Boro to win the UEFA Cup?? Don't make me laugh....

Expect the same support when i'm in paris next week, mind!

COME ON BORO (excuse to drink tonight)

Boatraceface wrote: Ever thought about being a morale coach Hub? Give the lads a bit of a lift in the dressing room an that.

Naaa.... a "Reverse Psychologist" perhaps? ;)

Been reading up on some of the IC Teesside Boro FC articles and the BBC Sport website bits - the expectation is wildly feverish to say the least - but also the number of people tipping Seville is swinging it somewhat. Someone called Jak from England (any relation to J.A.K. on NOOL?? ;) ) predicts 2-0 win from Sevilla.....amongst the tips on the BBC match countdown page.

At least the weather's nice an' sunny everywhere - Holland as well - and didn't we get that also when we were last at a cup final in Feb 2004? Could that be an omen in our favour? Do the Spanish function less effectively in cooler European sunshine?

Even the local radio station here in Wicklow made a passing mention to the game as well - now that's sayin' something! :)

Not one but TWO England - Spain Euro face-offs it is then, us and Seville and Arsenal-Barcelona.... amazing really for that statistic alone.

Who will be the jammy conquerors of both finals then? Will it be one country each? Or will it be one country for both?

Boatraceface wrote: Sam's bullies you call them Hub..what was it you said,erm,thats it.I quote "I would rather have anybody qualify for Europe than Sam's bullies and Shitecastle!"

Over to Jemma!...The illiterate Boltoner

bOLTern ar reeLLy gudD. D rent cawl um ER e;se eyell tel bigg saM cos ah know im

i'm planning on taking a late dinner break to catch the second half today

.....

wow

sorry guys

Well done Boro. Outplayed by a better team but shouldn't be embarrassed by defeat.

BOATRACE will never eat a spanish orange again hard luck mate

Nicely worded (and pragmatic) view of your expectations, Mr. Mickle, I only got home just in time to see Sevilla lifting the cup amidst the confetti explosions, so sorry for the match result. Hopefully the aggrovation of the past couple of years haven't put too much of a strain on ya, yer a good man, things are always better when you can spend a bit of time here. for ya tonight here.

Hard luck 'Boro but you took a deep humping tonight. They were a class act. Expect to see them challenging in the CL in the very near future.

outclassed.

but at least Boro fans stayed till the end. not sure i could of.

You still got to the final, still should be proud.

Well,it was an unthinkable dream only a year ago! The lads done well to get so far..Gutted mind!

[darkgreen]Green[/darkgreen] wrote: Nicely worded (and pragmatic) view of your expectations, Mr. Mickle, I only got home just in time to see Sevilla lifting the cup amidst the confetti explosions, so sorry for the match result. Hopefully the aggrovation of the past couple of years haven't put too much of a strain on ya, yer a good man, things are always better when you can spend a bit of time here. for ya tonight here.

Cheers for yer contribution Green - miss having the banter with yer. The defeat was no big surprise for me. Obviously I couldn't see it on the TV here in Ireland as it's not part of the UK terrestrial network, but I got me family back in Newcastle to videotape it for me on the ONE condition that if we didn't win, then they had my permission to wipe the tape clean straight afterwards cos I don't wanna see it and get even more depressed than I've already been for the past few months. And I rang them up yesterday to check that they had and they thought I was funnin' but I was deadly serious. Besides, unlike those misguided eternal optimists elsewhere (hello Mikey!), I fully expected a rubbish result to put the icing on McClaren's stale cake just to make it a hat-trick of crap results to finish off with:

....consider these:

(1) a defeat for the last home game, (2) a defeat for the last away game, and (3) a defeat for the last cup game for good measure.

A fantastic achievement or what? Well done McClown. Now piss off, it were nice knowing yer, but we'll never love ya.

