Boro do their best to brighten the gloom of failure and frustration

MIDDLESBROUGH

A SEASON that has had it all. Well, all except for a little silverware that would have taken pride of place alongside the Carling Cup in Middlesbrough's trophy cabinet.

This was a season Boro fans will never forget. Reaching the UEFA Cup final is in itself a remarkable achievement for the North-East town, even if the run came to a catastrophic end in Eindhoven on Wednesday night.

The 4-0 defeat to Sevilla left Middlesbrough's players and supporters in tears, it also ensured Steve McClaren's five-year reign did not receive the perfect parting gift.

While the enormous list of Academy products to have emerged on to the first-team stage this season has undoubtedly provided the club with a great deal of optimism, McClaren's successor will have to deal with a failure to qualify for Europe next season.

Quite rightly the progress made to the UEFA Cup final and an FA Cup semi-final made everyone sit up and take notice; it probably also clinched McClaren the England job.

But there is no hiding from the fact that this season's exploits in the knock-out competitions has cost Middlesbrough a decent placing in the Premiership.

Fourteenth spot in the league hardly represents progress, particularly as they ended up seventh a year ago. No European football next season could mean attracting new players becomes more difficult for the new manager, whoever he is. But, if nothing else after a campaign of frustration in the Premiership, chairman Steve Gibson and the club's faithful can at least take great heart in the fact they did actually reach a major European final - even if the outcome did, almost, verge on the calamitous.

Star of the season: Chris Riggott - has proven himself to be the perfect successor to Gareth Southgate.

Flop of the season: Abel Xavier - tarnished the club's reputation and disgraced himself after testing positive for taking a performance-enhancing drug.

Moment of the season: Massimo Maccarone's late, late diving header in the UEFA Cup semi-finals against Steaua Bucharest at the Riverside, which completed a memorable comeback.

NEWCASTLE UNITED

ALATE surge under the guidance of caretaker boss Glenn Roeder ensured there was something to cheer about at the end of the 2005/06 campaign.

The Magpies' season looked over when they crashed to a 3-0 defeat at Manchester City in February, leaving Graeme Souness' side 15th in the Premiership.

Chairman Freddy Shepherd decided enough was enough and Souness was gone, handing the reins to United's academy chief on a caretaker basis.

It was an inspired move and the effect was immediate.

Roeder led the Magpies to ten victories and two draws in the club's final 15 Premiership matches, a final Premier League finish of seventh and a place in the Intertoto Cup. United's former captain also took the club to the FA Cup sixth round, where they narrowly went out to Chelsea.

But a season which promised so much early on failed to deliver as Souness made excuse after excuse as to why the club was underachieving.

The 52-year-old Scot's undoubted highlight was the capture of Real Madrid striker Michael Owen for £16m. But that was as good as it got for the former Blackburn boss. He spent a further £20m on Albert Luque (£9.5m), Scott Parker (£6.5m) and Emre (£3.8m) yet the club still produced unimaginative and insipid performances. A wretched Carling Cup fourth-round defeat to Wigan's second string personified Souness' time on Tyneside.

If Shepherd's decision to sack Souness after the City debacle was the club's defining moment of a turbulent campaign, then the following fixture against Portsmouth was the most memorable.

Alan Shearer needed one more goal to break the scoring record of United legend Jackie Milburn and he got it in front of his adoring Geordie public at the Gallowgate End.

From that moment on the turnaround in the club's fortunes was astonishing and the resurrection was complete, well, almost.

Star of the season: Shay Given proved once again he is the Premiership's most consistent goalkeeper, although Charles N'Zogbia came a close second.

Flop of the season: Albert Luque will go down as one of the worst signings in Premier League history.

Moment of the season: Shearer breaking Jackie Milburn's scoring record against Portsmouth just pips the major coup of signing Michael Owen from Real Madrid for £17m.

SUNDERLAND

IN the end, the optimism lasted precisely 11 minutes. With Sunderland's supporters still celebrating their return to the Premiership, Charlton striker Darren Bent drilled a low strike past a helpless Kelvin Davis. Needless to say, it was downhill from there.

Three years after they broke the record for the lowest points total in Premiership history, the Black Cats plumbed new depths of ineptitude.

Less points than ever before, less wins than ever before, more defeats than anyone had ever experienced in the top-flight. It was a calamitous campaign from start to finish. In fact, things had started to go wrong even before that. Mick McCarthy's summer signing policy of quantity before quality handicapped his side before a ball had even been kicked.

