Saturday Spotlight: Relegation would be nothing new

Middlesbrough last went down in 1997, Sunderland three years ago and Newcastle in 1989. Northern Echo Sport remembers the last time each of the North-East’s big three finished in the bottom three.

IF SUNDERLAND fans are fearing the worst after a run of six matches without a win, plunging the club into relegation trouble, it could be worse – it could be 2006.

On Tuesday it will be three years to the day that Kevin Ball, the caretaker manager, led Sunderland to a spirited goalless draw at Manchester United which only acted as the final nail in the team’s Premier League coffin.

While Sunderland managed to finally claim their only win of the season at the Stadium of Light against Fulham in their penultimate fixture, the damage had already been well and truly done.

The dire situation that the team found themselves in was an indication of how difficult it can be to compete in the top-flight without cash to spend.

Having helped Sunderland to promotion the previous year, Mick McCarthy lost his job in the March after enduring such a dismal time in the top-flight.

But having spent just under £5m on transfers, one of his bargain basement signings, Tommy Miller, feels that the work of McCarthy has been under-estimated – particularly given that Roy Keane spent in excess of £70m during his two years in charge.

“It was a long, hard frustrating season,” said Miller, who played 29 times during that ill-fated campaign, scoring three times. “Mick McCarthy did not have the money to spend to invest in the squad, like Roy Keane had.

“Mick had to look around the lower leagues and really try to unearth players. Had he been given the money that Roy Keane had to spend Sunderland would have stayed up, I’m sure.

“Sunderland should not be in the mess they are in right now, they have big names like Kieran Richardson, Djibril Cisse and Kenwyne Jones.

They should get out of it and I think they will.”

There were no big names in the 2005/06 squad, but there was always a togetherness to carry on giving 100 per cent under McCarthy and Ball once the former Republic of Ireland manager had departed.

But while there might have been a good attitude running through their squad there was no redressing a slide that had left Sunderland rooted to the foot of the table.

“We scored something like 26 goals all season,” said former Hartlepool United midfielder Miller, now back at Ipswich from where he was signed from by McCarthy. “We just couldn’t score goals and that was the main problem.

“It was the perfect move for me in the summer before that season because it was my Premier League chance with the club I used to go and watch when I was young.

“But there were still some good memories, I scored some goals, the one at Middlesbrough sticks in my mind.

I also played in the two derbies with Newcastle, they were special, even though we lost.

“The confidence throughout the squad was lacking, though.

And when you are not scoring goals and not keeping clean sheets unfortunately you are going to be in trouble, which is what we were.”

With Sunderland’s class of 2009 still sitting three points clear of the bottom three, Miller is convinced that Ricky Sbragia can still keep his former club in the Premier League.

“They all just need to keep going until the end, that’s what we had to do even though we knew what was coming,” said Miller. “But I know how it feels to be losing regularly, you just have to try to stay as upbeat as possible.”

* by Paul Fraser

IT IS one of the overriding memories of Bryan Robson’s days in charge.

An emotional Juninho, the little Brazilian, wiping away the tears on the Elland Road pitch after failing to prevent Middlesbrough from dropping into the Football League in May 1997.

The dream of chairman Steve Gibson was not supposed to include a chapter like this. Having invested heavily in recruiting a selection of star names, the last thing anyone expected was relegation from the Premier League.

And, looking back on that frustrating season, there remains disappointment that the rest of the country will never know just what might have been achieved under Robson had Boro stayed up that year.

“Bryan Robson had a lot of top, top players lined up,”

said Craig Hignett, who had an integral role in the promotion campaign that followed the 1996/97 season.

“It makes you wonder, of course it does.

“We were aware that Roberto Carlos was one of them, there was also talk that another Brazilian, Bebeto, might be coming – and these were world superstars. To think that they could have been at the Riverside Stadium that summer is incredible.

“They would have been coming to a club that already had players like Juninho, Fabrizio Ravanelli and Emerson, so you can only imagine the potential. But it wasn’t to be.”

