Boro’s Red Faction: From Riverside Naughty Step To Pride Of Place

BARE-chested, arms-linked and bouncing in the South Stand, the Boro-barmy Red Faction made vocal and visible the ‘Spirit of Teesside’ in the Doncaster game.
It was quite a spectacle. For the entire 90 minutes the proud and loud Boro ultras were a performance art collective, full of colour and passion, the throbbing drums a powerful heart-beat of an energised crowd. The Red Faction in their South Stand Kop are now part of the matchday furniture and an impressive sight to behold.
Yet just a year ago they were persona non grata, slated by authorities and fellow fans alike and hemmed in by a ring of fidgety fluorescent bouncers.
What a dramatic change. What a positive change.

TV Stars Switch On The Style

BORO’s small screen sizzler against Doncaster was a populist affair: caretaker boss Mark Venus managed to address all demands anxious supporters had been making for months.
We all said Tony Mowbray’s team just needed a bit or tweaking after falling frustratingly short, that it had plenty of talent but wasn’t quite the sum of its parts.We all said that if the problems at the back could be tackled then Boro had enough going forward to hurt teams and were not far off. Many felt it more about changing the mindset than the mechanics..
Against Doncaster we all saw how potent those tweaks could prove in a pulsating 4-0 win..

Mogga’s Exit Is Sad But No Surprise

MOST supporters will have been saddened but not surprised at the departure of Tony Mowbray.
The manager was axed last night by chairman Steve Gibson who feared Boro were drifting towards relegation danger in a season that was supposed to be one of upward trajectory.
His exit – exclusively broken by the Gazette on-line – now may salvage a strangely shrinking season and should also protect a thoroughly deserved reputation as a club legend that was quickly becoming tarnished.
Large sections of the crowd had declared against the boss and there is no putting the genie back in the bottle. Mogga going now will prevent the agony of seeing him roasted for weeks and months by a hostile and divided crowd before leaving with his reputation in tatters. For that we should be grateful.

Tony Mowbray Sacked: Exclusive

TONY Mowbray has gone. He was sacked earlier this evening by Steve Gibson. Mark Venus has been put in temporary charge and wil lbe given the chance over the next few games to stake a claim for the job with a more robust, back to basics approach.
The details are on the Gazette website now.
The move was sad but inevitable, Not only had the boss lost the crowd with the defeat at Barnsley but also lost momentum with a stuttering start to the campaign after splashing out in the summer.
Mogga is a fantastic bloke of great integrity and passion for the club who really put everything into the job… but it wasn’t working out and Steve Gibson has acted with a heavy heart to salvage the season and prevent the manager being roasted alive by angry fans. With Financial Fair Play, gate money is king and the club really can’t afford thousands of supporters to stay away, no matter how sincere their intentions.
With gates and points return falling behind target something had to be done..

Boro Are Barnsley Chopped: The Heat’s Right Back On Mogga

EVERY time his phone rings this weekend Tony Mowbray will no doubt feel a wave of fear. “Steve Gibson calling”… the chairman was at Oakwell to witness Boro’s first half implosion against the basement boys and to hear the exasperated hostile chanting from the away end, the sound of a thousand camels’ backs breaking.
And it wasn’t just Steve Gibson squirming uncomfortably in the directors as Boro squandered a string of good chances then creaked open at the back in the 3-2 defeat. Neil Bausor, Keith Lamb and advisor without portfolio Peter Kenyon were all watching, the entire politburo looking tetchy at the troubling figures from the five year plan and handily gathered should any pressing strategic policy decisions need to be made.
The pressure is very much back on Mogga.

Loan Star Legends v Best Left Alone

LOAN players… short term signings not wanted elsewhere. They are all rubbish, right? Wrong! Three of our all time heroes from that glorious day in Cardiff were loanees. And another three had been.
It is not the concept of loans that is flawed, it is the selection of personnel just passing through that is the problem. And let’s be honest, Boro have had some real duffers over the years. Some of them you wouldn’t have in a lucky bag. Beggers/choosers and all that.
Here’s a couple of teams I’ve picked from the best and the worst loan signings over the years plus a long list for you to pick line-ups of your own temporary Titans and eight week wasters.
Read on…

All Quiet… Especially For the Kids

IT’S quiet out there. Too quiet. No news on any incoming pointy, shouty heading machine central defender to shore up a creaky defence before the trip to mighty Barnsley. No assertive PR offensive really pushing the cut-price ticket offer for Doncaster in a bid to foster an atmosphere like Sheffield Wednesday at this time last year. No noises from within backing the boss after a sticky start, not even a bit of gloating after a first emphatic home win. Maybe everyone is still engaged in a massive sigh of relief.
Jeez, I hate international breaks. Not least because a “weekend off” inevitably means I end up sanding, painting and papering over the cracks.This is the second interruption already (and there is another one next month) and it has come just when Boro had a victory fuelled momentum to take into their clash with the basement boys.
Anyway, Phil Tallentire – the Gazette’s Good Cop – managed to get a quick chat with Tony Mowbray and among other things he put to him a series of questions that have been raised repeatedly on here over recent weeks about Boro’s now rarely sighted young guns: what has happened to them? Will they ever get a chance in the team? And are they good enough? You can read Mogga’s response here.
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Jacob’s Cracker: Butterfield Takes The Biscuit As Boro Finally Click

DEADLINE day signings Jacob Butterfield and Kei Kamara were the stars as rebuilt Boro finally clicked to beat “The Likes Of Yeovil” 4-1 and clock up a vital first home victory to relieve the pressure on Mogga.
Both scored in polished performances as Boro came from behind – again – to grab control and play some entertaining attacking football in yet another pulsating game at the Riverside in which both sides rattled the woodwork and missed sitters.
The win puts a far more positive hue on the recent sequence of results. Two defeats in 10 and unbeaten at home since the opening week sounds far better than the damning shroud of negativity that went with only one win all season and the four in 31 mantra that painted the landscape black last week.

Bam Bam Banner Unites Riverside Crowd On A Night of Frustration

“HE’S ONE of our own. He’s one of our own….”
That was an important unifying refrain weaved through yet another frustrating “should’a, would’a, could’a” stalemate that ultimately no one will be happy about. The result was frustrating and will deepen the in-fighting … but there were some positives to take from the game that should strengthen our spirit and resolve.