Fans’ energy is vital – boss

Apr 28 2008 by Stuart Rayner, The Journal

GARETH Southgate has called on Middlesbrough’s fans to make home advantage count as they strive to preserve their Premier League status.

Saturday’s 3-2 defeat to Sunderland took the Teessiders’ survival battle into the last eight days of the season. It also demonstrated the value of a boisterous home following as the Black Cats’ fans responded to the noisy away end by loudly willing their own team to victory.

A quirk of the fixture list caused by Eastlands hosting the Uefa Cup final means Boro are the only team whose final two games are at home, against Portsmouth and Manchester City. And Southgate wants to capitalise on it.

“We have to make it an advantage for our fans, staff and players,” he said. “We have a big challenge ahead. This is not the stage for us to be falling out of love with each other. We’ve stuck together as a club throughout the season through any number of knock-backs.

“The fans could make the difference. We need an energy in the stadium. We have to produce a performance as a group of players and staff as well, but every bit will help over the next couple of weeks.”

Southgate admitted the nature of the defeat, as well as it coming in a derby, made it harder to swallow. When the sides met in September Liam Miller’s 89th-minute equaliser snatched a point. At the Stadium of Light Daryl Murphy’s winner came in the second added minute.

“Derbies are always more painful to lose, but to lose in the last minute has hurt everybody that little bit more,” Boro’s manager admitted. “There are lots of players who will learn a lot about themselves in the coming days and the next couple of weeks. That’s football. It drags you through all sorts of emotions. Dealing with those emotions, for the teams in the bottom-half of the table, is the biggest test throughout the season. We made mistakes, but we said before the game it would be a game like that. A derby is inevitably a bit frantic. Mistakes are made and emotions rise and fall. You know you are never over the line. We have to learn a lot of lessons quickly, but how we respond is everything.”

Perceived wisdom has it that of all those able to go down, Boro are the least likely. Southgate cannot rely on that, however.

“Everybody tells you you have enough, but until you actually get there you don’t stop and you never switch off,” he said. “We have to make it happen. We were very close to making it happen against Sunderland. We’ve used up some of the cushion we’ve had over the last couple of weeks. It’s about calm heads now and making sure we get the week’s preparations right so we’re flying on Saturday.”

Southgate fielded his third goalkeeper in as many games and Brad Jones had a particularly unconvincing first half, contributing to Danny Higginbotham’s opener. His manager, though, defended the Australian.

“He’s only just come back from a broken finger and not had a game since,” Southgate said. “Ross (Turnbull) was a bit uncomfortable with his back and Brad was probably fitter than Ross, but he hasn’t played as much lately. There’s no one individual to blame for this result.”

While under other circumstances midfielder Julio Arca would have been pleased to see his former club secure safety, concern for Boro outweighed that.

“It hurts losing that game,” he said. “It’s so disappointing. We started well, scored and gave it away, gave another straight away and worked hard to get an equaliser.

“It’s our fault, losing concentration again. It has happened a lot recently. That’s why we are so angry and disappointed. We just have to win against Portsmouth. This is the point where you have to show how strong you are.’’