But while fans will forever remember the season that those three names all turned out in Boro colours, there is also an acceptance that their attitudes contributed to the downfall.

As Robson steered his squad through to an FA Cup final and League Cup final, the huge number of matches weighed heavily on the shoulders of the players.

“Without doubt it was a factor,” said Hignett. “During the month of April we had to play seven matches in 18 days and the pressure was intense.

“Cracks appeared in team spirit with ten matches to go and that was just the wrong time. Players were not happy with other players. Ravanelli was saying things in the Italian press, Emerson didn’t come back for one reason or another, the biggest being the Rio Carnival.

“There was a lot of jealousy flying around, so much so that some players wouldn’t pass to other players. Juninho said a few things to Ravanelli so he wouldn’t pass to him in a game – it was that sort of atmosphere.”

Arguably the most galling thing that Hignett and his team-mates endured that year, however, was not the breakdown in team spirit, more a breakdown in communication with the Premier League.

Having been docked three points for being unable to fulfil a fixture in December against Blackburn, Middlesbrough finished on 39 points, despite scoring 51 goals.

“If we had turned up at Blackburn and lost 6-0 we’d have stayed up,” said Hignett, knowing that Boro won just one of their last eight league matches that season to go down. “There were lads ill, injured and struggling, so we’d have had to dip into the youth team.

“But I believe we’d had permission from the league to postpone it, just not in writing. It happened, though, and it was just a shame that it did in that way.

*by Paul Fraser

MID-SEASON changes of manager, trouble in the boardroom, the sale of key players and at the end of the campaign – relegation.

So ran the story of Newcastle United’s season 20 years ago when the arrival of Jim Smith could not prevent the Magpies from relinquishing their five-year tenure in the top flight.

With fans praying that the appointment of Alan Shearer will secure survival this season, memories provide a chastening reminder that a change of manager does not always spark a revival.

As Newcastle struggled to find early-season form following the summer sale of Paul Gascoigne to Tottenham, chairman Gordon McKeag relieved Willie McFaul of his duties in November and tasked Smith, the ‘Bald Eagle’, to mastermind an upturn in fortunes.

But by the time Newcastle travelled to Old Trafford for the final game of the season, only Geordie pride was at stake after 1-1 home draw with Millwall a week earlier had put paid to any lingering hopes that Smith could steer his side to safety.

A dreadful end-of-season run saw Newcastle secure victory in just one of their final ten games.

Republic of Ireland rightback John Anderson shudders at the memory. “It was horrible,” he admitted. “It was the lowest point of my ten years at Newcastle, without a shadow of a doubt.”

Against an Alex Ferguson team, who only managed to end the campaign in 11th, prompting many Red Devils fans to call for Fergie’s head, goals from skipper Bryan Robson and Brian McClair secured victory for the home side in front of a crowd of just over 30,000.

Anderson recalled that home fixtures had been the problem for much of their troubled campaign. “St James’ was a difficult place to play your football at that time. It was around the time Sir John Hall came in, and there was a lot of stuff going on in the background,” he revealed.

“We had finished seventh in 1988 and in the summer we signed Dave Beasant, John Hendrie, Andy Thorn and John Robertson.

“Robertson came from Hearts with a big reputation.

He was a good player, but the fact we were not playing well did not help. John Hendrie had always done well against us, but sometimes it just does not happen for you.

“The old cliche came out about us being too good to go down, but all of a sudden we were running out of games to keep ourselves up. Jim Smith came in as manager and tried to change things, but I think he tried to do it too quickly.

“Some of us were realistic to know that in the first 20-odd games we had not won enough. So we knew it would be a difficult, difficult task just to suddenly go on a winning run in the last ten.

Anybody who says you can just raise your game after a start like that is kidding themselves.”

Anderson ended the season as part of a back four that included 86-cap England left back Kenny Sansom and Glen Roeder who were both part of an exodus from St James, Park that summer.

* by Andy Richardson