IT’S been one heck of a ride for Middlesbrough fans during 2011, but if the team find themselves in the Premier League this time next year, nobody on Teesside will be complaining.
Twelve months ago, Boro were staring at a potentially catastrophic situation. The experiment with Gordon Strachan had backfired spectacularly and although the plan to have Boro heading towards another division was bearing fruition, League One was not the planned destination.
Enter the man who had seen it all before, Tony Mowbray. As a player he actually suffered the ignominy of being in the third tier and remembering how those days nearly saw the death of the club, he set about halting the slide.
Despite a few bumps at the start, Mowbray steered the ship out of the relegation zone with a strong finish to the season which in turn was carried over into the current campaign and sees Boro in the hunt for promotion.
It’s a scenario which Mowbray would have relished 12 months ago.
He said: “I think we would have taken it this time last year. It’s been a year of progress and we’ll keep trying to take the club forward. Football is a result-driven business and they’ve been good over the year.
“We have to try and sustain over the next five months and see where it takes us. We have to try and take the consistency from the last few games and see where the season takes us. We’ve enjoyed the year we’ve had and the results but you’re only as good as your last result and we have to keep pushing on.”
One thing that is currently pleasing Mowbray is the improving striking situation. Marvin Emnes is leading the way, while Scott McDonald has regained his form and new boy Bart Ogbeche put his hand up with a fine display in the win at Cardiff.
Mowbray is delighted that McDonald and Ogbeche have come on given there was a concern that Emnes’ scoring workload was starting to weigh him down.
Mowbray added: “It’s important that more than one guy in the team scores. Marvin has missed the last couple of games so it’s very important Scott McDonald has started to score again. He’s now on a little run, I was always confident he would.
“It was great to see Bart Ogbeche, who’s been doing extra training and that has paid off for him. ”
Whether or not Ogbeche will stay in the team for Monday’s visit of Hull City depends on Emnes’ race to be fit on time.
Mowbray continued: “Marvin didn’t train today – he trained with the physios. That suggests he has got a chance. He’s going to have to train with us Christmas Eve if he wants a chance of playing and I think he probably will. It’s one of those situations where if it was a cup final Marvin would play but we’ve still got 24 games, so we’ve got to weigh up whether it would be worse risking him for a longer period of time.
“Injuries aren’t black or white. We’re at the stage where are we going to risk him. He might play and be fine but if we play him and he hobbles off after 20 minutes and he’s out for the next eight weeks we have a problem. Unless Marvin says to me he is 100% fine then we have a decision to make but I don’t think it’s black and white.”