It was never going to be any other way. In fact I could have chanced a punt or three at the bookies on the outcome being at least 3 goals for Seville whilst those other underachieving raggle-taggle fuckwits couldn't score, but then I'm so skint I couldn't even afford to waste good money which I need to have to feed ourselves at the betting office just to try an' get rich at Boro's expense. Face facts, Boro are fucking knackered. They already were long before the league season finished. They didn't have any strength left in them to fight for it from the starting whistle. It was foolish and naive for anybody (apart from me of course) to expect anything like the last two fluke outcomes, they'd used up all their luck getting this far as it stood, if their atrocious season was been anything to go by - 64 games and exactly how many dud results amongst those? How long have you got? I have witnessed Boro's performances over the entirety of McClaren's reign long enough to know when they are going to blow it. And so, they happily oblige, every time without fail.

Okay - so maybe once the dust settles, we can be a bit more philosophical about it - Southgate and Gibson got it spot on - and in a way I thought exactly the same as they did when they said that five months ago you wouldn't have dreamed of them getting into the UEFA semi finals let alone the final. The trophy would have been an incredible bonus, but because they'd - by hook or by crook - somehow got this far, everybody, including the players, was getting above themselves and fully expecting to win it. But there was one small problem - they forgot about the little thing sitting on their right shoulders called the Reality Check. The Reality Check is what keeps ME sane - strange as it may sound. But I have followed Boro long enough to never EVER get carried away by any slight upturn in their fortunes and always tread a very cautious line because the simple fact is they are never going to be a big team and they're never going to be a successful one, mainly because they are not one of those clubs who can be consistent or earn mass plaudits due to their perennial underdog status. They're not fashionable, and they never will be. They will always be an unspectacular and rather mediocre team, despite what anyone else says.....and, apart from their own fans worldwide, they will never be loved or admired by anyone else, neutrals or whatever. :(

Another thing the skipper and chairman said that I fully agreed with was now that they're not in Europe after two successive seasons, maybe it will give them breathing space to regroup and start again from scratch without these distractions, cos, great though it may have been for many, these extra 15 games (and the other cup ones) took their toll on their fitness and performance - not to mention consistency and results. Next season being a bog-standard 38-fixture one may be a blessing in disguise. At least this way it means there is no fucking excuse whatsoever to underachieve so appallingly like they did this year cos of this tunnel-vision pursuit of Euro cup (and to an equal extent FA cup) glory.

Boro do not have the quality in their squad (nor the fitness - check those injuries - more than any club bar Birmingham this year) to endure a season as relentlessly exhausting as the one they've just endured: 64 games is far more than even any of the top four have played this season. They have worked fucking hard but have also been the architects of their own downfall to a big extent as well. Which is why I have no sympathy for any Boro supporter who expects we can just waltz into European contention again or expect an easy ride next season. Cos, being Boro, this ain't fucking well gonna happen. We are the kings of inconsistency, remember.

All I keep thinking about now are the catcalls coming our way from the Magpies supporters seeing as we've effectively swopped places this season, finishing in each other's previous table positions with a similar corresponding share of points. They're in the Intertoto now but we - true to form - pissed it all away when it really could have mattered. Obviously we gave them a leg up too during those last few games by surrendering so pathetically to them between two cup games - thus they must be laughing all the way to the bank now.

So yeah, I'm pissed off and apoplectic about this season. It's definitely been the worst for me for a long long time. And yeah, I'm pissed off that once again I was proved right in my worst fears about it all ending in tears. But I get no joy from being proved right either. Sometimes eating humble pie is what I crave more than anything else. But that has only happened about - what? - eight or nine results out of the last 64 at the very most. Not much to trumpet about really is it? - and anyone who disagrees is a complete hoit.

Boatraceface wrote: Well,it was an unthinkable dream only a year ago! The lads done well to get so far..Gutted mind!

Still - there is just ONE consolation to give this whole sorry season a positive - if not spuriously glamorous slant - at least we finished runners up in Europe. 2nd in the UEFA cup is still a great achievement innit yeah? It will probably be the only time we'll ever finish in the top two of anything!

