HAVING tipped Boro pre-season to finish above Newcastle, I'm beginning to wish I'd had a large wager. It increasingly strikes me that the Smoggies are doing everything right, while the Geordies continue to labour under the impression that 52,000 will flock to watch them whatever they do.

I have it on good authority that even the food in hospitality is better at the Riverside Stadium, nor does it cost as much as at St James', where the Bamburgh Suite was filled with 1,000 people at £400-a-head last Saturday.

For that little outlay they received an uninspiring three-course meal then watched the players dish up an even less inspiring 1-1 draw against Portsmouth.

Everything stems from the man at the top and the more I hear of Boro chairman Steve Gibson the more I'm convinced of that.

Speaking about agents this week, his words were music to my ears: "The majority of them are liars. They'd take the last penny out of your pocket if they could. They're the most unsavoury part of football."

Two of the most pleasing aspects of what Gibson has created are the training facilities and the youth set-up. It would be wonderful to think that more of Boro's FA Youth Cup winning team would mature into Premiership stars so that there would be no need to deal with agents such as the one who apparently wanted £150,000 for bringing Bolo Zenden from Chelsea.

After making perhaps his one mistake in hanging on to Bryan Robson too long, Gibson was shrewd enough to appoint one of the best up-and-coming managers in the game and is now reaping the rewards.

If Steve McClaren could move one step ahead of his mentor, Sir Alex Ferguson, and clinch fourth place both he and Gibson should be granted the freedom of Teesside.

THE most telling statistic from Las Vegas on Saturday night was that Vitali Klitschko landed 296 punches and Danny Williams 44. For all his talk about how Frank Bruno came back from a defeat to win a title, there can be no second chance for Williams.

If he must fight again let it be against Auntie Audley, then if Harrison wins we can start to take him half seriously, which is about as good as boxing deserves.

This was underlined by the fact that there were two world light welterweight title fights on Saturday night.

On the undercard at Las Vegas Miguel Cotto defended the WBO belt and in London Ricky Hatton hung on to the WBU title. There are five versions in all and now Hatton wants to fight the IBF holder Kostya Tszyu, who is said to be No 1. At least it would be a contest.

THE cricket authorities seem to be batting on a couple of sticky wickets at the moment. The more contentious one is their decision to go ahead and award more Test matches to Sky under the next televison deal, due to come into force in 2006.

This reopens the old debate about balancing revenue against exposure and it certainly isn't clear which offers the greater benefit to the game.

More cash means more grass roots investment, while exposure to a greater audience on terrestrial TV is said to encourage more children to take up the game.

When I wer' a lad we didn't play cricket because of ball-by-ball coverage on the BBC because it didn't exist, and I can't imagine the youth of today abandoning all the distractions from which they get an instant fix to watch a Test match unfolding for several hours on the box.

No, I'm afraid if we want to interest children in flannelled foolery these days it makes much more sense to pitch them into Kwik Cricket at an early age then organise school trips to Twenty20 matches.

The other issue concerns the International Cricket Council's wish to decamp from Lord's to somewhere like Dubai.

As this is the discredited body responsible for obliging England to play in Zimbabwe, I couldn't give a broken bail where they base themselves, but the debate gave our Sports Minister another opportunity to put his foot in it.

Mr Caborn said he would like to meet the ICC when they were next in town, by which he presumably meant London, where the ICC president, Pakistani Eshan Mani, has lived for 40 years. And the chief executive, Malcolm Speed, is based at Lord's.

TALKING of Sports Ministers, none was more hapless than the buffoon Tony Banks and the best recent news regarding our esteemed politicians is that he is to stand down at the next election. The worst news is that Alistair Campbell has been appointed by Sir Clive Woodward as some kind of media adviser for next summer's Lions tour to New Zealand.

Woodward had, quite astonishingly, already named a back-up team of 26 and it stretches credulity even further that he feels he will benefit from the assistance of Campbell.

As he's a bigger spinner than Shane Warne wouldn't he serve more purpose with the England cricketers in South Africa?

Published: 17/12/2004