Steve Gibson is the focal point for Teessiders

Feb 28 2010 by Steve Brown, Sunday Sun

STEVE GIBSON has been hailed as the “focal point” who has “galvanised” Middlesbrough Football Club.

The 51-year-old assumed control of the Teessiders in 1993, having helped save them going out of business seven years earlier.

Now he presides over the £35 million all-seater Riverside having seen the club appear at Wembley and in Europe, and claim its first-ever silverware – 2004’s Carling Cup.

Gordon Strachan’s side could yet make an immediate return to the Premier League.

And in a fascinating insight into life at Boro when it almost went into liquidation in the mid-80s, former Ayresome Park favourite Brian Laws - in anticipation of yesterday’s top-flight clash between his Burnley side and newly- administrated Portsmouth - has revealed how vital Gibson has been to the club’s cause.

“Gibson was the focal point that kept everyone together, and he’s enjoyed real success there,” said Laws, who went on to explain how, locked out of Ayresome, players changed for training at a local park in their cars.

“Can you imagine that? The windows were very steamy. But that’s what it was like. There was nobody telling us what to do, we just turned up and were turned away, and that’s how quick it happens.