Bring out the bunting! And then shred it all to pieces and shove it up McClaren's arse to give him a head start for England! Thanks to him, Boro were practically chasing a lost cause all along anyway. Sometimes you really have to accept that certain things are never meant to be.

Boro - no longer a small town in Europe, but a rather shit team in the Premiership. Get used to it folks. I have to live with this embarrassment for most of my life.

What of the future tho Hub? We took a squad of 16 lads to Fulham,all English and all but Malcom Christie were born within 30 miles of the Riverside! A Prem first...ok,they got beat 1-0 but a similar looking side got a 0-0 draw against Man U the week before! Average age was just 20! There is room for optimism I think!And you've got to hand it to Steve Gibson for persuing his dream of bringing a team of local lads through like this!At least it ensures some real loyalty from the local young players at the academy, that is so sadly lacking in the modern game.. Cattermole at just 18 already looks like the new Roy Keane and is going to be hard to keep at the club if he continues this rapid development!

Watch out for the kids at Boro over the next couple of years,its going to be very interesting

and HANDS OFF Chelski,Man U,Arsenal,Liverpool! Get your own youth system!

Boatraceface wrote: What of the future tho Hub? We took a squad of 16 lads to Fulham,all English and all but Malcom Christie were born within 30 miles of the Riverside! A Prem first...ok,they got beat 1-0 but a similar looking side got a 0-0 draw against Man U the week before! Average age was just 20! There is room for optimism I think!And you've got to hand it to Steve Gibson for persuing his dream of bringing a team of local lads through like this!At least it ensures some real loyalty from the local young players at the academy, that is so sadly lacking in the modern game.. Cattermole at just 18 already looks like the new Roy Keane and is going to be hard to keep at the club if he continues this rapid development!

Watch out for the kids at Boro over the next couple of years,its going to be very interesting

and HANDS OFF Chelski,Man U,Arsenal,Liverpool! Get your own youth system!

What of the future Mikey? All the dead wood will be shed and it will be back to basics without the distractions of all that unnecessary excess baggage and ridiculous high expectations of top six and champions league bollox (Mr Reality Check wants to speak = these will NEVER happen to Boro). The kids may be the future but surely it all counts for nothing if they can't fucking win games regularly. Doesn't matter how many hotly-tipped youngsters pass through the ranks cos Boro will never improve unless they can nurture the talent and breed quality and consistency above everything else: something they've not once achieved yet.

Besides, this Boro supporter has probably had as much as he can take now after 19 years of this perennially underachieving drivel. I've not resorted to drinking myself into a stupor either after Wednesday night's debacle (followed incidentally online at my uncle Joff's place, minute by minute) so I'm actually very fluent and sober, and writing in proper English for once! But I'm depressed to fuck about all this. Everybody is already looking forward to what next season will bring and blabbering on with their usual speculation, but I'm not in any hurry .... in fact I might just forget about English footy and the ridiculously overhyped Premiership altogether and switch my attention / allegiance to the Irish football league now instead as it's actually more interesting - and far less frustrating and stressful - than watching Boro fuck up chance after chance, week after week - with the odd "miracle result" thrown in purely just for cameo effect. It's pathetic and I'm just fed up with it all.

Hub[orange]ert Mickle[/orange] wrote: ....consider these: A fantastic achievement or what? Well done McClown. Now piss off, it were nice knowing yer, but we'll never love ya. pursuit of Euro cup (and to an equal extent FA cup)glory.

Boro do not have the quality in their squad (nor the fitness - check those injuries - more than any club bar Birmingham this year) to endure a season as relentlessly exhausting as the one they've just endured: 64 games is far more than even any of the top four have played this season.

We are the kings of inconsistency, remember.

they did have flashes of greatness to be make it as far as they did. Not just plain luck. And to be the full range of inconsistent. Nice to catch these updates. yes, Thanks for these NOOL posts. Shame that they were painful ones. Time to re-group.