While Wigan and West Ham added pace and power up front, McCarthy, working to strict financial guidelines, chose to invest in a hotch-potch of Championship plodders. Ultimately, they simply weren't good enough. There were occasional highlights along the way - the 2-0 win at Middlesbrough and May's 2-1 win over Fulham that finally ended the marathon wait for a home win - but the season quickly degenerated into a seemingly endless run of predictable, if narrow, defeats.

McCarthy was finally jettisoned after March's defeat to Manchester City but, by then, Bob Murray's wielding of the axe was simply a case of too little, too late.

April's humiliating capitulation at the hands of Newcastle was especially hard to stomach and, while Niall Quinn's potential takeover offers the prospect of a brighter future, the last nine months have been unremittingly woeful on Wearside.

Star of the season: Liam Lawrence - Started slowly but shone in the second half of the season and was one of the few Sunderland players to show anything resembling Premiership class.

Flop of the season: Alan Stubbs - The aging centre-half was watching Everton games instead of Sunderland ones when he was injured. His January return to Merseyside came not a moment too soon.

Moment of the season: Matthew Taylor's second goal in Portsmouth's 4-1 win at the Stadium of Light. Kelvin Davis' haunted expression as the 45-yard shot flew over his head summed up Sunderland's plight perfectly, as did the reaction of the angry fan that challenged him on the pitch moments later.

Darlington

Season 2005/06 was deja vu for Darlington, mirroring the previous season as Quakers took their play-off push right to the last game of the season but ultimately missed out, though this was due to their failings in the previous 45 league games and not just the final fixture.

Just like last season, Darlington stuttered and stumbled their way through the year, failing to gain any momentum during a disappointing campaign in which they were unable to win back-to-back matches till January. A contributing factor was clearly the inability to field a settled side.

This lack of consistency was epitomised in the forward line, where Darlington rarely fielded a settled pairing, which undermined the season. Believing Guylain Ndumbu-Nsungu was worthy of only a six-month contract last summer was to prove a huge error. He went on to score ten goals before, inevitably, moving on during the January transfer window to Cardiff City.

In searching for a preferred front pair, as well as tinkering elsewhere in the team, David Hodgson chopped and changed all season, keeping the same side only once as Quakers managed to use more players in one season than ever before since entering the Football League in 1921. His formations also varied as he attempted to tailor new tactics for each opponent, not always successfully.

Throughout his 345-game tenure, spread out over the last 11 years, Hodgson has never been afraid of change but the other, not unrelated, recurring feature of his management is that Darlington have never won promotion either. Perhaps next season he will be more patient.

Despite Hodgson's changing ways, Darlington finished eighth for a second season running and that's better, historically, than a club of Quakers' standing is used to.

Star of the season: Shelton Martis - The Dutchman provided a calming influence at the centre of defence in his first season in the English game. Looks set for a bright future.

Flop of the season: Simon Johnson - He arrived last summer with a good reputation as a lightning quick striker and was expected to get goals. But they didn't come and he was eventually moved back into midfield. Must do better.

Moment of the season: Chris Brass' hilarious own gifted Quakers an early 1-0 lead over relegation-threatened Bury and, with two games to go, had David Hodgson's side gone on to win they would have had a great chance of reaching the play-offs. But, just as could be said about their whole season, Darlington blew it.

Hartlepool

THE heartbreaking play-off final defeat to Sheffield Wednesday a year ago now feels a million miles away. You can't help but feel a sense of what might have been?

Had Hartlepool United been playing in the Championship this season then things would not be as bad as they are now. League Two football arrives in August and two successive League One play-off campaigns are forgotten.

But, in truth, a season playing just one step outside the Premiership could have proved a little embarrassing. Under management rookie Martin Scott's guidance it is difficult to see how they would have coped.

After all Scott's influence in the dressing room this season only resulted in confrontation with one of his own players, something which contributed to his departure.

Regardless of the scenes behind closed doors, Pool's results were bad enough to have earned him the sack anyway. The 3-0 defeat to Blackpool may have been the last time he sat in the dugout but one win in 15 games before that had seen the club plummet towards the drop zone.

Paul Stephenson's appointment as caretaker boss, and Chris Turner's arrival as Director of Sport, helped improve results. But the rot had already set in and not even the return of Joel Porter and Adam Boyd could alter that.

Star of the season: Ritchie Humphreys - had to perform in numerous positions but acquitted himself well wherever.

Flop of the season: Michael Proctor - much was expected of the former Sunderland winger but little materialised.

Moment of the season: More a defining moment, the defeat to MK Dons in the fourth last game was the point where supporters began to lose hope.