THE IRONY isn't lost on Colin Cooper when it is suggested he could end the season with the peculiar distinction of possessing two cup winners' medals without having appeared in either final.

Cooper confesses it was a kick in the proverbials when Middlesbrough manager Steve McClaren completely overlooked him for the historic Carling Cup final victory over Bolton at Cardiff's Millennium Stadium nearly five weeks ago.

In two spells with the club spanning 20 years, Sedgefield-born Cooper has played almost 400 games for Boro.

The 37-year-old former England defender, who rejoined the Teessiders from Nottingham Forest in August 1998, rolled back the years with a string of sterling performances in the first half of this season, chiefly as a stand-in at centre-back for cruciate ligament victim Ugo Ehiogu.

Since Ehiogu's return, however, Cooper has started only one game and fallen behind Chris Riggott, who was preferred among the substitutes at Cardiff, in the defensive pecking order.

Boro have a Premiership rematch with Bolton at the Riverside on Saturday, but Cooper's thoughts will be trained on events at Old Trafford a day later.

Sunderland, who he recently joined on loan until the end of the season, face Millwall, the club he signed for when he left Boro in 1991, in an all-First Division FA Cup semi-final.

Cooper, whose only Cup final experience was at Wembley in 1990 when Boro were beaten in the second-rate Zenith Data Systems competition by Chelsea, made just two appearances during this season's Carling campaign but received one of the 20 medals handed out to McClaren's squad.

Sunderland boss Mick McCarthy, who had Cooper as a defensive partner and a charge at Millwall, is expected to name him as a substitute this weekend.

After that, who knows? If Sunderland reach the final, where they would face the might of either Arsenal or Manchester United, a place on the bench would be enough to guarantee him some sort of gong.

Out of contract this summer and eyeing a possible player-coach role with Boro next term, Cooper admitted: "It was a cracking season until the turn of the year.

"I've been a Boro boy and, although winning the Carling Cup was fantastic, I was very disappointed not to figure at Cardiff because I was desperate to play for Boro in a major cup final.

"I hoped to play rather than expected to play. I knew where I stood as soon as Ugo was fit, having had a conversation with the manager.

"I just hoped I would be involved in some shape or form and it was a major kick where it hurts when I wasn't even on the bench, especially after the season I felt I'd had. I went through the 700 career appearance barrier, and I'm now three short of 400 for Boro.

"But a manager's job is hard enough and when you get to my age, you realise that ranting and raving doesn't get you anywhere. You just have to take it on the chin.

"I was desperate for them to win something and by doing that they've also qualified for Europe, which is great.

"Having the association I've had with Middlesbrough, I was really pleased for the club because they had taken a lot of stick down the years. It was massive to finally win a major competition.

"I do have a medal, but having not played in the final, it doesn't mean that much.

"But in ten years' time, long after I've retired, I'll look back and say: 'Well, the medal is there and I did play some part, as disappointed as I was not to play in the final.' I could be one of the few people who pick up two winners' medals and never play in a final.

"I've just come here to help Sunderland. Gary Breen and Phil Babb are playing very well and the plus for me is that I am involved; at Middlesbrough I was reserve-team coach every other week.

"I'm here as cover and it gives me a buzz - even at 37! Not being Cup-tied gives me an opportunity, but if Mick decides the two lads have been pulling up roses for him and he has to stick with them, that's fair enough.

"Everybody saw what it meant to Middlesbrough and, if your turn the tables from a Sunderland point of view, you know the fans would be as passionate about getting to a final as the Boro fans were.

"All my family were Sunderland fans. My mum said my grandad would have turned in his grave if he'd known I'd played for Middlesbrough instead of Sunderland.

"I remember 1973 when they won the Cup against Leeds, but I was only six. In the area I grew up, most people were Sunderland supporters in those days.''

Where football is the be-all and end-all for some, family will always come first for Cooper.

The tragic loss of two-year-old son Finlay, who died in January 2002 just hours after Boro's FA Cup fourth-round victory over Manchester United, almost forced Cooper to quit the game.

But the support of others, not least the much-maligned fans of Millwall, helped him cope.

"I have a massive soft spot for Millwall,'' he said. "Having been there for a couple of years as the northerner who went south, I was treated very well by the people and the supporters.

"That's where Mick and I bumped into each other first time around.

"After the events of two years ago, the Millwall fans showed how much they thought of me and held a charity game against the Middlesbrough supporters in Finlay's name.

"I went down to that game just to tell them how grateful I was. For them to show that much respect, and be willing to do something like that for us, was amazingly touching."

Read more about Middlesbrough here.