EINDHOVEN is known as the 'City of Light' thanks to its long association with electric company Philips and its museum that houses the world's first light bulb.

Last night, in the city's Philips Stadion, the lights finally went out on Steve McClaren's five-year Middlesbrough career.

Sadly, the dream of a maiden European trophy that has gradually engulfed Teesside this season was also extinguished.

Two hundred and fifty games after McClaren began his Riverside revolution with a 4-0 defeat to Arsenal, he ended it by losing by an identical margin against Sevilla.

Next season, he will be gone and the self-styled 'Small Town in Europe' will revert to simply being a 'Small Town'. It is safe to say, though, that the incredible events of the last two months will not be forgotten.

Nobody will forget the incredible comeback against Basle that looked unrepeatable. Nobody will forget when lightning struck twice against Steaua Bucharest.

And nobody will forget the incredible experience of being in Eindhoven last night when Middlesbrough rolled into town.

The sights and sounds that accompanied the European showpiece will live long in the memory, even if it was Sevilla skipper Javi Navarro lifting a UEFA Cup bedecked in red and white aloft after the final whistle, not Gareth Southgate.

McClaren leaves Teesside with 97 wins from his 250 games - a ratio of 38.8 per cent.

How he will wish he could have added a 98th last night. Instead, there was to be no fairytale farewell, no dramatic denouement to a reign that has courted success and failure in equal measure.

That it was chairman Steve Gibson who was being serenaded by the Middlesbrough fans in the closing stages, not McClaren, can only have added to his hurt.

As soon as he touches down on English soil this morning, Gibson will have to start addressing the thorny issue of what comes next.

A chairman who prides himself on the closeness of his relationship with his manager, and who has shown commendable loyalty in the past by appointing just two bosses in the space of 12 years, will refuse to rush into a hasty decision while there are considerable question marks hanging over some of the leading candidates.

Can Martin O'Neill be persuaded to accept a backroom staff that Gibson considers to be an immovable part of Middlesbrough's future? Could Paul Jewell repeat his Wigan heroics at the Riverside? Would Terry Venables be the perfect head of a new managerial system based around dynamic, young coaches such as Gareth Southgate and Colin Cooper?

All questions that will take some answering, but all questions that can wait.

Instead of being about the future, last night was about the present and the past - a present that was almost too unbelievable to contemplate and a past that has become ever more memorable with each passing year under McClaren.

When the 45-year-old arrived at the Riverside in the summer of 2001, he did so as a managerial unknown, famed for standing alongside Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United won the treble two years earlier.

When he officially leaves on May 16, he will depart as the leader of his country. The transformation has been both rapid and radical, matched only by the makeover that has changed the complexion of the club he has led.

Whatever anyone on Teesside thinks about McClaren - and it is worth remembering that there were plenty of supporters calling for his head less than three months ago - it is impossible to argue with his achievements.

He started last night's game as Middlesbrough's most successful manager courtesy of 2004's Carling Cup win - he ended it with his head held high despite the heaviest UEFA Cup final defeat of the last 20 years.

Yet his legacy does not stop there.

When his replacement eventually arrives at the Riverside, he will not only take over a club with the experience of a European final under its belt, he will also inherit arguably the best crop of youngsters in the country.

Last weekend's game at Fulham, in which Boro fielded 15 players who were born within 30 miles of their stadium, proved as much. Last night's starting line-up merely underlined how far the club's Academy products have come.

McClaren's final act as Middlesbrough manager was to hand 19-year-old James Morrison the biggest night of his life.

For days, he had been leaning towards the experience of Ray Parlour but, in the end, he became intoxicated with the elixir of youth. A certain Theo Walcott could be an England regular by the end of the year at this rate.

At 8.43pm local time, Morrison emerged into a Philips Stadion that had witnessed an Olympic-style opening ceremony awash with colour and noise.

Acrobats somersaulted their way around the pitch - with Arjen Robben in their side, Chelsea fans already know plenty about Dutchman tumbling in the box - and a hundred local children held giant Middlesbrough and Sevilla banners to welcome the two sides.

At the preview's peak, a dozen huge orange balloons were released into the air. The future was bright - but was it also to be Boro's?

McClaren stood uneasily on the sidelines. Despite the global profile that goes hand-in-hand with his next position, the Yorkshireman remains uncomfortable with the bright lights of the media glare.

He will have to change. It might not come much bigger than this for Middlesbrough but it will for their departing boss.

Thankfully, though, football is a great provider of focus. Despite all the distractions and drama that inevitably accompany a European final, the nuts and bolts do not change once the game gets under way.

Within ten seconds of kick-off, Stewart Downing was passing the ball up the left-hand touchline, Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink was moaning about a misplaced pass and McClaren was standing with his hands in his pocket by the side of the bench. Normal service, in other words, had been resumed.

Normal service for Boro, though, also involves the occasional scare. With Sevilla's midfielders knocking the ball around at a breakneck pace, Chris Riggott was forced to make two vital interceptions inside the opening ten minutes, thwarting Brazilian Luis Fabiano on each occasion.

Behind him, Mark Schwarzer sported a mask to protect the cheekbone he fractured in the FA Cup semi-final.

It wasn't quite Phantom of the Opera but the Australian was alert enough to spot Javier Saviola ghosting behind the Middlesbrough defence moments later.

Unfortunately, he was helpless when Fabiano eluded Riggott in the 26th minute.

The less-well-known half of Sevilla's South American forward line arced an inch-perfect header that found the back of the net via the left-hand post.

Still, this was Middlesbrough - we'd all been here before.

Yet we hadn't seen the Teessiders play quite so anaemically. A speculative sixth-minute strike from Fabio Rochemback was all that Boro had to show for their first-half endeavours, with neither Hasselbaink nor Mark Viduka getting any change out of the long-haired Navarro.

Clearly, it was time for a change and, as McClaren has proved throughout this scintillating cup run, England's next manager is not as indecisive as the present incumbent.

Out went Morrison, in came Massimo Maccarone - could lightning strike for a third time?

There was certainly a rumble of thunder seven minutes after the break when Viduka slammed a close-range strike into the legs of Andres Palop and the storm clouds continued to gather when Maccarone's speculative effort from the right-hand touchline almost crept under the crossbar on the hour mark.

Ultimately, though, the lightning bolt failed to materialise.

It wasn't for the want of trying - the Teessiders poured forward after the break and only Viduka will know how he failed to hit the target after breaking clear in the 75th minute - but the writing was on the wall before Enzo Maresca rammed home a late double that was embellished by Fredi Kanoute. In the city of light, McClaren and Middlesbrough were left in the dark.

Read more about Middlesbrough here.