficial for our Beloved Boro in the long run.
It could be a very big week for Teesside's finest with the looming FA Cup quarter-final tie this Saturday at cauldron Riverside with Manchester United. It's just a pity that we all have to wait so late in the day to see the battle commence. Tradition goes out of the window as it's the only FAC game featured on Saturday with a kick-off time of 5:30 pm.
Where the hell did that come from and what's wrong with 3:00pm?
Don't they know it will be 1:30am here in Perth and even later in the East of Oz and FA Cup crazy Asia?
Regardless, it will be a guaranteed full house at the Riverside and a full house at the firesides of the watching world.
The other ties, perversely, are all featured on a stretched Sunday afternoon programme, with staggered kick-off times, so all can be televised one after the other. The two lowliest sides, Plymouth and Watford, feature at the top of the programme, slugging it out in what could be the most passionate head to head of the round. It would be especially good for the neutral and the competition as a whole too, if mid-stream Championship Plymouth makes it through against Watford, thus building on the romantic underdog notion that this most historic silver cup helped invent way back in the late 1800's.
Romantic opinion again but, ErimusRed hopes that come midday on Monday Boro, Manchester City, Spurs and Plymouth are all in the pot for the semi-final draw. Just to stop people waffling on endlessly about a yawn, snore, same old Chelski versus Manchester United finale.
Maybe on Saturday in the dour derby against the deluded Magpies, Boro played professionally within themselves with an eye on the big game against Fergie's mob. Certainly in preparation terms it's in our favour, with a clear programme, a full week without match commitments, thus allowing the back room staff to sort out any niggly injuries and to focus primarily on our game of the season with no other interruptions.
The same cannot be said of United who have a huge Champions league game against Lille, floodlit and kicking off late on Wednesday evening, the return leg of the fractious dummy-spitting tie which unfolded in Lens at the Stade Felix-Bollaert.
The French, full of self-pity and pious indignation, feel they were robbed on various counts and the build-up to the game has been punctuated by high level appeals to UEFA over the controversial quick free-kick winner by Ryan Giggs.
Worse for Lille in the long run will be the way the local Gendarmerie handled a potentially disastrous situation in the overloaded United away end of the stadium. Tear gas and stupid violent policing didn't help the tense situation and neither did a ten foot high wire cattle fence at the edge of the terracing.
Comparisons with Hillsborough may be a little over the top but it's a situation that should never happen in this enlightened day and age.
Regardless, I think United will be facing a very angry and aggrieved bunch of Lillies at Old Trafford. The fact that they have already prevailed in an away tie against AC Milan 2-0 proves they are a potential banana skin. I reckon there will be more than a few heated flash-points and controversial moments to come in this game.
Ideally for us, Lille score a late one in a game tighter than Jordan's boob tube and drag the red-devils into extra-time and the mental anguish of penalties. Then a knackered and depleted United line-up against Boro drained from their midweek exertions and we drag them through extra-time and beat them on penalties as per this season's Boro FA Cup blueprint.
As long as we do them over and get to the FAC semis, I don't mind either way. Even if it's from an own goal off Ferdinand's right arse cheek I'll take it!
Boy wonder Wayne Rooney's chances of lining up against the Boro are very slim as he has exacerbated a niggling knee injury, while acknowledging that United have more weapons in their arsenal than the powerful pugilistic Scouser, he has scored some pearlers against us in this very competition in the past and if he's not on the field I'm not going to worry over his absence.
Saturday should unfold a classic.
Boro, your destiny awaits and it's in our hands.
Let's hope the next time I write this rant I'm having a bloody good whinge about the scheduling of our upcoming semi-final game with the Mariners of Plymouth Argyle in a game billed as David versus Goliath's brother.
There you have it encapsulated. Romance, hope and dreams in one sentence.. that is the FA Cup for you!
Enough Said,
ErimusRed
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