WATCHING proudly from the director's box, Middlesbrough chairman Steve Gibson's smile was as wide as the River Tees last night.

In 1986 the Riverside Stadium was a mere pipe dream for a fresh-faced 28-year-old, whose only objective at the time was to save his beloved Boro from extinction.

In 19 years the boy from Park End has done good and last night's historic encounter with Czech champions Banik Ostrava was a sign of how far the club has came under the man they call 'Mr Middlesbrough'.

It was in 1994 that Gibson replaced Colin Henderson as chairman with big plans for his boyhood heroes - just eight years after assembling a consortium to rescue the club.

Within two years of his appointment Gibson had built a 30,000 all-seater stadium and brought England legend Bryan Robson to the club as player-manager.

And while current boss Steve McClaren may have the accolade of being Boro's most successful manager in the club's history, the foundations were firmly put in place by his predecessor to take the club to the next stage.

But where Robson, with the backing of Gibson, attracted world superstars Juninho and Fabrizio Ravenelli to the Riverside, the Teessiders now have a more stable look about them under McClaren.

But even on the most important night in the club's history, McClaren still had time to make the short trip upstairs to exchange a good luck handshake with Gibson.

And they would need some good fortune in an edgy first half in which the Czech minnows had Gibson looking away on more than one occasion.

No fewer than nine players who started for Boro last night already had European experience with former clubs - the majority of which brought in by McClaren during the summer with Europe beckoning for the first time in 128 years.

And once McClaren's men were able to find their rhythm after the interval, Boro's class began to shine through.

First, Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had Gibson leaping out of his seat after 57 minutes to fire Boro in front, before Mark Viduka added a second six minutes later.

And as Gibson's name rang out loud around the Riverside party zone, Viduka added his second and Boro's fourth of the evening when he planted his header past Martin Raska with ten minutes remaining.

As French referee Pascal Garibian blew the whistle on Boro's first European outing, Gibson stood proud to clap every single player off the field before giving the thumbs up to McClaren.

Providing Boro complete the formalities in the Bazaly Stadium in a fortnight's time, they could soon be rubbing shoulders with European heavyweights Lazio, Parma and Benfica to name a few.

Not bad progress for a club which almost slipped out of existence almost two decades ago.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.