Magpies show Boro the way

Middlesbrough manager McClaren believes old wizard Robson has worked the oracle again at Newcastle.

The 70-year-old boss, wrongly rumoured to be ready to quit three weeks ago, has seemingly cast his spell at a time of crisis and reversed his side's early-season slump.

After crashing out of the Champions League in catastrophic fashion and scraping together only three points from their first six Premiership games, the Magpies have gone about restoring pride.

Successive 1-0 victories on the domestic beat and progress in the UEFA Cup, have lifted the gloom that descended like fog on the Tyne.

In contrast, the smog on the Tees is again threatening to envelop Boro just when clear blue skies were appearing.

McClaren's men made a similarly miserable start to the season, mustering a mere point from their opening five matches.

Like their derby rivals, they rediscovered their winning touch in the Premiership with consecutive 1-0 home-and-away victories.

But despite dominating home games against Chelsea and Newcastle for long periods, Boro have lost twice by a single-goal margin and are now languishing again in the bottom three.

Newcastle began the day there, with Boro a place, a point and a game ahead of them.

But a display of world-class goalkeeping from Shay Given, supported by ruggedly resolute defending and a slice of luck or two, provided the platform for their first away League win this term and one achieved via a slightly fortuitous Shola Ameobi strike.

Boro now face a potentially tricky trip to Tottenham on Sunday, and McClaren said: "It's a question of holding your nerve and not panicking. Bobby said the same about his team two games ago. Now they've won two games and shot up the table.

"In their first few games they were struggling desperately for a win. I remember Bobby saying it wasn't a time to panic, that they had to hold their nerve.

"Bobby had a difficult job when he took over at Newcastle. He needed to turn things around and he did that with style. To get them where they have been in the Premiership and in Europe has been a tremendous achievement, and we have to try to follow a similar path.

"It's a very thin line between winning and losing in this league and we're on the wrong side of that at the moment.

"Eventually it will turn for us. If we'd beaten Newcastle, we would have been halfway up the table and everyone would have been talking about a magnificent performance and a marvellous win, but it wasn't to be.

"Winning breeds confidence, so it's a problem for us at the moment.

"It's hard to take, but once you analyse things and look at the performance, people won't believe we've been beaten again here like we were by Leeds and Chelsea.

"Five or six games ago, we weren't playing well and were getting beaten. But anyone who has seen us lately, especially in the last two home games, knows we have a very good team.

"You don't dominate the likes of Chelsea and Newcastle without eventually turning things around. We should have won this game in the first 20 minutes.

"All that is missing is the final piece of the jigsaw, which is sticking the ball in the net.

"But with the chances we are creating and the way we are playing - as Bobby has said - we won't lose many games here and we'll win a few.''

McClaren is right when he talks about a dearth of goals: Boro have managed only seven in nine Premiership games.

But they certainly can't afford to lose too many more home games: they've already lost four out of five in the League.

Much, he admits, now rests on the return to form and fitness of £8.15m record signing Massimo Maccarone.

The Italian international's nine-goal haul was enough to ensure he topped Boro's charts in his first season with the club.

A pre-season ankle ligament injury delayed the start of his second term on Teesside until his appearance as a last-20-minutes substitute on Saturday.

McClaren stressed: "Massimo was our top scorer last season and it's good to see him back. He's been missing a long while, but he looked very lively when he came on and we're pinning our hopes on him.''

Maccarone looks certain to start at White Hart Lane after the failure of front pair Malcolm Christie and Szilard Nemeth to seriously trouble Newcastle.

The one time they combined to telling effect, when Christie put Nemeth through in only the eighth minute, the Slovakian was denied at point-blank range by the brilliance of Given.

Boro were firmly in the ascendancy until Ameobi, deputising again for the injured Craig Bellamy, grabbed his first goal of the season in the 21st minute.

Lee Bowyer crossed from the left, skipper Alan Shearer performed a shrewd far-post knockdown, and Gary Speed trundled the ball off his chest to Ameobi who turned to sweep home from close range.

A minute earlier, Given had saved well from Boro's Brazilian midfielder Doriva. The Republic of Ireland international set the tone for the afternoon when he beat out the influential Gaizka Mendieta's header in the second minute.

But the piece de resistance came three minutes before half-time when Given pulled off an astonishing reflex save on the line to keep out Frenchman Franck Queudrue's header from Bolo Zenden's right-wing corner. Boro's anguish was compounded when, from the rebound, Queudrue's shot clipped the bar.

The introduction of Juninho and Jonathan Greening at the same time as Maccarone made little difference and it was Queudrue who came closest again when he narrowly headed over from Danny Mills' centre.

While McClaren may marvel at Robson's rescue mission, the Magpies' manager is more cautious.

"The last two weeks have been rewarding, but it's not over yet,'' he said. "We haven't turned the corner and we still have a long way to go.

"We said after going to Arsenal that, starting with the home game against Southampton, we had a sequence of matches which - without any disrespect to anybody - we should not lose with the ability we have at our club. That's been verified here, but the question is whether we can keep doing it?''

Tomorrow night's game away to Fulham and this Saturday's visit of Portsmouth, who beat Liverpool at Fratton Park, will provide the answer.

Result: Middlesbrough 0 Newcastle United 1.

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