THIS time last year, David Wheater had the world at his feet. He had broken into the Middlesbrough first team, missed just four Premier League matches all season and was about to be named North-East Player of the Year.

One month later, and he would be sitting on a beach in the Caribbean, relaxing ahead of England’s friendly against Trinidad & Tobago alongside Rio Ferdinand and David Beckham.

How times have changed.

Yesterday, as he reflected on a season that has seen him shuffled to right-back, briefly dropped to the substitutes’ bench and featured Middlesbrough’s calamitous slide down the Premier League table, it was the prospect of a trip to Peterborough or Plymouth that was exercising his thoughts rather than a possible summer international trip to Kazakhstan.

Little wonder that, with four matches left, he cannot wait for this most shocking of seasons to end.

“It’s been a long hard season,”

said Wheater, ahead of this afternoon’s home game with Manchester United.

“And, to be honest, I can’t wait to see the back of it.

“I want us to get safe, and then I just want to go away and have a break from it all. I want to be able to put all of this to bed. It would be lovely to put everything that’s happened this season behind me.

“It’s been a really stop-start season for me. I had to play right-back for a while, and that seemed to throw me a bit.

It was the manager’s decision and I had to play there.

“Then the centre-halves were playing well so I couldn’t get back in the team at centrehalf, then we went on that run where we just couldn’t seem to win a game. To be honest, it just seems to have been one thing after another.

“With me being a local lad, and a fan of the team, it’s been really, really tough. But it can still have a happy ending, and that’s what we’re all trying to provide. It won’t feel so bad if we stay up.”

If Boro are to clamber out of the relegation zone in the final four games of the season, they are going to have to spring at least one surprise.

So where better to start than a home game against the current Premier League leaders?

Most clubs would despair at the thought of a match with the reigning champions, but Boro will go into today’s lunch-time kick-off with genuine cause for optimism.

Wheater was still a spectator when the Teessiders earned a memorable 4-1 win over United in October 2005, but the 22-year-old was in Boro’s starting line-up as they drew 2-2 with Sir Alex Ferguson’s side last season.

That maintained the club’s tradition of raising their game against the Premier League’s leading lights and, with Ferguson expected to rest a host of first-team stars ahead of Tuesday’s Champions League semi-final second leg against Arsenal, the hosts will start today’s game confident of springing a surprise.

“Sometimes, I think teams are beaten by Man United before kick-off,” said Wheater, who has already pledged to see out the remaining two years of his current contract, no matter what division Boro are playing in next season.

“But I don’t think we’re like that.

“I love playing against the top teams, it makes you want to do that much better. If you give them an inch, they’re going to punish you, so you want to play at your 100 per cent best against them.

“The fans also give us a huge lift in these matches as well. Maybe we like being underdogs, but whenever I think about how we’ve played against the top teams, it’s the support of the crowd that sticks in my mind. I really think it makes a difference.”

With Ferguson expected to start with a totally different forward line to the one that played Arsenal on Wednesday, Wheater could well find himself lining up against one of his childhood heroes this afternoon.

Ryan Giggs made his 800th appearance for United three days ago, less than a week after he was crowned PFA Player of the Year.

The Welshman has proved a controversial winner, with some claiming that his 12 Premier League starts suggest he was chosen for sentimental reasons rather than because of his on-field performances this season.

Wheater rejects such claims however and, having voted for Giggs himself, feels the award was fully justified.

“I think he deserved it,” he said. “I voted for him. It was between him and Rio Ferdinand, but I went for Ryan Giggs.

“If he hadn’t played 800 games for Man United, I don’t think he would have been voted Player of the Year. But I think an award like that should reflect what you’ve done in the whole of your career as well.”