SOME three hours before kick-off in the Philips Stadion, there were no fans but plenty of Middlesbrough flags already draping the perimeter fence.

Of course the stadium only came to life when both sets of passionate supporters filled the arena as the start of the UEFA Cup final rapidly approached but, nevertheless, the home of PSV still looked fit to host a final when it was empty.

Question marks have quite rightly been raised as to why Eindhoven was awarded one of the showpiece events of European club football when it only holds 35,000 fans. There was nothing wrong with the arena itself though.

In need of a lick of paint perhaps but with its steep stands and stairs it seemed to peer over the playing surface and created a vibrant atmosphere.

It is one of Holland's three best stadia, so there was never going to be any doubt about its ability to recreate the big match ambience it needed. It was aided by the fact thousands of the supporters who had travelled from the North-East without tickets managed to get them.

There is no hiding from the fact Boro's momentous night would have been even better had it been in a bigger stadium, but the trip to Eindhoven will never be forgotten.

INSIDE the impressive stadium, which does look grand even though it's capacity is the same as the Riverside, there was one famous face among the supporters, and he was there well before many of the booze fuelled Boro fans who stayed in town to have a drink.

Comedian Bob Mortimer, who hails from Teesside, was with his mates and looking as excited as the rest, although there was no immediate colouring of red among his clothing. Quite why he was wearing a really bad beige jacket in this heat is strange.

Other than the final, there is one other thing he will have loved about Eindhoven and that was the Duck Do that everyone seemed to go to on Wednesday night. What's a Duck Do? I hear you all ask: Quack, quack, quack. We'll let Bob have that one.

LAST weekend Eindhoven was the focus of Europe for a completely different reason.

The relatively small city in southern Holland played host to the very first LEGO League Open European Championship.

Kids aged between eight and 15 years old had to build moving robots in Eindhoven's Auditorium Technical University and get them to do a series of tasks. The blocks Steve McClaren has been building during his five years on Teesside means whoever takes over from him will have the basis for success.

STEVE McClaren may have been confirmed as the next England manager last week but his appearance in the UEFA Cup final has proven he is not as well known as he soon will be.

Despite being one of just two managers who were in charge of the two teams last night, the organisers still struggled to grasp the spelling of the Boro boss' name.

It has been well documented in recent weeks that former Manchester United chairman Martin Edwards got his name wrong when Sir Alex Ferguson made him his number two in 1999 and he was introduced to the media.

But, after five years in charge of Middlesbrough, you would think he has done a good enough job for the European game's governing body to have known how to spell his name.

Instead, throughout the official match day programme for the final, his name has been spelt like the Formula One car.

It's hard to imagine UEFA making a similar mistake when he takes charge of his country.